Chapter 27 #2
“You’re lucky we’re doing this clean,” he mutters. “Mom was going to take care of it herself. Would’ve been messier.”
Behind us, I hear my mother’s low, cold voice barking orders.
I trip over a loose tile and fall hard to my knees. Pain flares up my legs, but I force myself up again, teeth gritted against the scream rising in my throat.
Think, Natalie. Think.
They’re going to hurt you.
They’re going to hurt the baby.
Fight.
I glance around wildly. One of the nurses approaches, holding a clipboard.
“You’ll need to sign?— ”
“I’M BEING KIDNAPPED!” I scream at the top of my lungs, so loud it echoes off the dingy walls.
For a heartbeat, everything freezes.
And then Lucas slaps me. Hard. The crack of it rings through the clinic. I taste blood.
“Shut up,” he growls, grabbing me by the jaw so hard it feels like he might break it. “No one’s coming to save you, Nat.”
The nurses exchange glances but say nothing. The doctor chuckles softly under her breath, turning away.
I’m alone. Alone with monsters.
But somewhere, deep inside me, something stubborn, something feral, refuses to die.
I’m not giving up. Not for them. Not for anyone.
I stagger upright again, even as my knees threaten to buckle. “You’ll pay for this,” I rasp.
Lucas just smirks, yanking me toward a back room. Behind us, my mother follows.
“We have to complete the paperwork, Bridget,” the doctor who had just laughed says. “Lock her in one of the examination rooms. It’s going to take a while.”
“You can’t do this to me!” I scream. “This is murder. You’re murdering my child!”
“Shut up!” Lucas slams my head against the metal part of the gurneys, and the sharp pain is followed by a dazed feeling.
“The conservatorship papers are ready,” he says, dropping me to the ground. The two nurses grab me by the upper arms and drag me into the room, closing the door behind them. Whoever this medical staff is, they clearly don’t care about the law, or fear getting caught.
I lie there slumped on the ground, trying to move but unable to. My vision is flickering, but I can hear them talk outside.
“I’ve paid you enough to keep your mouth shut. Once the procedure is done, I have transportation on the way. It’s going to take her someplace else. ”
“He won’t be able to challenge us?” I hear my mother ask.
Lucas sounds dismissive. “I have lawyers on standby who will attest that she has been under my conservatorship for years and that Ethan was trying to manipulate her. I’m going to sue him and bleed him dry. Let’s see him bounce back from that.”
Something in my chest stirs, and I try to search for my phone only to remember that Rose took it off me when I got into the car.
My hand curls around stomach. What do I do?
How do I get out of here? I struggle to my feet, trying to think past this pounding ache in my head.
The air stinks of bleach and fear. The walls are bare, the floor cracked, the overhead light buzzing faintly like an angry insect. There’s no window, no way out.
But I’m not giving up.
Frantically, I scan the room, my heart hammering so hard it hurts. There has to be something—anything—I can use. I rip open drawers, shove aside medical supplies, and tear through the cabinets mounted on the wall. My fingers are trembling, slick with sweat, but I force myself to keep going.
And then, in the bottom drawer, half-hidden under a stack of paper gowns, I see it.
A scalpel.
Small. Sharp. Deadly.
I snatch it up, cradling it against my chest for a second, my lungs burning with relief and terror.
It’s not much. But it’s enough.
I slip it carefully into the waistband of my pants, under my loose blouse, the side of the blade cold against my skin. If they want to drag me to that table again, they’ll bleed for it.
I settle in a corner of the room, every nerve strung tight, counting the seconds, the minutes. I don’t know how long they’ll take, but I’m going to be ready for them.
I won’t die here. I won’t let them win .
The wall clock hanging in front of me ticks as the minutes go by.
Quarter of an hour.
Half an hour.
An hour trickles by, and I feel my energy begin to wane. Where is Ethan? Why hasn’t he found me? Does he even know I’m missing? The thought of him searching for me, frantic and desperate, both comforts and terrifies me.
The door rattles, and I go still. I hear the lock slide open, and I swallow, getting to my feet. I shove the scalpel deeper against my skin, tightening my fingers into fists to steady myself.
Lucas steps into the room. He studies me, and for a moment, silence follows.
