I eye him over, noting that he has the same eyes and hair color as me. A chill goes down my spine and my feeble body trembles.
“It’s not really your fault. It’s your mother’s. She knew the deal when she had you—that she was supposed to raise you with the knowledge of who I am, then hand you over when it was time—but clearly, things didn’t happen that way,” he continues, snapping his fingers as he glances to my right. “Don’t worry, though. I’m about to take care of it.”
I turn my head to see what he’s looking at and my gut churns.
“Please don’t do this, Jerry,” begs my mother as a woman with bright red hair and fingernails violently shoves her into the room. My mom trips over her gashed up bare feet and falls forward. With her hands bound, her face slams against the dirty carpet. Instead of getting up, she sobs, her body wrenching. “Please, don’t do this. I’ll do anything if you just let me go.”
“No more bargains.” The man rises to his feet and stalks toward her. “Your bargains aren’t worth anything.”
She lifts her head, tears streaming down her cheeks. “I gave you our children, didn’t I? Just like I promised I would.”
I forget how to breathe. How to think. Our children? That means . . .
“Dad?” I gape at the man, horrified and disgusted.
He glances at me, and even though his eyes are like mine, they look unfamiliar, cold. Without saying anything, he grabs my mother by the arm, drags her to the chair, and pushes her down, then kneels in front of her.
“I know I gave you the children to take care of, but you haven’t been raising them how we discussed. They know nothing about us or our beliefs.” He exchanges a look with the red-haired woman, and she grins before rushing down the hallway. He focuses back on my mother, gripping onto her legs. “When I gave you the money to take care of them, I specifically remember stressing how important it was that you taught them about our way of life and about the sacrifice they’d be taking part in. But after talking to them, I see you haven’t even told them who I am.”
“I can give you the money back.” A hysterical sob wrenches from my mother. “Just let me give you back the money.”
“Give me the money back?” He cackles, a sound that sends an icy chill through my body. “We both know you spent that money on drugs a long, long time ago.”
“I can borrow some from someone if you’ll just let me go.” When he remains silent, she cries, “Please, Jerry!”
“I have a better idea,” he says as the woman with red hair returns to the room.
“No . . . No . . . No . . .” Tears pour out of my mother’s eyes as the woman hands my dad a syringe.
“What’s the matter?” He snatches hold of my mother’s arm and twists her wrist. “I thought this is what you wanted? That you’ll do anything to get your hands this.”
“Leave her alone!’ I shout, trying to wiggle my hands free from the cuffs. The metal bites against my wrists as I struggle and the scratches on my hand burn. But I keep fighting, refusing to sit here and watch him hurt her.
The woman in the corner snickers then sits down beside me. “Don’t worry. It’ll be over soon.”
I’m not sure if she’s talking about it being over for my mom or for me. It doesn’t matter. I can’t let either happen. I have to be strong.
“Just let her go and I’ll do whatever you want. Learn about you and your ways,” I plead with my dad as tears stream down my face.
“Oh, I know you will. But I can’t have your mother messing that up for me. There was a lot of planning that went into bringing you, Sadie, and Felix into this world. You were supposed to be ready for the sacrifice. It wasn’t supposed to be such a fight. You were supposed to be ready to cleanse your soul.” He looks at my mom then plunges the needle into her forearm.
I tell myself he just injected her with drugs. That she’ll wake up like she always does whenever she shoots up. But as her body slumps to the floor, her skin turns sickly white. Her eyes open and veins map her rapidly paling skin.
A blood-curdling scream rips from my chest. “No!”
“Wake up, Ayden,” someone says. “You need to wake up.”
I desperately try to open my eyes, try to blink the image of my dead mother away, but all I see is her lying on that bloodstained carpet where she took her last breath.
“Open your eyes, Ayden . . . Please . . .”
I’m trying. I’m really am.
Please, please let me get out of here.
Please don’t let me die in this place.
