Chapter 27
NATALIE
I would never have gotten in Rose’s car if it hadn’t been for the small handgun concealed behind her purse. She would have shot me, but from the way her eyes darted towards Helen, I knew she was the one in real danger at that moment.
So I left.
What choice did I have?
When I slid into the passenger seat of Rose’s car, I didn’t expect her to tie my hands together with a zip-tie.
“What are you doing?” I strain against the hard material. “What is wrong with you, Rose?”
She puts the gun in her lap, starting the car.
“You know,” she murmurs casually, “I never liked you. Whiny, ungrateful, little brat. It was bad enough I had to tolerate your miserable brother pawing at me, but you were just annoying.”
She hums under her breath, tapping her manicured nails against the wheel. “And then you went and got that damned bird that wouldn’t shut up. Not only did I have to tolerate sleeping in the same house as your nosy mother and you, but to have to listen to that bird harping on and on?”
A memory stirs, one I hadn’t recalled from back then. Lucas didn’t come home alone that day. Rose was with him. That’s why he was so pissed I hadn’t cleaned his room. And when I had found TeeTee and screamed the house down, Rose just smiled.
Why didn’t I remember that?
I should have remembered that.
“You did that to TeeTee,” I breathe. “You killed my parrot.”
She scoffs. “Oh, don’t get so sentimental about it now. You had it coming. Because of you, I had to clean Lucas’s filthy room. Me, the heiress to the Carrington fortune! You little brat!”
With renewed anger, she lifts the gun and slams it against my cheek.
I cry out in pain, and she laughs. “You’re going to be screaming very soon. I promise you. And I’m going to enjoy every minute of it. You and Lucas have always been a thorn in my side. I never liked him,” Rose says, like she’s admitting a mild inconvenience. “He was just... the easiest path.”
My mouth goes dry.
“What path?”
“To Ethan.”
The words land like a slap.
I blink at her, stunned, my heart hammering against my ribcage.
“You think I wasted all those years on Lucas because I loved him?” she sneers.
“Please. Lucas was pathetic. But Ethan... Ethan was always different. Special. Powerful. And I wanted him. I deserved to have him, and—” She smiles now.
“—deep down he knew we were meant to be together. He just had a tough time admitting the truth to himself. Once that restraining order expired, I was going to come back. I was going to convince him. And when I saw him at the fundraiser, I just knew he was there for me. He could feel me in the room.”
She spares me a glance, her eyes glittering with hate.
“But you came along, forcing yourself on him, trying to trap him. I knew I had to convince you to let him go. But you siblings are so stubborn. I thought if I told you he had feelings for me, you would let him go, but you’re just a desperate little tramp, like your brother, clawing for glory and power that you don’t deserve.
You and your brother have the same problem. You keep forgetting your place!”
I grip the seat, my nails digging into the worn leather.
“You’re sick,” I whisper.
Her grin widens. “I’m determined.”
The city blurs past the windows, the world outside too fast, too far away.
Gray clouds hang low over the buildings, and I can see people hunched in their coats on the sidewalks.
No one sees me. No one knows. I'm a captive in plain sight, the weak afternoon sun doing nothing to warm the chill that has settled deep in my bones.
“You dumped Lucas,” I rasp, needing her to keep talking.
To stall.
To survive.
She shrugs. “Had to. Once Ethan got that ridiculous restraining order, there was no point pretending anymore. I tried to talk to him. I told him I was willing to leave Lucas for him at my engagement party. I even tried to drug him. I thought if he tasted what I had to offer, he would never be able to let go, but he just didn’t understand what I was giving him.
That stupid shadow of his, dragging him out of the party. Jake.”
Her lips curl.
“Lucas was furious, of course, when I finally dumped him. Like it was my fault he was never enough. But none of it mattered. Not really. Because I knew—one day—I’d find a way back to Ethan. ”
“And now?” I manage to choke out. “You think kidnapping me is going to—what—make him love you?”
Rose’s hands tighten around the steering wheel, her nails digging into the hard leather. Her smile slips, the rage boiling under the surface breaking through.
“I think ,” she says in a low, vicious voice, “that you stole something from me. Something that was supposed to be mine.”
She flicks her eyes toward my stomach meaningfully.
The blood in my veins turns to ice.
“I don’t know what he sees in you,” she says, her voice thick with venom. “Pathetic. Weak. Acting like some wide-eyed, little martyr. You tricked him, didn’t you? Got yourself pregnant so he’d stay with you.”
My eyes narrow. “That’s not true. Ethan loves me.”
Saying it aloud steadies me.
