Chapter 34
Harlow
I was in misery. My body was screaming in pain—each muscle, bone, and joint fighting for which hurt worse.
I curled up in the fetal position in the furthest corner of the room he trapped me in.
My head throbbed like a jack hammer on a busy construction site, and every fragment of a movement made my body scream in agony.
Something was very wrong; I could feel it in my bones and from the cold sweat dripping from my skin.
I was aching, nausea rolling through me, and my skin was on fire with a fever.
I’d felt miserable for days now, but Vincenzo only cared about his claim on me.
The days had blurred together to the point I didn’t know how many days had passed since the wreck, but I knew the trauma of it was finally catching up to me.
It could have been three days or a week, but time moved oddly confined in this windowless room.
If I died, at least I wouldn’t have to worry about Vincenzo letting his anger out on me or the pain soaring through my body right now.
I would be reunited with my mom and Caterina in a peaceful afterlife.
My stomach rolled, and I whimpered as I forced myself up on my hands and knees and crawled to the kitchenette in the front of the room. I didn’t know where he brought me, but there were no windows and cement walls. Maybe it was a basement? But it wasn’t familiar to me.
The last thing I needed was vomit lingering on the floor.
It already smelled rancid of sex and infection.
I heaved over the sink, acidic bile burning my throat as I threw up grainy bile into the sink.
The sink looked like a murder scene when I was finished, a metallic taste lingering on my tongue as my body swayed.
I stumbled back, crashing onto the floor, groaning as everything ached.
“Vincenzo,” I whimpered. His name tasted like poison, but I needed help. He had to have cameras in this room that could hear me. If I died, he would have no one. I felt trapped in limbo on the edge of choosing life and death, but this was not how I wanted to die. “I-I need you, p-please.”
Time passed, and when I thought Vincenzo would let me die, the door opened.
Vincenzo didn’t even bother with the vomit next to me as he grabbed me in his arms. My vision was spotty and my body was numb, but his touch still felt like thorns digging into my flesh.
He held me against his chest as he walked me out of my prison.
“I’ll help you, bellissima.”
His help would cost me everything if I survived.
If Vincenzo waited too long to get medical help, it could be too late and my death would be excruciating, dragged out with more torment until there was nothing left but a corpse, but I wouldn’t put it past him to keep my body until decomposition was too much and he finally got rid of me. Sick bastard.
My head rolled to the side as darkness finally took over.
“Vincenzo, what did you do to her?” a voice asked, but it was distorted and distant. “Her vitals are unstable and she is bleeding internally. Did you not think to call me when you brought her here?”
“She was fine. She put up a fight, so I thought she was okay.”
The doctor scoffed and I laughed, or I tried, but it came out as a pained sob. Agony blazed through me, igniting every inch of my body like I was caught in a wildfire. My head was fuzzy like I was underwater, sinking, but not dying. My lungs were on fire, begging for air.
“God, you drive me fucking insane. Hey, wake up.” He smacked my face. I attempted to glare daggers into him, but the blinding light made me wince from the pounding in my head which made my body scream in misery. “Tell me what hurts.”
I looked up at the man with kind eyes, but my vision doubled.
Who knew pain could cause this much misery.
Vincenzo could’ve been a decent human and numbed the pain like he did before, but the cruel bastard got off on my agony.
It was my punishment for leaving him and betraying him.
If he cared about me, he would have called his doctor instead of hanging me from his wall like a piece of meat.
When I tried to answer the doctor, all that escaped was a pained sob. I hated being this girl again. Fighting was hard when I was in agony. I was broken, bruised, and I could barely move. I needed to call Vincenzo to get help, and I hated asking him for anything.
The man pushed my hair back, and I flinched. “I know you’re in a lot of pain, and I am here to help you, but please tell me what hurts.”
Everything fucking hurts! I wanted to scream, to attack Vincenzo and make him feel an inch of misery like I felt right now, but I couldn’t focus on one thing.
“Head. Chest. Stomach.”
“You said she was in a car accident?” Vincenzo huffed out a yes. “And you’re calling me seven days later? She has cuts that are infected and internal damage that may not be helped. How can you be so careless?”
Seven days.
Seven days had already passed since he took me back.
Seven days since I last saw Caterina and heard her intoxicating laugh.
Seven days since I saw her die.
“Do whatever you need to do and call me when it’s done. I want to hear her cry for different reasons.”
I heard him leave the room, and my body became less tense.
But now I was in a room with this strange man who was going to touch me.
Fighting was pointless when I was this weak and exhausted.
The adrenaline finally wore off, and I felt the side effects of the crash slam into me like I lived through the wreck all over again.
I was too tired to fight. Whatever he did to me wouldn’t be anything like what Vincenzo had planned for me. Maybe I’d get lucky, and he’d nick an artery and I’d bleed out.
“I’m going to put you under anesthesia and fix your internal injuries. When you wake up, you’ll be good as new.”
“I’ll still be a prisoner,” I mumbled, low enough I didn’t think he heard it, but I saw him frown. My eyelids grew heavy, and even if I tried, I couldn’t fight the pull of oblivion. At least the pain would be muted, and I could dream of green eyes.