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"Dad—”

"Get dressed, both of you, I want you downstairs in five minutes.”

Ace gave me a light shove and walked away from me putting on his shirt in the process. I quickly ran to my closet and grabbed a set of black sweats then stared down at the grocery bag I’d brought upstairs with the pregnancy test.

When I looked inside, it was gone.

I didn’t take it though.

No, I had plans to take it when Ace finally went to sleep.

So I left it on.

Oh shit.

Oh shit!

No!

"RAVEN!” Dad yelled.

It wasn’t Ace’s head that was going to roll—it was all mine.

13

ACE

The one with the lie.

I've never really believed in the saying your life flashed before your eyes and I’ve been in multiple near death experiences, but in that moment, I truly felt all the life leave my body as Dante held up a pregnancy test in his left hand and trained his gun on me with his right.

It suddenly clicked into place at the worst possible moment.

Her sadness.

Her mood swings.

The puking.

She was pregnant.

And I was assuming the person responsible for said pregnancy couldn’t as much as defend himself. Then again, would he if he were alive? Or was that all part of his plan? Was he just as bad as her?

I shouldn’t let my past taint the present.

One thing at a time.

She was possibly pregnant—more than likely.

And I was just seen naked with her in the bedroom, and she was too frail, too fragile emotionally to probably deal with it.

I had two choices.

Throw her under the bus.

Or lie down and let Dante run me over.

I stayed perfectly still while Raven rushed down the stairs. I didn’t expect her to run toward me and stand in front of me the way she did, blocking the would-be bullet from her dad’s gun.