I ZONE OFF AS I hold Ayden’s hand, recollecting every moment we spent together. It’s funny, but when I really analyze our past, I can see that I fell in love with him way before I realized it.
That revelation puts a smile on my face. Then Ayden’s body gives a hard jerk, and I’m yanked back to reality.
“Wake up, Ayden,” Dr. Gardingdale says, rushing up to the side of the bed. “You need to wake up.”
Ayden’s body spasms and his eyelids start fluttering as if he’s trying to wake up, but can’t get his eyes open. Then the heart monitor starts beeping and panic skyrockets through my body as my worst fears are right in front of me.
“Open your eyes, Ayden . . . Please . . .” I beg, gripping onto his hand.
Please don’t let me lose him.
Don’t take him away from me.
Just let me close my eyes
And pretend this is all a dream.
Dr. Gardingdale tells me to move out of the way, and I sink down in the chair. I’ve read information about this treatment, and my mind races with all the horrible things that could potentially happen. He could go into shock. Suffer from heart failure. Or worse, completely lose his memory,
What if he forgets everything?
Everything is moving in fast motion as the doctor starts talking medical talk while he injects something into Ayden’s IV. I try to stay calm like Fiona said, but then the word “coma” comes out of the doctor’s mouth and something inside me shatters. Tears stream out of my eyes as I slip out of the room to call Aunt Lila, knowing it’s the right thing to do.
“Wait, Lyric, slow down,” she says as I sputter out what happened. “I can’t understand what you’re saying.”
I take a few measured breaths, trying to pull myself together. “A-Ayden did the treatment—the one you d-didn’t want him to do. We’re at a doctor’s office down on First and Peach Way Lane. You need to get down here.”
“He did what?” she exclaims. “Lyric, please, tell me he’s okay.”
“Just get down here, okay?” I tell her as the door behind me opens. Dr. Gardingdale steps out and motions for me to come back in. My chest tightens and air is ripped from my lungs. “Is he okay?” I ask him.
He nods. “You can come back in if you want to.”
“Lyric, put Dr. Gardingdale on the phone,” she demands before I hang up.
“Okay.” My fingers tremble as I hand the phone to Dr. Gardingdale. “Ayden’s mom wants to talk to you.”
Sighing, he takes the phone and starts reassuring Aunt Lila that Ayden’s all right.
I squeeze by him, rush into the room, and relief washes over me. “You’re awake.” Tears pour out of my eyes at the sight of him sitting on the bed as the doctor checks his heart rate.
Ayden’s bloodshot eyes widen at the sight of my tears. “Lyric, I swear I’m fine.” He opens his arms, indicating for me to come to him. “Please, stop crying. I hate seeing you cry.”
Against the doctor’s protests, I climb into the bed beside Ayden and rest my head on his chest, listening to his heartbeat. “I’m not going anywhere unless I have to,” I tell the doctor. “So you might as well continue checking him.”
The doctor sighs. “Fine. Just take it easy on him until I can check all of his vitals.”
I nod and press my body closer to Ayden, breathing in his scent and warmth. “I thought you weren’t going to wake up.”
He rubs his hand up and down my back, tracing the len
gth of my spine. “For a moment, I thought the same thing too.” His voice cracks and he clears his throat. “But I’m okay now. Everything’s okay.”
I push to my elbows and peer up at him, trying to read his vibe. “Did it . . . Did it work?”
His gaze welds with mine as he nods. “I saw the house . . . I saw them.”
I suck in a sharp breath. “You saw the people who took you?”
He nods again. “I saw the woman who . . .” He blinks down at the scars on his hands then looks back at me. “And I saw my father . . . Saw him . . .” He swallows hard. “Kill my mom.”
I stop breathing, and for the first time in my life, I’m speechless. My poor, sweet Shy Boy. Why does he have to keep going through so much pain? He’s already been through so much already.
