“Don’t know what you’re talking about,” he murmurs. “Now hush before you get us kicked out of this circus.”
Another smile pulls as my lips and I pull my hand free before curling it around his strong arm and holding him to me. I get comfortable against him and he allows me to hold him until the service is finally coming to an end.
The priest wraps up his service and then looks out at the congregation. “I’d like to invite the family to come and say a final goodbye and once they are done, the floor will be open to the rest of the guests.” He looks to Colton and his mom and sisters before waving his hand toward the casket. “When you’re ready.”
The twins are the first to stand, eager to get this over and done with. They adjust their big glasses and make their way to their father with Colton trailing behind. The three of them stand by the casket for a moment until they’re joined by their mother.
As a family, they look down at Charles and say their private goodbyes. The twins are the first to walk away as expected and just as they take their seats, Colton turns and lets out a heavy breath. As he walks back to his seat, his gaze lifts to mine.
Nic stiffens beside me, not liking what he’s seeing just as Colton does the same, taking me in as I’m pressed into Nic’s side and taking comfort in his closeness. Trying to not make himself too obvious, he tears his gaze away and as he does, Laurelle speaks out, loud and so fucking proud, sounding like a survivor who is finally at peace.
“I hope you burn in hell, Charles.”
With that, her hand flies toward the casket and in the blink of an eye, the whole thing goes up in flames as she sends Charles to spend an eternity rotting in hell.
Chapter 8
The ballroom of the Carrington mansion quickly begins to fill with guests as I stand around with Milo and my boys, still reeling from the shock of what just happened at the church.
She set the fucking casket on fire, and when I say that thing went off like a college girl at her first frat party … damn. I’ve never seen flames take so fast. It was zero to a hundred in three seconds.
Who the fuck does that? Laurelle Carrington must be suffering from some pretty nasty mental scars to have gone through with that. I mean, I completely understand thinking about it the whole way through the service, but actually getting up there and doing it? I don’t know whether I should be terrified of her and her twin spawns or if I should be bowing at her feet.
The woman is clearly a little fucked up.
One second we were ready to wrap up the service and the next it’s absolute chaos. The moment the guests saw the flames quickly licking up the side of the casket and taking over, all hell broke loose. Women started screaming, grabbing their shit, and heading for every available exit while men ran toward the fire, desperate to put it out.
The priest stood up on his podium, madly praying as though the chaos was magically going to go away as Laurelle was dragged from the church, kicking and screaming while desperately wanting to watch her ex-husband burn.
I don’t know what the hell is going to happen there. Is it a jailable offense or will she get away with it like so many other things get swept under the rug around here? It’s not as though her crime was exactly done in private as most of the rich and famous do.
I couldn’t believe my eyes as Milo stood beside me, watching the show unfold as though he was watching a midday TV drama. The twins howled with laughter pleased with their mother’s craziness while Colton just stared, humiliated, horrified, and completely unsure what the hell he should be doing.
His father’s body was burning and the church was quickly filling with smoke, also at risk of burning to the ground.
I started to go for Colton, unsure how I was going to help him but knowing that he needed someone in his corner. Nic had other plans though. The second I made my move toward Colton, Nic clutched onto my hand and pulled me toward the exit, claiming my safety always comes first.
Milo scrambled along with us, not wanting to get lost in the crowd of screaming women all dying to get out of there. Just as I reached the exit, I looked back to find someone with a fire extinguisher, madly trying to save what was left but it would have already been too late. I can only imagine what Charles would look like now.
Harrison and Maryne had gone to all that extra effort of having Charles dressed in his best suit which was then going to be kept for Colton as a keepsake. That won’t happen now and the fact that his mother was the one to take that away from him really pisses me off.