Submitting to My Best Friend's Dad by Scarlett Rossi
Chapter 216 -

Весса.

"BITCH! I'M GOING TO BLEED YOU DRY, BITCH!" screamed a familiar voice in my ear. My eyes widened as I realized Allison was here with her arms wrapped around me, pulling me away from the nursery and slamming me to the ground. I still had the poker in my hand and quickly raised my arm and jerked it to the right, causing her to miss a strike with something. I couldn't tell what she had, exactly, but assumed it was a knife of some sort.

At this point, my eyes had adjusted to the dark enough to see the whites of her eyes. They were wide, eerie, as though she was possessed. I knew the truth. She was completely unhinged and was actively trying to kill me. My mind clicked to self-defense mode as I managed to knock away some of her blows. I took a deep breath, my entire world ruled by adrenaline. Not only did I not want to be killed, but I needed to protect my kids. Narrowing my eyes, I snarled, "F*ck off, Allison. You need help." I rolled away from her attempt to slam her foot on my skull. She was off balance and unfocused, clearly, like some rabid animal trying to rip my throat out. I continued to roll until I hit the wall, then used it to press against and stand up. Allison turned toward me and lunged with the knife again, this time sinking it into my shoulder. The bite of sharp, searing pain caused me to throw back my head and scream.

Warm blood gushed from my shoulder, spilling onto the floor and wall as I panted and shook my head. With one hand free, I uppercutted her in the jaw, my legs bent and my body shaking. She fell backward, shrieking and spitting out some blood. She must have bitten her tongue.

Served her right. I tried to reason with her. "Allison, you need to stop this. Please. It's over. James chose me, we have a family to take care of. You need to return to your life without him. It doesn't have to end here. If you kill me, or James, you will never have a chance to move on."

"I DON'T GIVE A F*CK!" she screamed, rushing at me again and stabbing forward. This time, she missed, as I dodged to the side. Problem was, I was now literally walking on broken glass.

Letting out a cry of agony because of that, I quickly moved away from the mess and back toward the nursery door. I could feel warm blood coming out from the cuts in my feet and was pretty sure a shard had lodged into my left heel. I kept Allison in my sight. She stumbled, falling onto her knees on the glass and letting out a howl of agony. I needed to keep her away from the kids and occupied until James or security came and took her away. She wasn't thinking reasonably. She was completely out of it, driven by hatred. Pulling herself to her feet, she got ready to come at me once more.

"Allison," I tried again. "James is his own man. You are your own woman. You need to move on. Stop this. We can figure something out, okay? Enough. You have your life ahead of you still," I said, my voice desperate. I clutched the poker in my hand, hoping she'd snap out of this.

Far from it. She screamed, "BITCH! YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO TALK TO ME ABOUT MY LIFE! I AM FIGURING THINGS OUT! ONCE YOU'RE GONE, JAMES WILL BE WITH ME! ALESSANDRO WILL BE OURS! YOU'RE F*CKED! YOU'RE DEAD!"

I shook my head, yelping as I dodged another stab attempt by the woman. She continued lunging for me, jerking her hand toward me again and again as she tried to make purchase. When she was close enough, I backhanded her into the wall.

"He won't be," I said, strangely calm. Acceptance was setting in the more I fought. She simply wasn't going to back down from this. The hand I had around the poker tightened, and my lip quivered. As I expected, after she hit the wall, she got up again.

"HE WILL! BITCH, HE WILL!" she screamed, the shrill shriek of a harpy. I chuckled to myself. That's the term, in my mind, I used for the Stepford wives. Right now wasn't the time for laughter, though. This experience was surreal, and I wasn't all there either.

"WHY ARE YOU LAUGHING! YOU THINK THIS IS FUNNY?!" Allison screamed, and once again, she lunged for me. I tried dodging out of the way, but was slowed by the shard of glass in my foot, which sent a jolt of pain that had me gasping. The knife sunk into my side, this time, hopefully not puncturing any organs. The pain caused even more tears to stream down my face. I was being backed into a corner, I realized, as she stabbed toward me more and more. The knife sank into my shoulder, again, deeper than the first cut. Then, it hit my other shoulder. I kept punching toward her, sending her back with uppercuts and blows to the stomach, but she just kept getting up and coming toward me. The poker.

She wasn't going to stop. I needed to do something drastic. My eyes narrowed, but that's not what caused something to snap in me. It was when Allison turned toward the door of the nursery and stared at it.