He brushes my hair out of my eyes. “I’m okay. I don’t want you to worry about me . . . Everything’s going to be okay now.” He traces his fingers across my jawline. “I just really want to go talk to the detective.”
“Your mother can drive you down there just as soon as I make sure you’re one hundred percent okay,” Dr. Gardingdale says as he enters the room, shutting the door behind him.
“You called my mom?” Ayden’s brows knit as he stares at Dr. Gardingdale. “Why?”
“Actually, that was me.” I pull a guilty face as Dr. Gardingdale hands me back my phone. “Sorry, I panicked.”
“It’s fine . . . I needed to call her anyway, considering what happened.” Ayden sighs exhaustedly, his head slumping back against the bed. “I just don’t like that she’s probably worried as hell right now. I hate worrying her.”
“I know you do, but trust me, we love that we get to worry about you.” I sit up and press my lips to his.
I’ll kiss him over and over again
Every second I get a chance
After what happened
How can I not?
How can I ever not be with him?
“Are you okay?” Ayden checks as he studies my face closely. “You look pale.”
“I am now,” I say, sitting down beside him. “You might have a real problem though.”
His head angles to the side as his face contorts in confusion. “And what’s that?”
“That you’re never going to get rid of me.” I thread our fingers together. “I’ll never want to leave your side again after what just happened.”
He chuckles, the tension momentarily vanishing from his eyes. “I’m perfectly okay with that problem. In fact, I think I should never, ever get rid of it.”
“Good, because it’s not going anywhere.” I rest my head against his shoulder and close my eyes, breathing in the moment.
It’s such a small thing, being here with him, but it feels so immensely important, because he’s still him.
I just hope to God he stays that way.
EVEN THOUGH IT MIGHT SOUND insane, I thought I was going to be stuck in that memory forever. Then I heard Lyric’s voice, pulling me back to her. When I opened my eyes, there she was, leaning over me with worry in her eyes.
Thankfully, the longer I grasp onto her the more she settles down. If I could, I’d stay this way forever. But I know I need to get to the police station so I can tell Detective Rannali about my father and give him descriptions and a name.
My father. I involuntarily shudder at the thought of what he did to my mother. All this time I thought she died of a drug overdose, that she did it to herself. But my father killed her, just like he probably killed my brother. What really gets to me, though, is that the entire fucking thing was planned. That my mother had us so she could give us to these horrible people. That my father actually believed I was supposed to be ready to take on his whacked out beliefs.
I suddenly feel less guilty about what happened and really, really fucking angry. It’s hard to sort through all my emotions when I’m so fucking torn.
Hate or not.
Guilt or fault.
Live or rot.
I don’t know what to do.
What kind of person I am.
Who to blame.
Myself?
My mother?
My father?
Suddenly, the door bursts open and Lila barges inside with Ethan right behind her. Her anxiety is written all over her face, her eyes are wide, and her hair’s a mess like she ran in a windstorm to get here.
“Ayden Gregory,” she starts as she storms toward my bedside. A scowl etches her face as her lips part, but then she whispers, “I’m so glad you’re okay.”
Lyric scoots out of the way as Lila throws her arms around me and hugs me so tightly I can barely breathe.
“Don’t you ever scare me like that again,” she says with a few tears dripping down her cheeks.
Ethan gives me a pat on the shoulder and a sympathetic look as Lila continues to strangle me with her death hug. I notice Ethan’s eyes are a little red, like he was crying before he got here. It makes me feel like the world’s biggest asshole, because Ethan hardly ever gets too emotional, so he had to be extremely worried.
“I’m sorry,” I apologize to both of them. “I just needed to do this, and I knew you’d never let me.”
“You’re damn right we wouldn’t have.” Lila steps back and motions at the monitors around the room. “Because I knew something like this would happen.”
“But I’m fine.” I sit up and wince as my muscles groan in pain.
“I don’t care if you’re fine.” She wipes the tears from her eyes with the back of her hand then waves a finger at me. “You won’t do this treatment again.”
