Selfish

Chapter 41

Bella's P.O.V

I shake uncontrollably as Laurent pulled a stool from his car and sat down right in front of us. He pulls his gun out and places it on his lap. Laurent has a wide smile on his face as he pulled a cigarette out and took a deep breath.

"You see, my old uncle Charlie was very persuasive with our family. Our grandparents hated your mother for various reasons. One of them was that the deal with Charlie and his wife was that they'd give them the baby - which was you -, if and only if, they were allowed to see her and have her every other holiday." Laurent chuckled and took a inhale from his smoke. "Let's say grandpa and grandma were not very happy that you were taken away."

I take a deep breath, ignoring the aching pain in my chest. "And why would I care about two old scumbags that hate their daughter? She did them a favor, look at me. I'm not exactly granddaughter material."

Suddenly, his fist came in contact with my face. I stumbled back and groaned in pain. The warm blood flooded my mouth, making me spit it out and leaving that irony taste on my tongue. James tried to launch forward but one of Laurent's men grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and pointed a gun to his temple. Laurent steps back, glaring at me with eyes that say he will not hesitate, not even for a second to kill me if he has to.

"You talk about them again and I'll put a bullet between your eyebrows," he threatened, grabbing me by the chin. "It will be a huge favor to you since it'll pull you out of your misery."

I chuckle or at least try to and say, "Please, do me the goddamn favor so I don't have to hear your shit story about how you and your family hate me and plot to kill me in order to get revenge on something I didn't do. Oh, maybe even better, give me the gun and I'll blow my brains out myself. I've heard the story many times, Laurent, I know it by heart so there's nothing you can possibly say that'll make me fear you or feel threatened by you." He glares at me, tightening his hold on my chin. "So how about you give it your best shot?"

He pushed me back and walked away. "I'm not here to kill you. For the first time, cousin, killing you is not in my plans and that's not because it comes out of the goodness of my heart. Those scumbags you referred to, who are your grandparents, asked me not to touch not a single hair on that pretty head. So maybe you should be a little more grateful because if it weren't because of them, you'd be dead by now."

I smile. "Well, look at that. I do have an angel or angels looking after me," I reply sarcastically. "And here I thought I was all alone in this world."

"Cut the shit, we're here on important matter," he spit at me and sat back down on his stool. He took another inhale of his cigarette and blew the smoke at me.

Once the smell hits me, I start having a coughing fit so hard, every cough gave me very bad chest pains. It came to the point, blood began coming out of my mouth with every cough, each one worse than the one before. James pulls himself away from the man holding him and crawls to me. He wraps his arms around me and holds me as the coughing fit goes by.

"Let us go," James pleaded. "She needs medicine and if she doesn't get it soon, she'll die."

"And why do I care if she dies?" Laurent asked. "One less bitch to worry about in this world."

"Your grandparents won't be happy if they find out you let her die when you could have easily prevented it," James replied. "Let us go. I'll give you whatever you want, just let me take her where I need to take her to save her life."

Laurent sighed. I looked up after my coughing fit was over. He had a smug on his life as he tapped his cigarette with his index finger. After what seemed like an eternity later, he leaned forward and dropped the cigarette on the ground.