Total pages in book: 169
Estimated words: 167671 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 838(@200wpm)___ 671(@250wpm)___ 559(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 167671 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 838(@200wpm)___ 671(@250wpm)___ 559(@300wpm)
I ram my knee into his face, and he stumbles backward, bleeding from the nose.
“That’s it.”
I can read the words from his lips, and they strike fear into my heart.
I punch him in the gut, but he swiftly pulls back, grabs my hand, and twists it around until I’m squealing in pain. His other hand wraps around my neck, twisting tighter and tighter until it becomes impossible to breathe. I claw at his fingers, to no avail.
No. Please. I don’t want to die.
But it doesn’t matter what I try to say.
My throat has already clamped shut, and my voice stopped working the second he got his hands on me. Slowly, I can feel myself slipping away.
Something thuds beneath me, and when I blink, two tiny hands are smashing against Stefano’s knees, and it’s enough to bring tears to my eyes.
Cora, no!
I open my mouth to speak, but the words refuse to come out.
Please, Cora, run!
Despite the fact that I’m fighting him off as hard as I can, my muscles are slowly losing their strength, my grip on his hand waning.
This is it.
This is the end.
I’m sorry, Cora. I tried. I tried so hard, and still, it wasn’t enough.
Suddenly, a knife flies out from the hallways and hits Stefano in the shoulder, and his fingers finally unravel from my throat. I suck in a breath as he releases me, and I drop to the floor, dragging the oxygen into my lungs like a fish on land.
I look up to see Heath standing in the hallway, with Max and Silas behind him, supporting themselves on the wooden beams next to the doors just to stay standing.
Max is alive, thank God.
Max huddles closer to the door and chucks something my way: My hearing aids.
He nods with a gentle smile, and I swiftly put them in.
“You motherf—” Stefano growls as he gets up, and he reaches for a gun in his pocket.
No, I won’t allow this to keep on happening.
He can’t keep hurting the people I love.
I rip the knife Heath threw at him from his back and ram it straight into his thigh. He howls in pain and sinks to his knees.
“I am done running from you. This is the last time, you hear me?! The last time you ever fucking hurt us!” I scream at him with a squeaky voice from all the damage he did to my windpipe.
“You fucking brats, you all just couldn’t stay out of my business,” Stefano growls at Heath. “You want to aid a fucking murderer? She stole my child and killed my wife!”
“He’s a liar,” Max says through gritted teeth, repeating the words I told him in sign language. “That woman in the bed was Ivy’s mother.”
CHAPTER 59
Heath
It feels like the floor has been ripped out from underneath my feet.
That dead woman was her mother?
She wouldn’t kill her own mom. No way.
“Wait, is that true?” I mutter in disbelief.
Ivy nods. “He hurt her.” The tears began to roll. “Over and over. Every single day. She only stayed with him because of Cora.” She bites her lip. “I couldn’t take it anymore, so I took Cora and ran.” Cora suddenly runs up to her and clutches her thigh. “Away from my own mother just to keep us both safe.”
Stefano laughs even though he’s wounded. “That woman was my wife.”
“No. I know the truth. Ivy signed it at me. You killed her,” Max says.
“No, she pulled the wires out of the machine that kept her alive!” Stefano growls.
“To save her from you!” Ivy screams, silencing everyone. “You wouldn’t even let her die in peace!”
“When I left, she wasn’t in that bed. She was still walking, still able to talk,” she says, her voice fluctuating. “He dragged me back in there and locked me up with her brain-dead body kept alive by machines. Just to punish me.”
“What the f—what kind of a deranged fucker would do that?!” Silas yells, incensed, and it’s impressive, knowing even a psycho like him thinks that is going too far.
My hand balls into a fist as we get closer to him, keeping Silas from falling by supporting him with my shoulder. But I have to get closer. I have to put a wedge between Stefano and Ivy so he doesn’t kill her too. I would rather die than let that happen.
Stefano raises his gun. “That’s close enough.”
Still, I move in, unafraid of the gun’s barrel pointing in our direction.
All this time, I thought she stole someone’s child, but it turned out, she was protecting Cora from him. Even after all the torture she endured, she still stands tall, and I feel so fucking bad for ever doubting her.
God, if only I would’ve trusted her.
I’m sorry.
Silas
For a long time, I thought I had no conscience, no emotions, no heart.
But seeing how much this fucker has hurt her, not just physically but mentally too, has awakened a deep-seated hatred inside me that I didn’t even fucking know existed until now.