Divorce Me Before Death Takes Me, CEO

Chapter 69

Blake’s POV

Audrey tumbled down the stairs before I could react. Her slight frame hit each step with sickening thuds that echoed through the marble halls, finally coming to rest in a crumpled heap at the bottom.

In that split second, it felt as if I didn’t know how to breathe. Without conscious thought, my body was already moving toward her, driven by an instinct I couldn’t understand.

But just as I had descended two steps, a voice came from behind me.

“Blake darling…” Laurel slumped to the ground, clutching her neck, her voice filled with misery. “It hurts… I can’t breathe…”

I froze mid–stride, torn between the woman lying at the bottom of the stairs and the one currently on the ground, one hand pressed dramatically to her neck. The sound of Laurel’s labored breathing filled the silence.

“I can’t breathe… Blake… please…”

Her cancer. As I thought this, my eyes drifted to where Audrey lay. She was already pushing herself up, using the banister for support.

The weight of my promise from five years ago pressed down on me like a physical thing,

I let out a sign, turned back, catching her just as her knees buckled. “Laurel? Are you alright?”

Her skin felt cold and clammy as I lifted her into my arms. She curled into me immediately, her body trembling. ‘It hurts… everything hurts…”

I didn’t respond but stared at Audrey downstairs. The sight of her managing on her own helped ease the knot of guilt in my chest. She was fine. She had to

be.

Audrey’s POV

The world tilted and spun as I struggled to push myself up from the floor. Each movement sent waves of agony through my body.

Compared to the physical pain, the grief welling up in my heart at this moment swept over me like a tidal wave. Here I was, having just tumbled down an entire flight of stairs, while Laurel played the victim in Blake’s arms.

trembling legs to hold my weight. A

voice drifted down. “Don’t worry about me… check on

fine, don’t worry about

body – the fact that I was even conscious was nothing short of miraculous. The height of those stairs… I should consider myself lucky to

of regret. “She was choking me… I couldn’t breathe… I

Blake pulled her closer,

he murmured. “It

voice quavered. ‘I need to hear it from Miss Sinclair herself… I need to know she forgives

them, disbelief warring with fury in my chest. After pushing me down

Blake’s voice carried that familiar edge of command. “Come up

Blake, are you out of your mind?” I forced myself to stand straighter, ignoring the

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Chapter 69

the staircase, I met their eyes –

stairs. If I hadn’t been lucky, I’d be dead right now.” My voice came out steady. She hasn’t shown an ounce of remorse, and now you

hand to her chest. ‘I knew it… she hates

darted to Laurel’s increasingly pallid face. Within seconds, his

you attacked her first. She just defended herself. That makes you even.

me cracked at his words. Last night’s intimacy, that brief flicker of hope I’d foolishly allowed myself to feel it

“She saw me desperate to find Snow, then deliberately said those

‘But it was

at her neck. Show me these terrible marks

had already seen. His grip gentled as he moved her

shifted in his expression

her,” I continued, my voice steady despite the pain. “But she made sure I

the door. There was no point staying here to watch their romantic performance – not when Snow was clearly

door froze me mid–step, accompanied by a familiar meow.

the doorway, a cat carrier dangling from his hand. His eyes

of the stairs and