Chapter 17
Chapter Seventeen
SOPHIA
I had been in and out of consciousness over the past however long hours, if it had even been hours and not minutes or days.
I had only known I was even awake because my body ached.
I was tied up, my arms in front of me, my bare feet bound.
But Cale had put a blindfold over my eyes, and a gag in my mouth.
I couldn’t scream, couldn’t see anything.
I knew I was in a trunk because I couldn’t lift my body, and every time we hit a bump or a hard curve, I’d bang into the lid or the sides, and I knew I would be bruised and bloody.
If only I could remove my blindfold, maybe I could figure out how to use the latch to get out. Any car these days had an escape latch in case you were accidentally—not even purposely—put in a trunk.
And yet I couldn’t do any of it.
Were Hazel and Violet okay? They had to be. I couldn’t hear them, so they weren’t calling out for me, not in this car. But he wouldn’t have hurt them. He didn’t even like them. They were nothing to him but a way to get at me. And since he had me, there was no way he would hurt them. Right?
Bile filled my throat, and I swallowed it down. The last thing I needed to do was choke on my own vomit and brushed along my shoulder, and I flinched, pulling back from him.
“Fucking bitch. You think you can just get away die and not even be able to fight for myself.”
I was strong, a dancer, and yet where Cale had already broken my bones in the past, I could feel every bump and turn to the point that my entire body ached, thrumming on a stressful drum.
What was he going to do with me?
It wasn’t as if killing me or hurting me would get him what he wanted.
Maybe he would ask for a ransom note? But my brothers and sisters would never let him get away with it.
They would find him and end him. They wouldn’t even let the judicial system have its way because it had already failed us more than once before.
And as for Carson? I held back a soft cry.
No, Carson wouldn’t allow it to happen either.
He had already threatened to kill him more than once, and I knew he wouldn’t stop until he found me.
But I couldn’t wait for them.
They didn’t even know I was gone. I’d have to do this myself.
But how?
Where the hell was I?
We had to be going up a hill of some sort, because my ears continued to pop with the elevation changes, and as we took a sharp turn, I slammed into the side of the trunk and blood seeped down my face.
I would be okay. I had to be okay.
My girls needed me.
Carson needed me.
And fuck, I needed myself.
I had so many plans, and I wasn’t going to let my terrible decision in one man and a choice of what I thought was forever ruin this.
And then we stopped.
A slam of a car door.
Boots crunching on gravel.
Fear coated my tongue, and my pulse raced to the point I was afraid I would pass out, but I needed to remain calm. I needed to get out of this.
“There you are,” Cale said as he opened the trunk, and light began to seep around my blindfold.
His fingers brushed along my shoulder, and I flinched, pulling back from him.
“Fucking bitch. You think you can just get away from me like that? No, that’s not how this works.”
“You are going to just lay here for a bit longer, and think about what you did.”
I tried to scream through the gag, but he punched me in the gut, and then slammed the trunk lid back down.
Pain rocked through me, and I nearly threw up. The gag fell from my mouth, and I knew if I screamed, he would just hurt me more.
I needed to figure out exactly where I was, who was around, and then I would make more noise.
But for now, I needed my bearings.
He opened up the trunk once more, stuffed the gag back in my mouth even as I screamed, and then he slapped me.
He hit me once, twice, and on the third time I blacked out.
By the time I woke again, there was darkness, nothing.
I would continue to scream, behind the gag, anything I could do, but nobody would hear me.
Nobody was coming for me.
I tried to reach my pocket, where the one thing that may save me lay, but I couldn’t reach, not at this angle. My shoulders burned, and maybe if I tried to dislocate myself like in the movies, I’d be able to figure it out.
But I couldn’t.
I was helpless, and for now, there was nothing.
When he opened the trunk once more, I didn’t scream.
He pulled me out by my shoulders, and the moans sounded like screams to my ears.
“Shut up,” Cale snarled. He tossed me onto the ground, and I was grateful that I was low enough that I didn’t break a bone. But sharp pain and nauseating agony slammed into me from my shoulder, my head, all throughout my body.
And when he pulled up my feet and began to drag me, I twisted and fought, and I tried to kick. He slapped at me, but it wasn’t enough at this angle.
And when my gag fell out finally, I screamed.
“You fucking bitch. You don’t even know where you are. They’re not going to find you here. Nobody comes up here. Not since the last incident.”
I froze, as Cale pulled off my blindfold.
I stared into the eyes of the man that I thought I loved. The man that I thought had believed in me, but there was nothing. No hope, no emotion, just pure vacancy and hatred.
“You don’t even know where we are, do you?”
I tried to look around, my entire body shaking, but when I met Cale’s gaze again, he smirked.
“Your pretty little town. The one with your fucking name on it. The one that you didn’t let me have a single slice of because you’re a fucking selfish cunt.
You and your family. Your dad and all of his cronies took everything for granted.
They had all this money, and you didn’t take a single penny of it.
What a fucking whore. A wasteful disappointment.
” He backhanded me, and my head slammed into the picnic table behind us that I hadn’t even realized was there.
A ringing sensation echoed in my ears, and then Cale spit next to me.
“I could have had everything, and yet you did nothing for me. You were a waste. Not even a good fuck. You couldn’t even give me boys. Instead you gave me girls.”
“The girls. Please tell me—” I blurted, trying to get my wrist free.
Cale had always been good at knots.
Another shiver.
“The little brats are fine. I didn’t touch them. I’m not a monster.”
He said the words as if he believed them.
But this man was going to kill me.
And I was never going to see them again.
“You’re going to die on the land that bears your name. Because you were worthless to me alive. But when you’re dead? I’m going to get everything.”
