Chapter Nine
Romy
I ’m scared.
The doctor with the big smile and kind eyes takes my doll and grips her in his hand, just out of my reach.
Why is Daddy making me go with him?
I want Bastian to act tough like he does with his friends and tell the man to give me my doll back. The man makes my tummy twist into knots.
Maybe I can convince this man I’m not sick so I don’t need to see him. My heart hurts so much, but I don’t want anyone to know. It makes Daddy angry and Bastian sad. I can forget that yucky stuff that happened. I don’t want to remember it anyway.
“I’ll take good care of Calista,” the doctor promises.
His voice is weird. Like he’s trying to tell a lie with a smile on his face. It makes me even more scared because I don’t believe him. She’s my favorite doll.
Bastian and Daddy aren’t here. They’ve left me with this doctor, who must think I’m sick and in need of fixing.
I don’t trust him.
The only people I trust are Daddy and Bastian. Some people— like her —are bad inside their hearts. I feel like this doctor has the same heart as her.
I want to go home.
There’s a boy around Bastian’s age watching me. His eyes are swollen and red like he didn’t sleep for a thousand years. He seems tough, even tougher than my brother. I’ve seen Bastian mad at his friends lots of times and he has a mean look when he punches them. This boy doesn’t seem mean. I think he’s sad and scared like me. But, unlike me, he’s tough and can probably tell these doctors no.
What happens if I say no? If I throw a fit and refuse to go back there with the doctor?
I bet the boy would punch the liar doctor in his nose and make it bleed.
Can you save me?
The boy’s eyes shine with terror and heartache. If I weren’t being nudged to walk past him, I’d want to hug him. Maybe I could make him happy and he could save me. We could help each other.
But nothing happens.
The boy’s voice, deep and soft, murmurs behind me as he speaks to another man. I don’t hear what he says. And soon, the door closes behind me and the doctor, cutting me off from my only chance of being saved.
I wake to the smell of bacon and my stomach grumbles. Did Seth cook breakfast? He never cooks. It’s always up to me to make sure our family is fed.
“I got coffee too,” a female voice says. “Not sure if you can have it while being pregnant.”
Awareness slaps me like a wet towel—sharp and painful. I jerk my eyes open and take in the floral-print walls of the chain hotel we booked a room in late last night.
I don’t even know what state we’re in.
Eva sits down a paper to-go cup on the end table between our beds and then offers me the bag. I take it from her and shift into a sitting position.
Everything hurts.
Especially the bottoms of my feet and my tailbone.
It all comes rushing back to me. I escaped that madman. Eva saved me. We took off, leaving Kaitlyn behind.
Bile creeps up my throat and my eyes tear up. Last night, after we settled in our room, Eva held me in my bed while I bawled my eyes out. We didn’t talk about much, other than making sure I didn’t need to see a doctor. I know today we owe each other answers.
Before jumping into conversation, I open my food and am grateful to see a variety of things to eat. I scarf down the scrambled eggs first and then get through most of the bacon before turning my gaze to Eva.
She looks different to me than I remember. Back when I lived at home, she was always so put together. Never a hair out of place. Makeup impeccable. Nails polished and manicured. Today, she’s the realest I’ve ever known. Her wrinkles are visible and she regards me with the unmasked concern of a tired yet protective mother.
“Start from the beginning,” she urges, voice gentle. “Tell me everything, baby.”
The food in my mouth feels like rubber. I want to gag on it but swallow it down without issue. When I reach for the coffee, I’m pleased it’s not pumpkin-flavored, but cinnamon and vanilla. Ever since… Well, I can’t remember, but all I know is since I’ve been pregnant, the flavor has disgusted me.
A flash of a memory assaults me.
Me in bed with a man, drinking a pumpkin-pie-flavored iced coffee.
The man isn’t the mysterious Caius.
It’s someone else. Someone who betrayed me. A friend turned foe.
The name Theo tickles my brain.
“I don’t really understand it all,” I whisper, voice trembling. “Can you tell me when you last saw me?”
Eva purses her lips that are less full than the last time I remember. I like her better with this natural look. Before, she had over-exaggerated features because of her fillers, but now they’re more human-like.
“The last six months have been hell, Romy.” She tucks a loose strand of hair behind her ear and her bottom lip trembles. “At Christmas, our lives blew up. I left your father.”
I gape at her in shock. “You did?”
“The kicker was when you disappeared and your father refused to look for you. It was as if he knew.” She swipes at a tear and shakes her head. “ I didn’t know. I had no idea where you’d gone or what happened to you. One minute you were engaged to marry Caius Crowne and the next you’d vanished.”
The name on her lips sends warmth trickling through my body. I had a fiancé before I landed in Seth’s hold. Has he been looking for me this whole time?
I touch my belly and hold back my tears. “You didn’t think I left with Caius?”
“Gideon told me you didn’t. He said you and Caius ended things.” Eva rubs at her temple as if the memory of the conversation with my father causes her pain just thinking about it. “I was told you were sent away for psychiatric treatment.”
My heart sinks as I digest her words. “Dad was in on this? He knew where I’d gone and what happened to me?”