“I don’t have to do it again.” I swing my legs over the edge of the bed. “I know who’s been after me and who has my sister. I know what they look like and know one of their names.”
Lila’s eyes pop wide as her hand falls to the side. “The treatment worked?”
“Well, I don’t remember everything.” And I don’t want to. After what I saw, all that pain and ugliness, I think it might be better if what happened to me is left locked in that box in my head. As long as my mind will let things be that way. “But I remembered enough.” I stand up and the blood rushes from my head. “I need to go talk to Detective Rannali.”
Ethan steadies me by the shoulder as I teeter sideways. “Careful. The doctor said that your body went through a lot of stress today.”
“Maybe we should wait until tomorrow to go to the police station,” Lila says, eyeing me over as if I’m going to break at any moment. “After you’ve rested.”
“I’ll never be able to rest until I talk to him.” I force myself to straighten my stance. “Please take me there. I need to go. Now.”
She and Ethan trade a questioning look, and then Ethan shrugs. “He’s probably right. He’ll be able to relax more after he talks to the police. He’s been waiting a long time for this.”
Lila shakes her head, still furious and upset, “Fine. But we’re going to make this as quick as possible. I want to get Ayden home.”
Home. The word carries so much more meaning now.
I’m so damn grateful to have a safe place to call home.
After Lila is reassured again and again that my health is okay, Lila and Ethan drive me to the police station. I want Lyric to go with me, but after the whole lying ordeal, her parents told her she needed to go home. I worry she’s in trouble, but she assured me that she could handle what her parents consider punishments.
At the police station, we’re forced to sit in the waiting area while we wait for Detective Rannali to return from a case he’s out working on. I can hardly sit still, just thinking about how this might be reaching an end. That maybe they can finally find Sadie. Make some arrests. Give my brother some justice.
“I wish he’d hurry up.” Lila bounces her foot up and down as she scans the busy room. “I want to get Ayden home.”
“I know, but you need to relax.” Ethan places his hand on her knee to settle her down. “Try to stay calm for him, okay?”
“I’m fine,” I sa
y, picking at a hole in my jeans.
“Don’t say that,” she says, startling me. “I know you can’t be fine, not after what you must have . . .” She sucks in a breath as her eyes water up again. “After what you saw.”
“It wasn’t that bad,” I lie with my head tipped down. I shut my eyes and take a deep breath as the images try to resurface. “I didn’t see that much.”
She wraps an arm around me. “That might be true, but I know seeing any of it has to be difficult.”
She keeps trying to console me until Detective Rannali finally shows up. His blue shirt has a coffee stain on it, his silver tie is loose, and his hair is disheveled. “I came here as soon as I could.” He seems eager as he nods his head at his office door. “Come inside please. I’d really like to hear what happened with the session today.”
The three of us rise to our feet, file into his office, and take a seat in front of his desk. Once everyone is settled, he opens a folder that contains the information and details of the stuff that’s been going on over the last couple of years.
“I didn’t know you were going through with the session,” he starts as he searches his desk drawer for a pen. “But I’m glad you did. And I’m glad it worked.”
“Don’t treat this situation like it’s a good thing,” Lila snaps, being protective of me like she usually is whenever we’re talking to the detective. “He could’ve been seriously hurt.”
The detective clicks the pen and presses the tip to a yellow notepad. “I understand that. I’m just glad this all worked out.”
“I didn’t remember everything,” I chime in as Lila grows more irritated by the second. “But I did remember some of the faces and a name.”
He jots down a few notes, nodding. “How about you recount the details to me, and then we’ll start going through some photos of possible suspects. If we can’t get anywhere with that, we’ll start working on a composite sketch.”
I shudder at the idea of seeing my dad or the woman with red hair again, even if it’s just in photos. But I nod, knowing I have to do this. Knowing this could be the lead they need.
Unraveling You Series: The Complete Set Page 47