Page 269 of Blackwood

“I can’t,” she sobs. “Please. I need them, Knox. I need…” she’s breathing so fast, I’m afraid she’s going to hyperventilate. “…need him.”

I move toward her. One step, two, but Rez is already reaching for me.

“She needs me. She fucking needs me, Rez.”

He grabs my arm tight enough to bruise.

“Motherfucker, let me go,” I snarl, ready to tear through him.

“No,” he grits. “Let him work.”

Knox presses forward, his tone firmer now. “Bella, I’ll give you what you want. I’m not keeping him from you. But you have to face it first. That’s the only price. Face it, let it in and it’ll all be over.” His hand rests gently on her knee.

“Quick and easy,” he says.

But nothing about this feels easy.

“I can’t,” she cries. “I c-c-can’t.”

“Why not, Bella?” Knox’s voice is velvet and steel. “Why not?”

“Because it’s my fault!” she screams, her voice echoing off the walls. “It’s my fault Daddy is dead!”

The words crack the whole room in half. My stomach drops. Cade makes a sound next to me—quiet and broken.

“I didn’t listen, I didn’t believe him. Knox he warned me, and I kept. I kept.”

“Kept what?” Knox asks softly. “Kept what, Bella?”

“I kept disobeying him,” she sobs, voice small and trembling, almost like a child’s. “I stayed with them.” Her breath hitches, sharp and uneven. “I chose to love them.”

Another sob. “And he, he killed my daddy, Knox.”

Her voice cracks ondaddy.“He killed my daddy because… Because I didn’t listen.”

She shakes her head, tears streaking down her face. “He told me to stop, and I—” Her breath shudders out. “—and I didn’t stop.”

She folds forward, words dissolving into gasps. “I’m sorry… I’m sorry.” Her voice breaks completely. “Daddy… I’m sorry.”

My chest feels like it’s being peeled open. Every word slices deeper. Every sob burns straight through my bones, through my fucking soul.

Knox flinches, just once. Then he surges forward, hands framing her face. “No,” he says, loud and clear. “Bella, no.”

She’s falling apart.

“You listen to me right now,” Knox says. “Luca is a monster. And yeah—we’re going to find him. Lex will find him. Lex willkillhim. I promise you that. But you don’t get to do this to yourself. Not today. Not ever. None of this is on you.”

She’s shaking so hard it looks like she’s trying to vibrate herself out of existence.

“Do you hear me?” he goes on, voice ragged. “You chose love. That’s not weakness. That’s the bravest thing anyone can do. You fought to feel joy, Bella. And he, he couldn’t stand it. So, he tried to kill it. But that’s on him. Not you. Never on you, babe.”

Her lips are trembling. Her hands curl tighter. Knox touches her cheek.

“Let it out. Grieve. Scream. Fall apart if you have to. But don’t you dare carry this alone. Don’t you dare fucking blame yourself for what happened.”

She lets out a sound that destroys me, half scream, half sob. Knox finally nods at us.

That’s all I need. I tear out of Rez’s grip and drop to my knees in front of her.