Eva closes her eyes as if to calm a burst of anger and then slowly nods. “I’m not proud of how I reacted. I accused him of…a lot. I threatened him with legal action, divorce, public humiliation.” She sniffles. “I just wanted to know where you were so I could see about getting you out. You didn’t need psychiatric care, Romy. They were abusing their power and I knew it.”
Despite the horrible things she’s telling me, I’m grateful to finally have someone on my team. I know Eva will keep me and my baby safe. She’ll do whatever it takes to make sure I’m reunited with Caius again and that we yank Kaitlyn from that wretched place.
“I have to go back for her,” I croak out. “Kaitlyn is there. All alone. She thinks Seth is her father.”
Eva nods, a grim smile on her face. “We will, but we need to be smart, Romy. These men—your father—they’re well-connected. They have means and power to end us. I’ve done a lot of researching in the past six months in my efforts to find you. I’m afraid of what we’re up against.”
My father betrayed me by sending me there. What about my brother?
“Maybe Bastian…” I trail off, deflating when she gives me a sharp shake of her head.
“I’m sorry, baby. I know how much you adore him.” She sighs heavily. “He’s just like Gideon. Honestly, he’s even more calculating. They did this to you together. Just like all those years ago.”
I know she’s referring to how they got me into the treatment facility to begin with.
My brain feels as if it’s pulsating. I keep unlocking memories and it’s painting an ugly picture. The lab Seth kept taking me to when I’d been “defective” and would wake up against his best brainwashing efforts was the same facility Dad took me to as a child.
“I’ve been in connection with someone,” Eva says, looking down at her clasped hands in her lap. “I’m hesitant to even tell you because I don’t want to hurt you.”
The baby moves and I rub my stomach to calm her. I wonder if she can feel the anxiety running rampant through my every nerve ending. Maybe she just likes the coffee. I take another sip, trying not to freak out at Eva’s ominous words.
“I had help in locating you,” Eva says finally.
I meet her gaze. “I reached out to you. Told you who I was with.”
“Yes,” she agrees, “but Seth’s name didn’t yield any results. Sure, his name is all over those medical journal pieces and articles with Doc Junior, however, I couldn’t find a location of his work or home.”
“Okay,” I say slowly. “Who was it?”
Eva grimaces. I’m not going to like this answer. Fear trickles through my veins.
“I—” Her phone buzzes and she looks down at it. Quickly, she texts something to the person before looking at me.
“I don’t want to know,” I murmur in a small voice. “Can we just focus on getting Kaitlyn?”
Her eyes shimmer with tears. The dread consuming me is clearly eating her alive too. There’s an unspoken understanding between us. Whatever this news is, she is going to hate delivering it to me as much as I’ll hate hearing it.
I want Kaitlyn here with me, safe in my arms. I want Caius too. Unfortunately, getting both of those isn’t going to be easy. Seth and Doc Junior aren’t going to allow me and Eva to waltz into that facility and take her without a fight.
Am I willing to do whatever it takes to get them back?
Fight my demons and face monsters?
A full-bodied shudder ripples through me.
I don’t want to. My survival instincts scream at me to run to the closet and hide. Terror claws its way up inside me, one red fingernail at a time.
Squeezing my eyes shut, I try to force away horrible thoughts. My closet back at home comes to view in my mind, except instead of me hiding within the stuffies and dolls in the shadows, I see Kaitlyn’s face.
She doesn’t hide like I do.
I can see her plain as day.
The monster will find her.
No. No. No. No.
Eva sits beside me, wrapping an arm around me. Though her hug is warm and comforting, it can’t save me from the awfulness shredding me from the inside out. Fear twists from something uncontrollable and overwhelming into a sharp blade meant to slay my enemies.
Fear turns into ferocity.
I’m no longer protecting myself.
I’m protecting Kaitlyn.
She needs me.
I have to face all the scary, terrible things because it’s the only way to get to her. I know this because Eva wouldn’t lie to me. If she says there’s no other way, then I trust her.
Doesn’t mean it won’t hurt.
The pain is already making me gasp desperately for air.
There’s a knock on the door.
Eva whimpers and clings to me. I know she doesn’t want to throw me into a den with a vicious tiger who tore me to shreds once upon a time ago.
But it’s necessary.
She has to.
“Answer it, Mom,” I choke out. “Let’s get this over with.”
Eva kisses my head and whispers how terribly sorry she is. I believe her.
I have to dig deep and think of Kaitlyn’s sweet giggles, her innocence, the love I have for her to get me through the next phase.
She’s my reason—the only reason I’d willingly put myself through this.
To protect that sweet little girl, I have to face a monster.
Not just any monster.
My monster.
The door opens and a lovely, demurely dressed blonde walks into the room. I stare at her red fingernails, frozen in spot like a stuffed bear in a pile in my closet.
Don’t move.
She won’t see you.
Be quiet, Romy.
I steel my spine and rise to my feet. With a fierce glare, I stare down the beast—the cause of my mental misery.
“You’re going to help me find Kaitlyn,” I hiss, voice filled with poison, all directed at her. “And then you’re going to get the fuck out of our lives forever, Vivienne, or so help me, I will kill you with my bare hands.”