Chapter Twenty
Peyton
PAIN EXPLODES IN my head. The throbbing is constant and I have an overwhelming urge to get sick.
This is worse than when I was pregnant with morning sickness if I’m being honest. I’ve never had a headache this bad before in my entire life and I never want to experience one again.
My vision is blurry, I’m nauseous, and I can hardly open my eyes from the pain I’m in.
That’s just what’s going on with my head.
My wrist feels like it’s barely attached to the rest of my arm and my ankle on the same side feels as if it’s been ripped to shreds.
There’s an intense burning I’ve never experienced before and I can’t even look down to see what’s going on with it.
Every single time I move, I start to dry heave because there’s nothing in my stomach to lose.
I didn’t eat before going to the clubhouse because I was busy with the kids and I have no clue how long I’ve been gone now.
Speaking of being gone, the last thing I remember is walking into the clubhouse with Kimber, my dad, and the kids.
We were going there to spend the day with everyone.
Or at least a little while. Callum was supposed to be there to see the kids.
Everything after that is gone. I can’t remember anything.
Hell, I barely remember walking into the clubhouse other than knowing I did so.
What the hell happened to me?
Where am I?
Who has me? Is this my stalker?
A hundred questions race through my mind at the same time and it only makes the pain intensify as I try to sort through them or push them away.
The amount of pain I’m in will do no favors for me if I can figure out what the hell is going on.
I need to try to focus on my surroundings so I can try to put the pieces together and understand what the hell is going on.
Laying completely still, I try to open my eyes once again.
The pain is still intense, but I manage to get them open wider and the blurriness starts to go away just enough I can make out some of the finer details of the room I’m in.
It’s clearly a bedroom as I look to the left side of me and see a large bed.
When I try to sit up so I can walk around, I discover one of my hands is tied above my head.
Tilting my head back, I find rope wrapped around my wrist, rubbing it raw, with the other end tied to the frame of the bed.
Pulling only results in doing more damage to the skin as blood runs down my arm.
Fuck! I hate the sight of blood. Especially when it’s my own or one of my children’s.
Turning my head very slowly, I find a wall lined with two doors not that far apart from one another.
A closet and bathroom if I had to guess.
There’s a dresser directly at the end of the bed.
One of those shorter, longer ones with a mirror sitting in the middle of it.
The top is completely empty of anything letting me know who’s room I’m currently in.
To the opposite side of the two doors is a window.
A sheer curtain covers it allowing me to see the bars lining the span of the window.
That’s not a way out then. Finally, I come to the last door in the room.
The one that will let me free from this damn place if I can get my wrist out of the rope.
The walls of the room are painted a soft blue with white trim.
It’s not peeling and looks as if it was recently painted if I’m being honest. The floor in the room is covered in a dark gray carpet that looks thick.
You know the kind you just want to sink your bare toes in and feel it against your skin.
This house isn’t abandoned or out of date at all.
If I had to guess, I’d say it’s someone’s home that I’ve been brought to.
I’m just not sure who it belongs to. Especially since I have no clue who the fuck my stalker is or what they want with me.
Before I can even try to figure out how to get my wrist out of the rope that’s burning my skin with every move I make, I hear the unmistakable sound of high heels against a wooden floor.
Panic fills me and I start to shake uncontrollably.
Sucking in a deep breath, I hold it for a few seconds before slowly releasing it once again.
I don’t know how much time I have before this woman is at the door of the room I’m in, but I do this a few times to calm my body down just enough to pretend I’m sleeping or knocked out still.
Closing my eyes, I try to relax my body as much as possible.
There’s still a lot of tension in my shoulders and chest when I hear the sound of a lock being disengaged and the door slowly opening.
No, there’s no creaking noise or anything, but there is a slight sound as it brushes over the carpet covering the floor.
“What the fuck did you do to this slut? She shouldn’t still be knocked out,” the woman questions as I hear at least three more sets of footsteps following her in the room before everything is silent.
“I don’t know what the fuck happened. She was struggling when we got her at the store.
Shouting for help and shit. Maybe we hit her in the head too hard,” a man answers, his voice hard and cold enough to send tremors of fear through me.
It takes every ounce of control to keep my body completely still so they don’t realize I’m faking this right now.
“If she’s not awake soon, we’ll have to call in a doctor,” the woman says as the men begin to laugh manically.
“Why the fuck would you call in a doctor? You want the bitch dead and if she’s already halfway there, why bring in a doctor to make her better again?” a different man questions the woman and I listen intently to hear the answer myself.
“Because this bitch needs to hear the fucking truth and sign some papers taking everything from her. Clark was never truly her man and she collected on insurance policies that didn’t belong to her.
She thought they were married and the reality of the situation is that he was married to me legally and she has no legal ties to anything from him.
