Chained To Me: A Billionaire Enemies To Lovers Romance

Chapter 50 -Everly

I'm holding Aston's blood-soaked body. His eyes are closed, but when I check for a heartbeat, there is one, albeit faint.

"Don't leave me! Don't you leave me," I say, rocking back and forth with his heavy body on my lap. "I just found you, Aston Thomas. Don't leave me now."

Suddenly, the idea of living in a world without Aston comes into focus, making me physically nauseous. He's become so important to me in such a short time. I don't care if he doesn't love me or isn't ready to trust me. I love him. And that realization makes this moment all the worse.

I glare up at Will, pointing the gun at me. And it occurs to me that I could still die. Aston saved from certain death once, but I won't be so lucky this time.

I shudder as he focuses the gun on me. I know that I might die at this moment.

Suddenly all the good and bad times with Aston come flashing in front of my eyes—his initial hatred of me, the way he came to get me at Grinders Coffee, our first kiss that made my world spin differently, the way he fucked me in his airplane, the subsequent way he fucked me and made me see little stars behind my eyelids when I'd come so hard, the way he helped me find Kaley, him and I working together to fix his life. It's all in front of me, showing me what I had—a beautifully perfect, sometimes broken life with Aston.

And now, thanks to Will and whatever problem he has, my story stops here.

Tears slide down my cheeks for what could've been.

"Will, please, don't!" The words come out in a whisper as I realize there's nothing I can say or do to prevent him from killing me.

He points the gun at my face. "You deserve this, you know?"

I shiver as the last moments of my existence play out.

But then something happens—guests of the gala who must've heard the gunshot funnel outside. I look down at Aston, wondering if this will be my last second on earth. But, a few men apprehend Will just in time before he can end my life. They wrangle the gun from him.

"What the fuck?" He struggles against the force of the restraint. "Let me go!"

But it's too much for him. He's overpowered.

I breathe a sigh of relief as my life is assured.

I hold Aston, trying to bring him back to consciousness, but he's blacked out.

"Aston, come back to me. Do not die here on the pavement. Stay with me!"

To my horror, people start snapping photos of Aston's bloodied body on the ground even as they ask me what happened.

"He saved my life," I say, trying to shield him from the photographs. "He jumped in front of the bullet. Someone call 9-1-1, please!"

Everyone wants a piece of Aston, the billionaire, even in death.

I'm shaking as I hold him, silently praying for his life to be spared.

It seems like an eternity of sitting on the ground while Aston bleeds out before the cops and the paramedics finally arrive.

I'm reluctant to give Aston over, to let him go.

"Please make sure he's all right," I beg. "Don't let him die."

Tears brim my eyes as I watch them load Aston's body into the back of the ambulance. And then I'm left alone to give my statement to the police.

They take me down to the station, where I tell them everything I know about Sienna and Will's relationship and how it broke Aston's heart. I'm speaking in a monotone, relaying what I know about Aston's great pain. And I'm reminded that he could never trust me because of what he witnessed between them.