Chapter 28 #2
I walked to the end of the hall. The guest room was dark, the door not fully closed, leaving a thin gap. I leaned toward the crack. In the moonlight, I saw Rebecca naked by the bed, her face flushed. Her clothes and Andrei's clothes were tangled on the floor.
Then she spoke, her voice lazy and triumphant.
"Brother, it must have been so hard pretending not to care about me these past few days, wasn't it?"
"If I could get pregnant myself, you wouldn't have had to lower yourself with her. Now that she's finally knocked up, what are you planning to do with her after she delivers?"
Something in my brain detonated.
I pressed my hand instinctively against my stomach and stepped back. Rebecca was asking what to do with me. Like I was an object. No—not just any object. A breeding machine. A surrogate tool. Something you throw in the trash when you're done with it.
I was just a breeding tool? Everything Andrei did for me was fake? I couldn't believe it. I stood frozen, waiting to hear Andrei refute it.
And Andrei—he was in that room. He said nothing. He let it stand.
My stomach lurched violently. I clamped my hand over my mouth, forcing down the retch clawing up my throat. Tears fell silently, seeping through my fingers, salty and bitter.
No wonder he didn't answer my calls.
Busy. Busy screwing Rebecca in the guest room. Busy fucking another woman. That bastard. That liar. Didn't he say he hated betrayal? Then he shouldn't have betrayed me! I never should have forgiven him! If he hadn't stolen my heart, it wouldn't hurt this much when I tried to hate him!
I couldn't stay here. Absolutely not. Rebecca wouldn't spare me. Once I was useless, she'd make Andrei get rid of me. And Elena—Elena was still in the hospital. I had to get to her, take her away from here. As far as possible.
I made no sound. I crept downstairs. Rebecca's voice continued above, her giggling laughter like glass shards stabbing my heart.
I moved quietly. I couldn't let Dmitri notice. Andrei said Dmitri was protecting me. Now I realized—he was watching me.
The night wind hit my tear-streaked face, cold and sharp. I didn't look back. I just ran.
After I got in the cab, the driver stared at my tear-stained face.
"The hospital," I croaked, my voice shaking. "Please. Hurry."
The cab tore through the empty midnight streets. I huddled in the back seat, trembling uncontrollably. My hand moved instinctively to my stomach. I couldn't feel anything yet, but I knew two tiny lives were in there.
Andrei's and my children. No—Andrei's and the breeding tool's children.
That thought made my stomach lurch again. I rolled down the window and dry-heaved into the night air. The driver glanced at me in the rearview mirror, said nothing, and pressed the gas.
We passed street after street. My tears ran dry. My eyes burned. But the image of Rebecca's naked body wouldn't leave my mind—
Then a thought surfaced.
Andrei never said a word.
I'd only heard Rebecca's voice. Only her talking. Only her gloating. Where was Andrei? Was he really in that room? I saw clothes on the floor—yes, men's clothes—but were they actually Andrei's? I never saw his face. I never heard his voice.
If this were before, I'd dismiss this as making excuses for Andrei.
But after everything—those disgusting cross cufflinks, Rebecca's carefully orchestrated "coincidences," the tears and apologies she performed in front of me—enough.
I finally saw exactly who Rebecca was. She was a master liar, crying crocodile tears every time I started to doubt her. I'd never believe her again.
Including this time. What if everything I saw and heard was exactly what she wanted me to see? What if she deliberately let me walk in on that scene, let me misunderstand Andrei, so I'd run away on my own?
My hands started shaking. A delayed terror rose inside me. Andrei and I had been through too many misunderstandings. Every time it was because of miscommunication. Every time someone was manipulating us. What if this was the same?
I needed to go back. I needed to see Andrei in that room with my own eyes, hear his answer with my own ears. If he really betrayed me, then I'd leave. I'd never look back.
I jerked my head up. "Turn around."
"Huh?"
"Turn around. Back to the manor. Please, hurry!"
The driver looked at me in the rearview mirror. Something in my expression must have spooked him. He flipped on his signal and began to turn.
Then a beam of blinding white light shot toward us from the side.