He promised me that damn money if anything happened to him and she fucking took it.
It’s bad enough she could give him better kids than I did.
Our kids are spoiled fucking brats while hers are fucking angels.
You’d have thought Clark actually loved them all instead of me and his first kids,” the woman says as my heart starts racing with the words she’s spewing.
I knew Clark cheated on me, but this is all new information.
Never in a million years would I have believed Clark had an entire other family with a woman and kids I knew nothing about.
This is fucking shocking information and I don’t know how to fucking process it.
I’m surprised Brick didn’t find this information out since he’s started digging into my past and Clark in particular.
“Okay. We’ll give her a little more time and then we’ll wake her up by any means necessary,” a third man speaks up and it makes me wonder how many people are actually in this room with me.
I don’t have the guts to look and find out though. Not when I still really have no clue what these fuckers are going to do to me.
“Do you think she’ll put it together that you’ve been the one stalking her this entire time?” the first man who spoke up asks with laughter filling his voice.
“Who the fuck cares. I’m the only other one who would’ve had access to things only Clark and her could get to.
He never told her about me so she has no clue of my existence.
I guarantee you she probably thinks Clark is faking his death or some shit like that.
He was always telling me how fucking stupid and pathetic she was.
How he couldn’t stand to be around her for more than a few minutes at a time,” the woman says, thinking she’s going to break my heart with those words as laughter explodes from her.
Any love I had for Clark died a long time ago.
He wasn’t the man I fell in love with when we were in college.
The very second we graduated and had a sham of a wedding ceremony, he changed and turned cold and indifferent toward me and our children.
Clark once even told me he only had sex with me for an heir like he was some rich prick who needed his blood line to continue.
Clark was middle class at best and there was no need to continue his family legacy. There was no legacy if you ask me.
Before the assholes can leave the room, I start to cough. It’s almost violent and hurts my entire body from head to toe. Fuck!
“She’s waking up,” the woman says, her voice filled with glee.
Before I can take a breath, freezing cold liquid hits me square in the face.
“Wake the fuck up!” the woman screams, her voice grating on my nerves and making my head throb worse than before.
“Shut up,” I manage to get out, my voice sounding as if I gargled with rocks.
“How fucking dare you! You’re nothing more than a homewrecking skank who tried to steal my man from me and is now taking the money from insurance policies that don’t belong to you.
You’re not even truly married to Clark. I’m his legal wife and the only one who deserves anything from him,” the woman says as I open my eyes and get a look at her.
She’s shorter than I am with a large chest, heavy make-up caked on her face, and her long blonde hair is obviously from a bottle.
She’s heavier than I thought she’d be and the clothes she’s wearing look as if they belong on a young teenager instead of a woman in her mid-twenties.
She’s showing more skin than the club girls at Matt’s clubhouse.
This is not what I pictured as being Clark’s type at all.
“I’m glad I was never truly married to that piece of shit.
He was worthless and the only thing I ever wanted from him are my children.
Thankfully, they don’t take after him and are being taught by a man who actually loves them and wants to be their dad,” I state, my voice coming out steady and strong as I glare at the bitch in front of me.
“As for the insurance policies, you have no right to them legally. I’m the one who paid the premium on them and I was listed as the beneficiary.
Clark listed me as the beneficiary and not you.
That money is long gone and there’s nothing left for a gold digging slut like you.
If anything, you owe me money for all the debt I paid off belonging to that piece of shit.
I’m sure most of it was yours to begin with. ”
“You’re lying!” the woman screams, her voice going to an octave only dogs can hear as I wince in pain.
“I’m not lying. It took me all year to pay off the massive amounts of debt Clark left behind.
My children and I went without and if my parents didn’t help me some months, we wouldn’t have been able to eat.
I’m sure your kids and you didn’t go without at all.
Did you?” I return, anger flooding my veins when I think of everything I sacrificed for a man who was nothing more than a vile, cheating, bastard.
“One of you look into this shit and get me the information I want. If you’re lying about this, I’m going to enjoy making you suffer. You just had twins, didn’t you?” the woman questions me, her voice turning deadly as her eyes narrow and she pulls off the perfect villain face.
I don’t bother responding as the four of them leave the room once again.
As the door is slammed closed behind the woman, I hear the lock engage once more and know I won’t be getting out of the room that way unless I can find something to pick the lock with.
Yes, I know how to pick a lock. My dad taught Jennifer and me when we were little in case we ever got kidnapped or something else happened.
He taught us a lot when we were growing up and still does today.
His life lessons are the only reason I ever got through the bullshit with Clark.
Still, my thoughts aren’t on him as I let images of Matt and our children play through my mind on a loop.
It doesn’t take long until those images fade into blurriness as I lose consciousness again.