Chapter 12 #2
“What are you doing to him?” I demanded again, each word trembling between fury and desperation.
“Something I should’ve done a long time ago.” She sighed, eyes flicking away. She wasn’t going to tell me—not yet.
I forced myself to inhale deeply, steadying my voice. Angela gave up on the bedpan, muttering under her breath. She wrapped the cuff of a blood pressure monitor around my arm.
A good nurse would’ve seen without needing to measure: my pulse was racing, my blood pressure sky-high. I was on the edge.
“I know what you did,” I said quietly.
Angela froze. Her composure slipped for half a second.
“What are you talking about?” she asked, her tone casual, too casual.
“My kidnapping.” I dragged out the words, testing them, watching how they landed. “Why did you lie to me?”
“Hmm…” she angled her face, studying me like she was inspecting a child’s drawing, unsure whether to praise or scold.
Mom had always been ruled by emotion. The smallest thing could send her spiraling—laughter to tears, rage to adoration, all within the same minute. She’d once cried for days because my father came home late from work, convinced he’d abandoned us.
I’d thought she was being dramatic.
I was wrong.
Now, watching her, I couldn’t tell what she was feeling. Her gaze flickered between me and the machines beeping beside the bed. There was calculation between them—something dangerous she was trying to bury.
“They didn’t come for me, did they?” My voice cracked slightly. “They wanted Xiao Wu. Not me.”
The air in the room changed. Lucy and Angela stopped moving altogether. Her expression went blank—only to return sharper, colder.
And in that tiny pause, I knew I’d struck something real.
“Yes…” She rubbed her palm nervously on her thigh, smoothing the wrinkles on her beige dress. Her eyes darted toward the window, avoiding mine.
“And you knew all along, didn’t you?” My voice trembled—not from fear, but from disbelief. “That’s why you wanted Xiao Wu on that trip. You wanted me there when it happened.”
Her lips pressed into a thin line. For a moment, she didn’t speak. Then quietly, she asked, “How… how did you figure it out?”
“When I saw Dannie in Hong Kong, I knew we’d met before.
” The memory flickered like a broken film reel behind my eyes—his face, the sound of chains, the smell of damp concrete.
“But my brain wouldn’t let me place him.
Wouldn’t let me remember. But now I do. The dots connected. And, it all made sense.”
Her composure cracked. “I thought there was no harm,” she whispered, voice trembling.
“No harm?” My voice rose. “Do you remember the bruises, the cuts? The nightmares?”
Tears welled up in her eyes, but she shook her head. “You’re alive, aren’t you? It gave you a life lesson, didn’t it?”
I laughed—a hollow, bitter sound that didn’t even feel like it came from me. “A life lesson? You had me kidnapped to teach me a fucking life lesson?”
Her tears spilled then, but she kept her voice small, pleading. “That wasn’t my intention.”
“Then what, Mother?”
“I just…” she pressed her fingers to her lips, smearing her lipstick slightly. “I just wanted to scare your father. Make him realize how much he cared about you. About us. About the family. I thought if something happened to you, he’d stop seeing that bitch.”
Of course. Of course it always came back to him.
Everything she did—every lie, every manipulative act—was always about my father. She said it was for me, for us, but it was all about her obsession. She couldn’t bear the idea that a woman like her could lose a man to a nobody.
“You are unbelievable,” I muttered, disgusted.
Still, I needed more. I wanted the details—how she’d done it, who helped her. I suspected Auntie Five was involved somehow, but there was no time to drag it out. I had to think about escaping.
“What’s your plan now?” I asked quietly. “Kill me?”
She gasped, hand to her chest. “No, no, no! I would never harm my baby.”
“Then just tell me your plan.”
A strange brightness flickered across her expression. I could see the madness simmering just beneath her calm expression. Whatever she was planning, it wasn’t mercy. It was control. It always was.
She wanted power.
Pride.
To win.
And deep down, I knew it was about Dad.
He’d betrayed her too many times. She could never let that go.
“Dad came to see you the other day,” I said, watching her reaction. “The day of my crash.”
Her smile faltered. “Did he?”
“Yes, he did.” I leaned forward slightly. “No one told you that?”
Her brows drew together, suspicion clouding her features. “No…” Her voice softened, then sharpened again, the way it always did when she was trying to mask curiosity with control. She tilted her head, studying me with narrowed eyes. “What did he want?”
I could almost see the gears turning in her mind—her fingers fidgeting against the side of her dress, her throat bobbing with a shallow swallow. She wanted to sound indifferent, but the sudden gleam in her eyes gave her away.
“He wanted a divorce.” My voice turned sharp. “I couldn’t let him do that.”
“Oh, son…” She said the word as though it still meant something tender.
“Yes,” I said bitterly. “So he can marry that woman. Then he can give her and her son what’s ours.”
Her face changed instantly—rage rising like a storm breaking the surface.
“How dare he!” she hissed. “Never! He can’t do that.”
“Exactly what I thought,” I said carefully, each word deliberate. “So I tried to strangle him in the car.”
Her gaze jerked upward. “You did?”
“Yes,” I said, matching her gaze. “But I didn’t expect to end up here—chained to a bed—after everything I’ve done for you.”
For a moment, silence. Then she burst into laughter. Loud, wild, unhinged laughter that filled every inch of the sterile room.
“Nice try, son,” she said, wiping her eyes. “But you’re not getting out. Not today. Not after I kill him.”
Her words hung in the air like smoke.
“You what?” My pulse spiked. I yanked against the straps again, the leather cutting into my skin.
She turned toward the door, voice smooth again. “Lucy dear, I think it’s time for your fiancé to go to sleep now.”
“Mother—wait—”
She didn’t. She walked out briskly, her heels clicking down the hallway until they faded entirely.
“Lucy!” I called out, my voice cracking. “Lucy, please—don’t—”
She stood frozen beside the bed, trembling as she opened her purse. Her fingers shook as she pulled out a small syringe and removed the cap.
“Help me,” I begged. My voice broke into a whisper. “Please. You’re the only one who can.”
Her eyes met mine—glassy, uncertain, but soft. She leaned down, her hair brushing against my cheek as she pressed a kiss to my face. Her breath trembled as she whispered, “Believe me.”
“What are you doing to me?” I demanded, panic surging.
Before I could move, Lucy lunged. I thrashed, and Nurse Angela jumped on top of me, her weight pinning me down. The bed creaked under the struggle, metal against metal.
“Just hold on,” Lucy said again, voice barely audible as the needle pricked my skin. “You’ll feel better soon. I promise.”
The world started to blur. Her face—her soft brown eyes tilted sideways, fading into a whirl of light.
I wanted to believe her—God, I did.