"I'LL BUTCHER YOUR DISGUSTING DAUGHTER, THEN FINISH YOU OFF, BITCH!" she said, entirely out of it. I widened my eyes, letting out a gasp. Everything froze right then. I could only see red. She was threatening my daughter.

No.

"No. NO... NO!" I screamed, raising the poker and rushing forward. Allison gasped, dodging my first slash at her. Then my second. I landed my third. Blood sprayed out from her arm as I stabbed into it.

My chest heaved as I bared my teeth, clenching my free hand, which was now sticky with my own blood. I was feeling lightheaded, even more sick, but needed to stop her before she got to the kids. Allison cried out in agony, but she wasn't done.

She rushed toward me with the knife, again, but I dodged to the side. I took this opportunity to reach out and grab her hair, threading my fingers into it and jolting her head back. Then, I brought the poker up behind her back, pulling her body downward.

Gravity helped me. When I ripped her hair downward, she practically fell onto the poker. A choked scream emitted from her as she thrashed around, but judging by where the poker was sticking out... the upper part of her left breast... I knew she wouldn't be moving for long.

I fell to my knees as Allison's body landed with a THUD before me. I couldn't take my eyes off of the poker, which was there sticking out of her chest. Time seemed to stop. I could hear the kids crying in the other room, thankfully the door was still closed.

Commotion in the kitchen continued, the banging and shrieking, the terrible shouting becoming muffled as I took several deep breaths, trying to compose myself. Shock began to settle in, and the sound of my heart pounding hypnotized me. Warm blood pooled around me, dripping down my arms and legs from where Allison had stabbed me. I shuddered, reaching up with a hand covered in crimson to hold my forehead. The bottom part of my hair was starting to become matted with blood as well.

The sound from the kitchen stopped. I slowly blinked, realizing a few seconds later that a flashlight was shining in my face. Expressionless, numb, I stared at the light, though then refocused as the beam fell on my assailant.

I could see as clear as day what happened. Allison's arm was slashed open, and she had the poker sticking out from her chest. She'd stopped moving. Her words were playing through my head over and over. How she wanted to kill Dahlia. I licked my lips, the coppery taste of my own blood unsavory. Things weren't supposed to happen this way. My chest clenched as I covered my face and began to shake with sobs, the weight of what I'd done hitting me like a truck. I'd had to do it. She was going to kill me, then she was going to kill Dahlia. If I hadn't defended myself, if I fell right there, my innocent child would be slain. I knew she'd meant it, too. Every fiber of her being dripped with hatred, and that reflected in her words.

"Becca?" came James's voice in my ear. I shuddered, still crying, still bleeding, not wanting to be bothered right now. I couldn't come to terms with what just happened. My body screamed with pain from when Allison stabbed me, but that was all in the back of my mind.

I managed to squeak, "Ch-check on the kids... they're crying... check on the kids, I can hear them... make sure they're okay..."

I just killed a woman.

But she would have killed me, then my daughter, if I hadn't. Was I a monster? I wasn't sure. Everything had happened so fast. I couldn't see as well, I kept getting stabbed, she was completely relentless.

James's voice became muffled. I think he was trying to tell me the kids were just fine, and they'd be taken care of, but I didn't seem to hear them. I was in a state of shock, adrenaline still rushing through my veins as I whispered, "Please check on the kids, James."

There was loud wailing in the distance. Sirens. The police were here, possibly the ambulance too. I didn't fight anyone as I was lifted up and taken some place else. My mind was stuck in the hallway, where I'd killed Allison.

Maybe I didn't kill her. Maybe the poker went through part of her chest that didn't hold her heart. I knew basic anatomy, though, and there was so much blood. It was always a shock to realize how much blood a person had, I thought. She'd bled much of it out because of me.

Because of me.

Once again, her words, her promise to kill my child and me, ran through my head. There was no way to win that. I couldn't hold back, one wrong move would cause my little girl to be slaughtered. Restraint wouldn't have worked, I wasn't strong enough.

I continued to try and reflect on what had happened, what I could have done differently, whether Allison was really dead. I knew the truth.

I had killed her, and there was no going back from that. It was kill or be killed in that situation, and I was the killer.

I'd just killed a woman. I didn't know if I regretted it yet. But my kids were safe, and I was alive. As I bled out on the way to the hospital, I smiled, my mind completely in shambles.