Prologue
Caleb
I’d never felt like this.
The pain was unreal.
As I climbed into the car where my friends were, none of us spoke. What was the point in speaking? We’d just put our woman on a private jet with a whole new life mapped out. One that only our fathers knew about.
Gael stared out the window. River had the tip of the blade he’d stolen from Emily pressing into his thigh. From this angle, I knew he was pushing it in, slowly sinking it into his flesh. The tension of his jaw was a clear indicator.
Vadik’s hands were clenched into fists.
None of us were used to this level of pain. River probably was, but I couldn’t seem to stop it. All I wanted to do was scream and shout.
I sat behind the wheel without knowing what to say. There was nothing. No words.
Our entire life had just been put on a jet and was now making a new one without us. We didn’t know her brand-new name or where she’d be. She could be in some town close by, or another country.
“Do you think they’ll keep their word?” Gael asked.
“Yes,” River said. “They wouldn’t lie to us.”
“Oh, really? They were more than willing to kill the only woman we’ve ever loved.” Gael slammed the palm of his hand against the car window. “Fuck this. Fuck them. Why did we have to give her up?”
“We couldn’t allow them to kill her.” I didn’t know why I was making excuses. Gael knew why we’d done it.
“There’s four of us. We could have taken them. This is all fucking horseshit. I don’t … she was … I don’t…” Gael stopped speaking. One glance in the rearview mirror showed that he struggled with tears.
We’d gone through so much together, but I couldn’t recall any of us crying. It was kind of sad when I thought about it.
No tears.
We’d all accepted how our lives had turned out. It sucked.
“Do you just accept this?” Gael asked.
“I accept that we made the right choice with her. We made the choice she needed.”
“It wasn’t the right choice,” he said. “Not the right choice at all.” He climbed out of the car just as the jet took off. We all followed him, standing by his side as Emily was taken from us.
“She’s going to think we abandoned her,” Vadik said.
“We know we didn’t,” I said. “We have given her the best chance. The best opportunity to live. Try to think about what she’s now got. She’s got a full life ahead of her. One she’s going to enjoy more than anything.” I didn’t know if I was explaining this well or just trying to give a more involved reasoning for why we’d let our woman go. “She would know we loved her.”