Chapter 75
THEA
My head pounds, my mouth is dry, and a dull buzzing sound causes my temple to throb in agony.
“Ugh,” I moan as I slowly bring my hand to my head. “Where the hell am I?”
“You’re in the hospital.” My mother’s deadpan voice makes my heart skip a beat. There’s no emotion there.
I push my hands into the hospital bed and shift to sit up, resting against the pillows.
Her blue eyes bore into me with vitriol, and she makes no move to assist me.
There’s not just hatred in her eyes; there’s danger. Daggers seething through me with vengeance.
She hates me with every ounce of her being. Every breath she takes, she despises me.
“Why do you hate me so much?” I whisper the words I’ve always wondered.
Her hands are clasped in her lap, and she tilts her head from side to side as if judging how much she should tell me.
She licks her perfectly crafted red lips, and a sly smile spreads over her face.
“Because falling pregnant with you ruined everything for me. You ruined my life. I had to spend the next eighteen years being second to something I never wanted.”
My breath hitches at her cruel words. They hit me so deeply it feels like someone is ripping me apart from the inside out.
How utterly wicked to despise your own daughter so much.
My hand finds my stomach, and her attention moves to my hand.
“And now you’re pregnant with Massio’s child.” She scoffs. It comes across as callous, and the memory of her words rushes back to me. They slept together. A sob leaves me, the betrayal cuts me to my core, pulling me apart bit by bit.
“You’re nothing but a common whore,” she spits out.
“Like mother, like daughter, then!” I bite back, unable to help myself.
Delight flares in her eyes. “Oh, you really have no idea how alike we are, do you?”
I flinch at her mocking tone and the way her demonic eyes bore into me.
“We were married. Massio and I.”
My stomach falls, landing at my feet, and the beat of my heart can be heard in my ears.
How could he? I trusted him. My breath stutters, and everything around me becomes cloudy as I fight the need to sob out loud.
“I was going to have his baby. You!” she bellows.
My heart stills.
My world tilts on an axis.
I can’t breathe.
Oh, Jesus, no.
My mother moves toward me with a pillow in her hand.
What the hell is happening? My vision turns hazy, and I’m screaming for someone to help me, but all I hear is my mother’s coldhearted laugh and the crazed look in her eyes haunts me as I slip into darkness.
I grip onto the bedsheets, one hand trying to locate the buzzer while her hysteria fills my ears and her words haunt me.
“You.”
She steps closer toward me.
Is she really moving, or am I dreaming? Is this all just a nightmare?
What the hell have Massio and I done?
Something covers my face, and I don’t panic. I don’t fight; I relax into the bed. My head lolls backward, and I fall against the pillows; darkness consumes me, and I welcome it.