“Do you think your precious Ethan loves you? Do you think you’re so special that he’s going to come running here to save you?”
“He’ll kill you,” I breathe. “He won’t let this go.”
Lucas’s lips curl in a smile so cruel that it makes my insides turn cold.
“I hope he does love you. This way, he’ll know what it’s like to have someone you love taken from you.
All this time, he toyed with my Rose. He wanted her.
The two of them fucked with me. She left me for him.
And now? Now, I’m going to take you from him. He’ll never see you again.”
“If you think it’s going to be so easy to make me disappear, you’re wrong,” I spit out.
“I’m not a nobody anymore, Lucas. I’m not someone you can push around anymore.
People know me, they admire me, and they’re going to notice me missing.
Nobody is going to believe that I was under some conservatorship.
You’re delusional. You and Mom both. You think I’m still at your mercy? ”
His eyes fill with fury, and he grabs my arm, yanking me forward roughly out of the room, hissing, “The first thing I’m going to do once I get you to the farm is cut this tongue out.
I’m going to ruin your face. Important? You?
You’re worthless, Natalie. You always were.
Unloved, worthless, undesirable. You are nothing.
Getting a job and feeding yourself doesn’t change your value.
Nobody has ever wanted you. The only reason Ethan has you spreading your legs for him is because he wants my attention, because he’s my rival. ”
“Rival?” I curl my lip in disgust. “You’re the only one who thinks that. He doesn’t even consider you worthy of standing behind him. You’re so pathetic, Lucas.”
His hand comes flying to strike me, but I’m faster.
The scalpel flashes in the harsh light.
Lucas shouts in shock as the blade slices across the corner of his mouth, a thin line of blood blooming bright red against his skin.
“You bitch!” he roars, clutching his face. He lunges at me, rage distorting his bruised features.
I react without thinking, pure instinct. I drive my fist into his stomach, then slam my knee upward. He staggers back, gasping. For one breathless second, I think I can make it. I think I can win.
Then hands grab me from behind. The nurses. They wrestle me down, their grips like iron.
“No! No!” I scream, thrashing, kicking, but they’re too strong. The scalpel falls from my hand, clattering uselessly to the floor.
Lucas wipes the blood from his mouth, his expression dark with murderous fury. He kicks the scalpel away, sending it spinning into a dark corner. “Should’ve killed you years ago,” he mutters.
The nurses drag me toward the bed. I fight them every inch of the way, teeth bared, heart breaking, mind screaming.
I can’t let this happen.
But they force me down, pinning me to the cold, hard mattress.
Leather straps snap tight around my wrists.
Before they can get to my ankles, I kick, catching my brother in the face.
He howls in pain, falling back on the ground, and the nurses grab my ankles.
I twist and thrash until the leather bites into my skin, but it’s useless.
I’m trapped.
Helpless.
I can hear my mother talking to Lucas, checking up on him, and I fight harder.
That’s when I hear the pounding sound in the distance. My head swivels to the right. The nurses share an alarmed look. My mother says quickly, yanking back on my hair, “Get her inside. Forget the anesthesia. Just yank it out of her.”
“No!” I scream as they try to wheel me away.
The door crashes open with a deafening bang. I jerk my head up just as Lucas struggles to his feet, groaning from where I hit him. And then?—
Ethan storms into the room, a force of pure rage and fury, his eyes locking onto mine.
“Natalie,” he breathes, like a prayer, like a vow, and I feel the tears spill down my cheeks. Not from fear but from sheer, aching relief.
“Get away from her,” he snarls, voice like gravel.
The nurses freeze. One drops the straps she’s fumbling with and backs up fast. The doctor tries to put her hands up, stammering something, but Ethan shoves past them without a second glance, his full focus on me.
I’m strapped to the bed, wrists and ankles bound so tight it burns, and I can’t even reach for him.
But it doesn’t matter.
He’s here.
“Ethan,” I choke out, my voice breaking.
He’s already beside me, his hands ripping at the straps with brutal, desperate strength. His eyes, usually so controlled, burn with an intensity that would terrify me if it wasn’t directed at saving me .
