Page 112 of Last Wish Wedding
Kelsey complied, still frantically searching for a way out. The wind whipped around them, carrying salt spray and the promise of an early autumn storm.
“Jennifer, please,” Kelsey tried again. “Think about what you’re doing. Noah will be devastated.”
“Noah will be fine,” Jennifer snapped. “Children are adaptable. He’ll forget you eventually.”
She fought against rising panic, forcing herself to breathe slowly. She had to survive this.
“Walk,” Jennifer gestured toward the dark line of the cliff edge against the night sky. “Nice and steady.”
“Jennifer,” Kelsey tried one more time, “The boys are calling for help. People will be coming.”
“Then we’d better hurry,” Jennifer replied calmly, prodding her forward with the gun.
Kelsey stepped gingerly toward the cliff. The edge loomed ahead, a steep rocky incline formed from centuries of rockslides and then seventy-foot drop to the rocks and churning water below. No one could survive that fall.
“You don’t want to do this,” she pleaded, trying to slow their pace.
They were nearing the edge now. Kelsey could feel the ground beginning to slope downward, hear the waves crashing more clearly.
“Stop here,” Jennifer instructed when they were perhaps ten feet from the cliff’s edge.
Kelsey obeyed and turned slowly to face her captor. “Jennifer, please. Think about what you’re doing.”
“I’ve thought about nothing else for months,” Jennifer replied, her voice eerily calm. “You out of the picture entirely.”
“If you want me over that cliff, you’ll have to push me yourself.”
Jennifer’s expression hardened. “I won’t hesitate.”
“I know,” Kelsey acknowledged. “But Noah will know what happened. He’ll never forgive you. Or Jason.”
Something flickered in Jennifer’s eyes—doubt, perhaps. But then her resolve visibly hardened. “He’ll forget. Children do.”
“Not this. Never this.” Kelsey held Jennifer’s gaze steadily. “He’ll hate you forever.”
“Walk,” Jennifer repeated, raising the gun higher.
In the distance, Kelsey heard it—faint at first, then growing stronger. Sirens. Help was coming. All she needed was a few more minutes.
Jennifer heard it too. She whipped toward the sound. In that moment of distraction, Kelsey lunged.
Jennifer reacted instantly, grabbing for Kelsey’s arm. They grappled, the gun caught between them. Kelsey’s foot slipped on the loose gravel near the cliff edge. She fell on the steep incline, dragging Jennifer with her. Loose rock cut into her skin, and a sharp cutting pain on one arm made her cry out.
For one horrifying moment, they teetered at the brink, the dark void of the cliff yawning behind them. Then Kelsey found purchase, bracing herself against a small outcropping of rock. Jennifer wasn’t so fortunate. As their bodies separated, she slid further, the gun flying from her hand.
“Help!” Jennifer screamed, fingers scrabbling at the loose soil of the cliff edge. “Please!”
Instinct took over. Kelsey lunged forward, catching Jennifer’s wrist just as she began to slip over the edge. The sudden weight nearly pulled Kelsey down with her, but she dug her heels in, anchoring herself as best she could.
“Hold on,” she gasped, muscles straining. “Don’t struggle.”
Jennifer dangled over the edge, eyes wide with terror, all trace of her earlier madness replaced by primal fear. “Don’t let go. Please don’t let go.”
“I won’t,” Kelsey promised, even as her grip began to slip. “Help is coming. Just hold on.”
The sirens were closer now, headlights visible on the winding road approaching Widow’s Point. Just a little longer. She just needed to hold on a little longer, but her arms felt as though they would pop from their sockets.
For a suspended moment, they stayed like that—Kelsey braced precariously against the cliff, Jennifer’s feet dangling seventy feet above certain death, connected only by their straining hands.