It’s real.
He loves me. And he’s not going to stop looking for me.
Rose laughs again, the sound high and shrill. “We’ll see how much he loves you when that little parasite inside you is gone.”
The implication slams into me like a fist.
‘Gone.’
She’s not just threatening me. She’s threatening my baby.
Terror claws at my throat, but underneath it, something hotter sparks to life. Rage. I won’t let her hurt my baby.
“You won’t get away with this,” I say, forcing my voice to stay level. “Ethan will find me.”
“He might,” she says carelessly. “Eventually. But by then, it’ll be too late.”
The car jerks down a narrow alley, tires squealing. She pulls up to a nondescript lot next to a grimy building that looks abandoned. My stomach lurches.
“Where are we?” I whisper.
Rose cuts the engine and turns to me, all fake sweetness now. “This is the next part of the plan. ”
She gets out of the car, and I quickly try to open the door with my hands tied, only to realize she’s put a child lock on it. Only she can open it. Panic surges through me as I tug frantically at the handle.
The door opens, and I hear another familiar voice, one that has chills running down my spine.
My mother.
Her face is twisted into something cold and cruel, her lips curled with disgust as her gaze sweeps over me—the zip-tie cutting into my wrists, the raw terror in my eyes.
“Figures you’d end up like this,” she says mockingly.
The breath leaves my lungs in a sharp, stunned rush.
No. No.
This can’t be real.
Behind her, Rose laughs, the sound sharp and triumphant.
“You should thank me,” Rose purrs. “After all, I’ve reunited you with Mommy Dearest.”
My mother steps aside just enough for Rose to pull me out of the car and throw me at my mother’s feet. “She’s all yours.”
“You’ve been helping her?” I whisper, my voice hoarse, as I stare at my mother.
Rose beams. “Oh, honey. She didn’t need much convincing. Seems your own mother’s had it out for you longer than I have.”
I shake my head, trying to clear it, trying to understand, but everything feels off-kilter, like reality has shifted.
“I should’ve gotten rid of you the second I knew you existed,” my mother says, her voice cold as ice. “But he stopped me.”
She spits the word like it’s poison.
“Your father was always a problem. I married that fool because I had to. He was rich. But he just couldn’t keep his nose in his own business. Saddling me with an ungrateful brat like you.”
My stomach lurches violently.
“You were supposed to be erased,” she hisses, taking a step closer, her heels clicking ominously on the concrete. “Just like the others.”
The zip-tie bites deeper as I shrink back against the ground, panic clawing at my throat.
“And now you think you can waltz around,” she says, her voice laced with contempt, eyes dropping pointedly to my stomach, “carrying another mistake? I don’t think so.”
Rose leans against the door frame, looking bored. “Fix her. I have to go. I have to meet a guy about the license plates.”
My heart pounds so violently it feels like it might break my ribs.
No.
No, they can’t.
I twist my wrists, desperate to break free, but the plastic only cuts deeper into my skin, leaving angry red welts.
Rose gets back in the driver’s seat, and the car peels off, leaving me alone with my mother.
“Let’s go,” she snaps. But as soon as my feet hit the ground, adrenaline kicks in.
Pure survival.
Rage.
I shove my mother—hard—and she stumbles back, swearing viciously. She tries to grab me but I’m already running, my lungs burning, my wrists aching, every instinct screaming.
I don’t get far.
A figure steps out from the shadows ahead.
Lucas.
He looks worse than when I saw him last—one eye swollen, his mouth split and bruised—but his smile when he sees me is pure malice.
“Going somewhere, little sister?”
“No,” I gasp, backing away. “Stay away from me?—”
He grabs me by the hair, yanking so hard my vision whites out with pain. I scream, thrashing, but he just laughs, wrapping his fist tighter in my hair and dragging me, half-crawling, half-stumbling, toward the decrepit building.
“You should’ve stayed quiet,” he snarls in my ear. “Should’ve stayed the good little girl who did what she was told.”
The door to the clinic slams open under his boot.
The place reeks of bleach and rot. The fluorescent lights buzz overhead, casting a sickly, yellow glow over cracked floors and peeling walls.
Despite the stuffy, overheated air inside, I can feel the cold seeping through the thin walls and cracked windows, making the already oppressive atmosphere even more suffocating.
Two nurses glance up from behind a counter. A doctor leans against a nearby doorframe, sipping coffee like nothing unusual is happening.
They watch Lucas drag me inside like it’s an everyday occurrence.
No alarm.
No horror.
No help.
Terror claws at my throat as Lucas shoves me forward.