Chapter 21

                                    

                                          
DANIEL'S POV
                          
Confident that Jonah will get my message and come save us, I hang up the phone and head back upstairs to the apartment, trying to wipe the relieved smile off my face before I get there. 
                          
It's not hard.
                          
From down the hall, I hear noises that are muffled by walls and other apartments. It isn't until I get to the door that I realize the sounds are coming from inside the room I'm about to walk into. I fling the door wide open and gasp.
                          
Iris is backed into the kitchen island, her eyes wide, and Garrett is in front of her, holding the baseball bat that once scared me the way it's scaring her now. He's about to hit her with it, seemingly again from the blood on her skin, when some instinct of mine kicks in, and I run at him, jumping on his back.
                          
"What the hell!" He roars, throwing me off. The bat falls to the floor with a bang.
                          
"Daniel!" Iris squeals as I hit the wall, sliding to the floor.
                          
"You never learn, do you?" Garrett yells, retrieving his bat and gripping it. "I guess I'll just have to teach you another lesson then..."
                          
"You're not going to get away with this," I blurt out before I can help myself. "Jonah is on the way, and he's got the police with him."
                          
"Jonah?" Garrett scoffs. "He's nothing. I don't understand how you could ever think you'd be happy with him."
                          
I look him dead in the eye. How dense can he be? "Don't you get it?" I say. "He's everything I want. He's everything you aren't, and that's the best part. He doesn't hurt me when I make mistakes, and he trusts me. He loves me. You taught me nothing about love; you only taught me what the opposite of it is. So no. You're not what I want. You're not what I need. I know my worth now, and I know that I was a damn fool to give my heart to you, and an even bigger one to let you keep breaking it. I gave you too many chances, and now, you're done."
                          
Garnet snarls. He raises the bat, prepared to strike, and I cover my head with my arm. Suddenly, the door busts open, and police swarm Garrett. He drops the bat to the floor as the police pat him down and read him his rights.
                          
"Daniel?" Someone calls. "Daniel!"
                          
Hazel eyes meet my blue ones and relived tears run down my face.
                          
"Jonah!" I run to him, and he scoops me up in his arms. "Thank God!"
                          
"You're safe," he murmurs. "I've got you. You're safe with me."
                          
"Daniel!" Garrett yells as he lunges in the officers' arms. "Baby! Tell them this is all a big misunderstanding!"
                          
I walk toward him, my head held high. I stop right in front of him, and whisper, "Go. To. Hell."
                          
The smile slides right off his face, and the police put him in handcuffs and walk him out of my life - for good this time.
                          
~