Headlights flooded the entire car. My pupils contracted. A vehicle was barreling straight at my window at high speed. The shriek of brakes tore through the night.
The crash swallowed everything.
My body slammed toward the door. My head smashed into the glass. As the airbag exploded, my consciousness faded.
When I opened my eyes again, I was in a car's passenger seat. My left hand was cuffed to the door handle. Outside the window was a dark highway. No streetlights. My head felt like it was splitting. Blood seeped from a gash on my arm. My clothes were spattered with stains.
In the driver's seat, Rebecca was at the wheel. Her hands gripped it loosely. A smile played at her lips.
I struggled. The cuff scraped against the handle with a harsh metallic screech.
Rebecca glanced over. Said nothing.
"Rebecca." I blinked hard, fighting off the dizziness. "Rebecca... why are you doing this? Does Andrei know?"
"My dear Lilith, you're such a pathetic bitch.
" She laughed and shook her head, mockery dripping from every word.
"Even after all that, you still won't leave Andrei.
You're disgusting! My plan was to wait until you took Elena and left, then deal with you and your bastards on the road.
That way Andrei wouldn't suspect me. But you had to turn back! "
"So now I have to take a little risk and kill you myself!"
The car whipped around a curve. Inertia threw me against the door. The cuff bit into my wrist. I bit down on the pain.
"Once you're dead, I'll be Andrei's wife." Rebecca's voice climbed higher. She burst into wild laughter.
"No, you won't!" I'd fallen right into Rebecca's trap. Rage exploded in my chest. "Even without me, Andrei will never love you!"
"A woman as vicious and scheming as you—Andrei will never want you!"
The car accelerated hard. Rebecca's eyes filled with madness. Her knuckles went white on the wheel.
"Shut up!" she screamed. "You don't know anything! If my brother hadn't died, I was supposed to marry him! My name was on the engagement list! You stole my place! You're some nobody who came out of nowhere—what right do you have to stand beside him?"
I closed my eyes and drew a deep breath. Anger burned in my chest, but I knew this wasn't the time to argue with Rebecca. She had a knife. I only had one free hand. If I provoked her, I had no chance. So I just stared silently at her increasingly unhinged face.
I looked out the window. No city lights.
Just scrub grass and sparse trees flashing past in the headlight beams. This was the desolate outskirts.
Once we reached our destination, I might never get another chance to escape.
And what terrified me more was the hand resting on my stomach, reminding me that two people were depending on me for protection.
Rebecca was thin and delicate. She had a knife, but she wasn't necessarily stronger than me. I went to the gym occasionally. I wasn't powerful, but I had stamina. I had to find a way to escape. I couldn't let anything happen to my children.
Rebecca glanced at me. Whatever she saw in my expression pissed her off.
She smiled viciously and spoke again. "You can't escape.
No one knows I took you. Of course, if you beg nicely in a bit, I might let you live...
Actually, what if I sold you to a brothel in Mexico?
They're full of gangsters just like Andrei. You'd love them."
Rebecca had lost her mind. After she finished speaking, as if eager to see my miserable fate, she stomped the accelerator. The car went faster.
Despair flooded my chest. But at the same time, a more powerful will to survive ignited deep inside. Andrei must be looking for me—he couldn't have failed to notice I was gone. I had to hold on until he found me.
I had to escape before she delivered me somewhere.
I drew a deep breath and lunged with my right hand for the steering wheel.
The car swerved as we fought for control.
"Are you trying to kill us?" Rebecca shrieked, her body thrown against the door.
I used all my strength to yank the wheel toward me.
The car shook violently, tires screeching against pavement.
Rebecca cursed and tried to wrestle back control, slashing at me one-handed with the knife.
The blade sliced across my arm. Pain flared instantly.
Blood welled from the wound, running down my wrist.
But I didn't let go. I couldn't feel the pain anymore. She hit the brakes. Inertia threw us both forward. I used the momentum to jerk the wheel hard to the right.
The car shot off the road. The front end slammed into a tree trunk. The airbag exploded like a white balloon, smashing into me. Everything went black.