My Dad's Bestfriend

Chapter 235

Evelyn

"Tyler, stop the car!"

I screamed, grabbing the wheel, clawing at his arm, fighting with whatever broken, frayed strength I had left in me.

But he didn't stop. He didn't even flinch.

"Sit the fuck back, Evelyn," he snapped, shoving me sideways with a force that rattled my spine. "You make another sound, I'll put a bullet through your skull- and your little girl along with it."

He tossed a water bottle at me like I was just another problem he needed to shut up.

"Here. Drink it. You sound like shit."

I stared at him like he'd gone mad.

Had he gone mad?

He was being hunted-seconds away from getting shot, from dying-and he was tossing me fucking water?

"You really don't get it, do you? It's over!" I shouted, twisting open the bottle and hurling the water right at his face. Rage erupted out of me, unfiltered. The terror, the trauma, the helplessness—it all snapped. "They're going to kill you, Tyler!"

He flinched but didn't lose control. Just wiped the dripping water from his face slowly, like it didn't even faze him.

"Don't push it, Evelyn," he growled, eyes cold.

"Tyler. This is your final warning. Surrender the hostage and stop the vehicle."

The blonde's voice thundered from the mic behind us, clipped and cold. "You're boxed in. Let her go, or we'll shoot."

The car behind us was inches away now. I could hear the tires grinding on the narrow road-both sides lined with deep canals. There was no more room. No escape.

And Tyler?

He leaned his head out of the window and laughed.

Laughed.

"Fuck off," he shouted, voice manic, "bunch of fucking idiots!"

I grabbed Chloe's phone and dialed my hands shaking uncontrollably.

"Jacob?" My voice cracked.

"Evelyn?!" Jacob's voice shot through the line like lightning. "Did he hurt you? Baby, are you okay?"

But before I could speak, Tyler leaned in, grinning darkly.

"Hey, buddy." His voice was sickly sweet, venom wrapped in sugar. "I'm about to kill your Evelyn. You hear that? I hope the mic picks up the gunshot when I blow her fucking brains out. I might just paint the car red."

I froze.

My blood turned to ice as he pulled the gun from his pocket.

"No, no, no-Tyler, no!"

Jacob's voice rang through the speaker-frantic, broken.

I couldn't breathe.

The cold steel pressed against the side of my head.

I shut my eyes, hand clenching the phone so tight I thought it'd snap. My lips

moved before I could stop them.

"...I'm sorry, Jacob."

But the shot never came.

Seconds dragged.

And then-

I opened my eyes.

was still staring at me—but something was wrong.

breathing uneven. The gun in his hand

And then...

He dropped it.

in my lap with

that, he floored the

Everything blurred.

Jacob's voice anymore. Couldn't hear the man in the mic.

hear anything.

stared at the

Then at him.

a word. He didn't look at me.

And I realized...

had given me

me

was cautious,

He didn't answer.

"Tyler?" I said louder.

Still nothing.

I saw it. The

wasn't about hurting me. It was about ending

just didn't have the courage to do

built this-this nightmare-for someone

said slowly, still watching him. "You want me to kill

at me, but his voice came out

Do it. Because if I'm

"You... don't mean that."

looked at me like

trapped.

gun. A dead-end road. What the fuck do you think I

voice cracked. But

From something else.

From pain.

plan. It always

for the first time... I didn't feel fear. I didn't

I felt pity.

Real, gut-wrenching pity.

"You just didn't know what else to do with yourself. You were already gone inside. So you made this mess thinking it

His breathing hitched.

for it," I whispered. "So you spun this

all-they were making him tense. Because every

didn't, even when you convinced yourself they did," I said, my voice low. "And you hated Jacob, because even after losing everythings he got u.al back The media turned him into a hero." Praised him. While you? You only got the backlash. The headlines. The villain's role. Because no one knew

clenched on

I continued, gently, "yet you became the villain.

you stayed the

up, Evelyn," he growled, his teeth grinding. "Stop

your head, or

hated women,"

of what your mother did

you, it

everything from Janet

but even

Your family disowned you. And after all those years of snatching everything from everyone... in the end, you were still that broken, scared little

s

softened. “And no one ever told

life threw at you."

your bullshit doesn't make it true," he hissed.

kill you because I wanted to. That's it. It

me peace."

you

A pause.

jaw flexing. "I

"That's a lie, Tyler."

the fuck up, Evelyn!" he roared, finally snapping. "What

to kill you. I still do! So stop the sympathy get you damn senses back and walk away! Get back to your picture-perfect life. Don't try to dig into mine!"

won't kill you, Tyler," I whispered. "That's not going to happen." "Then I'll make it happen," he laughed, bitter and broken. "I'll shoot you in your pretty little leg—and by then, your psycho boyfriend