ACCIDENTALLY MARRIED TO THE BILLIONAIRE SINGLE DAD (Gabrielle and Damon) novel Chapter 40

CHAPTER FORTY

GABRIELLE’S POV

The sound echoed in the room, muffling my hearing for a few seconds.

My ear rang.

The echo of the shot still vibrated in my chest. My hands shook, my knees threatening to give out under me.

But when I opened my eyes, Emily was lying on the floor and Damon was standing behind her, gun in hand.

“Emily?” I whispered, my voice breaking.

He just stared down at her, his gun still raised, and his jaw tight and unreadable. I wanted to move to check her pulse, but my body refused to move.

My eyes darted to the hollow in her shoulder blade.

There was… blood.

I gasped.

“Damon!” I screamed, finally breaking free of my frozen fear. “What did you do?”

He slowly lowered the gun, his expression calm. “She’s fine,” he said, casually. “For now. Call the ambulance in time and she might survive. There’s a hospital a few blocks from here.”

Emily’s eyes were slightly open, staring up at me but her body was limp and she was barely breathing. I scrambled to pick up my phone and called the ambulance while Damon just stood there, watching me.

I stood up, facing him. “If she dies I’ll kill you, you hear me? You had no fucking right. My sister…. she’s bleeding out.”

He walked to the bar and poured himself a glass of scotch nonchalantly. “Then you’d better try to stop it. She might die.”

My jaw dropped. “You shot her!” I screamed.

“Yeah, and she was going to shoot you,” he said, taking a sip from his drink and gesturing to her. “Apply pressure on the wound.”

I knelt beside her and pressed on her wound, feeling her heartbeat getting slower by the minute.

My body shook, adrenaline pumping through my veins. There was so much blood and it wouldn’t stop.

She was still staring at me, unable to move or speak but I knew she wanted to. The tears I didn’t realize I was holding fell freely and my body shook as I sobbed.

I didn’t want her to die.

Damon walked closer. “I can hear the sirens faintly. They’re close.”

I turned to him sharply. “Fuck you! I hate you so much for doing this to her. You better pray she doesn’t die or I swear I’ll-”

“You’ll kill me?” He cut in. “Your sister might survive this because I was careful with where I shot. But she’s gone. You no longer have a sister.”

“I do!” I snapped, crying as I spoke. “She’s right in front of me bleeding to death.”

Emily’s lashes fluttered, her gaze unfocused and terrified. Blood soaked through my fingers, warm, sticky and slipping fast.

“Stay with me,” I begged, pressing harder. “Emily, stay with me. Don’t you dare. Don’t you fucking dare leave me.”

CHAPTER FORTY

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Her fingers twitched once against the floor.

Then they stilled.

“No,” I breathed, shaking my head. “No no no no-

“Even now she’s still messing with you. She’ll be fine. Just keep the pressure,” Damon said again, his tone clipped. “If you loosen your grip she’ll pass out before they reach the building.”

I pressed until my palms hurt, until my arms shook, until I couldn’t tell if the sobs rattling my ribs belonged to me or the memory of childhood versions of us.

The sirens grew louder, a faint wail fighting its way through the walls.

Then the doorbell rang.

“They’re here,” he said, as he sent the elevator down.

I turned to him with fire in my throat. “She’s still my sister. You don’t know anything about us.”

“I know what I saw.” He nodded toward the gun still near Emily’s hand. “She was already pulling the trigger.”

My tears came harder, blurring everything. “She’s my sister. She’s still my sister.”

His cold gaze flicked to me. “Family doesn’t do what she came here to do.”

Before I could argue, the elevator dinged and footsteps thundered toward us. The paramedics burst into the penthouse.

“Ma’am, move back!”

I didn’t let go until one of them physically pulled my hands away. My palms were covered in her blood.

My sister’s blood.

I stumbled back, hitting Damon’s chest. He steadied me, but I jerked away from his touch like it burned me.

Emily’s body was suddenly surrounded, lifted, strapped, and checked. One of the paramedics muttered something under his breath that made my lungs seize.

“Pulse weak.”

“BP crashing.”

“Get her down now.”

They rushed her into the elevator, shouting codes I couldn’t process. One of them remained behind.

He spoke to Damon. “Since it’s a gunshot wound we have to involve the police.”

Damon nodded. “You do that. We’ll come by later.”

He nodded and left.

The doors slid shut, taking her with them. The silence afterward felt louder than the gunshot.

I stood there shaking, staring at the space where she’d been.

Damon raised his glass again, cold as ever. “You should sit,” he said.

I turned to him slowly. “I told you. I hate you.”

He took a sip of his drink. “Good. Because the moment she wakes up you’re going to hate me a lot more.”

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“Don’t you dare touch her again,” I said, walking closer to him.

He handed me his glass. “Here. Drink.”

I slapped it out of his hand, the glass shattering on the floor.

I raised my hands. “This is my sister’s blood that you spilled. My sister, Damon.”

His eyes softened a little. “I understand that she’s your sister but I couldn’t let her hurt you, Gabrielle.”

“How can you be so calm?” I asked. “You’re the monster everyone says you are. You fucking shot someone and you’re so calm.” A moment of silence passed between us.

“I’ve seen and experienced worse. That’s how I know she’ll be fine,” he said and added, “for as long as she’s unconscious.”

“You won’t do shit to her.”

“I will. I have to.”

I couldn’t bring myself to understand him no matter how hard I tried. All I could see was Emily’s bleeding body on the floor. There was still blood on the spot where she had just been minutes ago.

I couldn’t breathe properly.

How would Father react to this? What would he think of me?

I walked over to the bar and took a bottle. I drank directly from the it, staining it with blood. It burned my chest as it went down but it wasn’t enough to get me to stop hurting.

Damon was in front of me now.

He took the bottle from my hands and poured it into a glass for me. “I know you’re hurting right now but I had to. She was pulling the trigger.”

I didn’t want to believe it even though I knew deep down that he wasn’t lying. Emily wanted me dead and even now I still couldn’t hate her.

I loved her so much I couldn’t see how much she hated me. I saw the intense hatred and disgust for me in her eyes yet I didn’t want to believe it.

I snatched the glass from him and drank until the burn spread through my chest. My throat felt raw and my eyes were swollen.

My hands wouldn’t stop shaking no matter how hard I tried to steady it.

I looked up at him. “I love her. She’s everything to me… I just don’t want to believe she would hurt me.”

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