Chapter l377

Chapter 0377

“F ucking bleed out, you stuck pig,” Jane growled. She ripped the knife out of my thigh, and somehow that hurt worse. The blood poured down, staining the front of my dress crimson.

I trembled. I couldn’t find words, only cries of pain.

“You think I have any lingering feelings for you? For Elva?” Jane crouched over me. Her face was twisted with vicious mockery. Her l*p was curled in disgust. “”I have hated you since the womb, bit ch. I have lived and dreamed for this moment. And now that it is here?” Jane began to laugh maniacally.

Even in my pain, I felt my broken hard cra ck even further. I didn’t truly understand how I could have still cared about Jane. She’d shown her true colors to me many times – attempting to kidnap Nicholas, cursing Elva…

Maybe I had hoped that underneath it all, she could somehow be redeemed. She’d held a knife to my throat before, but even then, I hadn’t fully been sure she’d push the blade into my skin.

But to see her now, so jovial in the face of my unbelievable pain? This eliminated all remaining doubt.

Jane meant to kill me. She had from the start, but now she had the means.

She was enjoying my pain. She wanted to bring Elva into the underground. She wanted to bring down the royal family. And like this, broken and tattered and weak, I could do nothing to stop her.

I could only lie here as the blood pooled under my thighs, spreading around me so that my dress is soaked with it.

I could only watch, as she lifted the knife toward the column of my throat. My n*eck was still marred with love bites from Nich ola s’s tender attentions. Would Jane slice through those? Or could I remain Nichola s’s until the very end?

I wished I had more time with him. I would have been more honest about what I wanted… what he meant to me.

I wished I could say goodbye. To him. To Julian. To Susie, and the rest of my friends. To Anna.

To Elva…

My darling little girl. When she’d been abandoned, I’d stepped into the role of doting mother so that she would never feel alone.

+15 BONUS

But now I was going to have to leave her anyway.

I closed my eyes and sent a plea. I couldn’t see Nicholas, couldn’t hear him… but maybe he could still receive the message somehow, if the universe chose to be kind.

Please take care of Elva. She won’t understand.

Something quaked through my b*dy then, like a roar that wasn’t my own. It was almost… comforting. It made me think of Nicholas. Of his protective instincts. Of his kind heart.

He was good with those orphans. He wouldn’t leave Elva out in the cold. Nor would he let Jane have her without a fight.

I tried to let the thoughts warm me, but I was growing very cold.

Blood loss, I knew.

The end was near for me.

Jane pressed the knife right up against my skin. A trickle of too-warm blood dripped down my cold n*eck.

“I hate you,” Jane said, voice twisted and ugly with her malice.

I looked at her, and even now, could see the girl she was when we were young. Her pigtails. Her bright eyes. The way she always followed me.

Tears fell from the corners of my eyes. I couldn’t stop them. I didn’t even want to try.

“I love you, Jane,” I said, because it was true. Even now, even after everything. She was and always would be my sister. I could hate her, and I did, but I loved her

too.

Her face contorted further, evil joy replaced now by vicious fury.

“Eat dirt, Piper!”

I closed my eyes, and waited for the k*ss of metal to slice through my n*eck. Goodbye, Nicholas.