He smirked, that wild smile on his face looking nothing like sanity.
“Cale. We’re divorced. That’s not how this works. You know that. Killing me is going to accomplish nothing.”
All I could feel was relief that he hadn’t touched my babies. But they were alone. All alone.
“Oh fuck off. My lawyers were always better than yours. We have our ways.”
He was believing his own lies at this point, anything for him to have power, and yet it was for nothing.
He was going to kill me for nothing, and it was all I could do not to sob and scream.
And then he pulled out a knife so large it glinted underneath the dying sunlight.
“If you move, I’ll gut you. You’re going to die anyway, but let’s make it quick.”
I tried to back away, and he backhanded me again. This time blood flooded my mouth.
All I could do was stare at the man that had ruined everything, and I hadn’t been able to see it until it was too late.
He cut the bindings at my feet, then my arms. It made no sense until he put the knife against my throat.
“I’ve already written your note, one that’s going to explain what you want to do with our children and your income and your businesses.
Because you made mistakes. And now I’m going to need you to walk to that cliff.
Does it look familiar? I read in the news it’s the one where your sister almost died.
The small town of Cage Lake apparently has a newspaper where it explains when people are so stupid at the end of cliffs that they fall off.
But you’re not going to fall off. You’re going to jump, Sophia. ”
I tried to look, but the knife dug into my skin. I didn’t want to die, I couldn’t. But I refused to cry in front of this man. He’d already taken so much from me, I would not give him any more tears.
I would not give him myself.
I would not die.
But it seemed he had an odd plan, one that wouldn’t work, but as it did in his head, it didn’t make much sense to fight it. At least outwardly. Or maybe I was too exhausted to think clearly.
“Cale. Please.”
“I like you begging. You never begged enough before. You wanted the perfect man, the beta who would take what you can give, and yet, you didn’t see me for who I was.
You were always such a fucking idiot. Not a good wife, not a good fuck, a terrible mother.
And you gave me nothing. So now you’re going to walk to that cliff where your sister almost died, and you’re going to jump.
And if you don’t do it, I’ll push, and you’ll be dead.
But then I’ll go to your little girls, the little brats you love so much, and I’ll end their lives just like their mother’s. ”
Ice crawled up my spine as I saw the truth in his gaze.
He would kill them. If I didn’t kill myself, he would kill them.
And I wanted to cry. Hell, I wanted to die in that moment. But I didn’t. I couldn’t.
I needed to find another way out of this.
So when Cale pulled me up to my feet, I didn’t fight, as the knife was still touching my neck, but my gaze shot in all directions, praying that someone would walk by.
We were on a trail after all, and it was in the middle of summer. Somebody had to come.
But nobody was coming.
Not my family, not Carson.
It would just be me.
“I would ask for your last words, but I don’t even want to hear your fucking voice.”
And then Cale let the knife drop, his hand went to my back, and he pushed.
I couldn’t even open my mouth to scream. My foot dragged on the edge of the dirt, and I twisted, not even realizing I was falling until it was too late. My arms slammed onto the ground, blood seeping into the soil as I skidded down the side, an awkward marionette with its strings pulled.
But Cale had made a mistake.
Because as I had fallen, my arm had reached out, and I hadn’t even realized I had grabbed onto his shirt in the process.
The high-pitched scream hadn’t come from me. For I had no breath.
No, it had come from the man that I hadn’t even realized had been a monster until it was too late.
Because Cale’s mistakes were his final ones.
Because as I had fallen, my fingers digging into his shirt, he hadn’t been prepared for the imbalance.
So I slammed into the ground, barely holding onto the edge of the cliff by my fingernails, and Cale screamed beside me, arms outstretched, knife falling beside us, and then there was nothing.
He was gone.
And I was still going to die.
I tried to hold on, but my arms were weak, and there was no grip.
“Sophia!”
It didn’t sound like Cale’s voice, but maybe it was an angel’s. Did the grim reaper speak to you before he took your soul?
Tears fell down my cheeks as I struggled to keep hold, and then one arm slipped, and I knew this would be the end.
I would never see my babies again.
I would never see my family.
I would never see Carson.
“Sophia!”
And then strong arms were lifting me up, and I cried out in pain, agony.
And then somehow Carson was holding me, both of us shaking, and I was on the ground, in Carson’s lap, and somehow I was alive.
Somehow he was here.
“Holy shit,” Flynn burst out, and then he was on the ground next to us, awkwardly holding the two of us.
I could hear sirens in the distance, but it made no sense.
“How are you here?” I rasped.
I tried to look over the side of the cliff, but Carson moved me so I couldn’t glance over.
“Don’t look. Don’t look,” he whispered as his gaze raked my body, anger in every inch of his posture and eyes.
“How?” I rasped, tears now fully shaking my body.
“Your phone,” Flynn answered. “You had it in your pocket. But I guess you couldn’t reach it?” Flynn asked as tears covered his face as well.
“I tried,” I panted.
As the authorities ran towards us, Carson cupped my face and kissed my bruised and bloody lips.
“So strong. You did it. Although I should have,” he growled.
I would deal with that statement later, and what it meant, but I leaned against him, Flynn holding us both, and I let myself break.
“The girls?”
“They’re safe. The girls are safe. I love you. Don’t fucking do that again.”
“I love you, and I won’t. I won’t.”
And I let myself fall, in the arms of the man that I loved, the man that I trusted, with my family at my side, knowing I would never be alone.
The nightmare was over, and perhaps a new one would begin, but it didn’t matter.
Because I had made my choice, I had tried to fight.
And somehow, against all odds, we had won.
And maybe in the morning it would all make sense.