Page 184 of This Life of Mine

I take another step forward. “They died trying.”

She’s shaking now, calculating her next move. And that means fear is creeping in.

Chapter fifty-five

Lina

For a brief moment, my brain refuses to catch up to what my eyes are seeing.

Elinor Allister. In my bakery. With a gun pointed at me.

I don’t scream. I don’t run. I don’t even move. I stand there, frozen in disbelief, as my brain decides this is another file to be stored away—another trauma to be cataloged later.

She steps closer and says calmly, “You’re going to walk out that door with me.”

Her voice is polite. Almost bored.

I nod, because nodding costs less energy than arguing. Then I dust my hands on my apron before rounding the stainless-steel prep table and heading for the door with her.

My heart isn’t racing. My hands aren’t shaking. That probably isn’t normal. I make a mental note to ask my therapist about it later, if there is a later.

I pass the counter, moving toward her. She grabs my arm, tight, and squeezes.

“You have been quite the problem, Lina,” she says.

I don’t answer. But I’m not going to stay quiet.

“Did you kill David?” I ask.

She laughs, like I’ve told her a joke.

“Oh sweetie, you sent him to me on a rampage. I haven’t seen him that angry in an exceptionally long time.” She says, clicking her tongue. “His death is on your hands.”

I turn toward her, anger cutting through the numbness.

“You have no right to put that on me.”

Her palm cracks across my cheek. White-hot pain explodes through my skull, snapping my head to the side

“Shut up. Before I spread your brains across this pretty little bookshop.”

Then…the back door flies open.

Elinor hears it the same time I do. Her body goes rigid, the gun no longer a suggestion—it’s pressed hard against my head. Cold. Metallic. Real.

I can tell it’s Alex without turning around. I feel him before I see him.

When I do turn to look, he’s what I expected—cool, calm, terrifyingly composed. Like this is a chess match, not a hostage situation. Before he even gets a word out, she shoots towards him.

My heart skips a beat. I nearly fall to the ground in panic, but her aim is way off.

Alex comes out from behind the wall and speaks to her the way someone speaks when they already know how this ends.

And I watch something change in her.

The gun starts to shake. Just enough to tell me she didn’t expect this. She didn’t expect him.

I’m not as scared as I should be. It honestly feels like déjà vu. Like my nervous system has been here before and decided panic is inefficient.