“I’ve got you,” he mutters, yanking the leather restraints loose, his touch shaking with fury. “I’m here. You’re safe now.”
I’m sobbing openly by the time my hands are free, collapsing into his chest the second he hauls me upright.
His arms close around me so tightly it feels like he’s trying to mold me into him, to make sure nothing can ever pull us apart again.
I breathe in his familiar scent, letting it anchor me back to reality.
“I’m so sorry,” I gasp against his neck. “I tried—I tried to fight?—”
“You fought,” he growls, pressing a kiss into my hair, fierce and broken. “You did everything right. I’m so fucking proud of you.”
“Get away from her!” my mother shrieks, who had moved to Lucas’s side on the ground. Ethan pulls me to the side just as she lunges for us.
“You ruined our family! You ruined everything, you whore. You filthy, little slut?—”
“I could be saying the same to you, Bridget!” A furious voice comes from the doorway.
My mother goes still, as do I.
Roland steps out from the doorway. “You kept my daughter from me because you wanted revenge for leaving you. You tried to ruin my reputation because I wouldn’t fund the lifestyle of you and that bastard son of yours.
You stole my child from me, and you ruined her life.
You tortured her because I was her father and not your lover. ”
My mother is pale as a ghost.
“How could you?” Roland demands, low and furious, as I try to grapple with this new information. “She’s your daughter, too. Your blood. And you treated her like nothing.”
My mother’s eyes narrow, and she sneers when she looks at me, like I’m still that powerless girl she used to corner and tear apart with words that bled deeper than fists ever could.
“Blood?” she spits, laughing—sharp, cruel, ugly. She looks at me like I disgust her. “She was a stain. A mistake. I should’ve gotten rid of her like I did the others.”
Ethan’s arm tightens around me. I can feel the rage vibrating off him, but he stays still, grounded—for me.
Only Roland steps forward, his hands clenched into a fist on top of his cane.
“You hated her because she reminded you of me,” he says, voice rough and broken. “You hated her and because you couldn’t hurt me, so you hurt her instead.”
My mother’s smile twists into something monstrous.
“You thought you won when you had those DNA tests conducted? You thought you won when you divorced me? Look at you now. Look at her. Broken little shit. She’s a whore, nothing more.
If she had stayed pure, then at least Lucas could have circulated her amongst his colleagues, gotten some use out of her.
But she had to go and humiliate him by sleeping with that man. ”
The words slice into me like knives.
For a second, it’s like I’m back there. I’m the little girl locked out in the cold, begging to be let inside. The teenager flinching at slammed doors and snarled insults. The woman learning how to survive with scars no one could see.
Roland stares at her like he’s seeing the devil herself.
“You’re sick,” he says hoarsely. “You’re not a mother. You’re a monster.”
Her eyes burn with hate.
“And I’m not done,” she spits, her voice dripping with venom. “You think dragging her out of here saves her? She’s under Lucas’s conservatorship now. You will never have her back. I’ll kill this little bitch and send you her remains. Then you can have her.”
I always knew my mother hated me, but this is almost comical in some cruel horrific way. She despises my existence. She wants me to die. She wants me to suffer. She takes pleasure in it .
I stare at her, my fingers gripping Ethan. “You are pathetic. You are a pathetic woman, Mom. And you’re crazy to think your plan will work. No judge will buy your fake conservatorship papers. You and Lucas are insane.”
Police sirens sound outside, and Roland steps towards me. “I’m taking my daughter back now, Bridget. You and Lucas can enjoy the air of prison for a few years.”
“You’re not taking that bitch anywhere.” Lucas lunges at him.
“No!” I scream out. But Ethan is faster. He blocks Lucas’s attack, slamming him into the ground with one leg sweep along the floor and pressing his foot on his hand just as police officers storm in.
“I’ll kill you!” Lucas screams, his eyes filled with an insanity that is terrifying. “I’ll kill you both and that child. I’ll take everything you have, Ethan! I deserve it, not you! Let me go!”
“Let my son go!” My mother is struggling as the officer put them both in restraints.
I lean against Ethan, closing my eyes, trying to breathe. The turmoil of the past two hours is catching up on me, though, and I feel myself slump against him, the darkness taking hold of me.
At least I’m safe.