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)
Fuck.
Ivy
I’ve only just woken up after being flung headfirst into the oven, and I don’t know how much time has passed since the lights went out in my head.
But my God … It hurts. It hurts so much that I can’t even move without feeling pain all over my body.
He did this.
Stefano hurt me as retribution for taking Cora away from him. And this is only the beginning of all the cruel punishments he still plans to inflict on me.
This is what he does best. What makes him feel powerful. Superior. Like a walking god on this goddamn forsaken earth.
“Please …” I squeak, but my voice box is completely broken from the amount of pressure he put on my throat.
I can’t speak. I can’t hear.
All I see are body parts and lips moving, but with hazy sight, I can barely make out what they’re trying to say. Lip-reading is hard when you’ve just gotten your consciousness back.
My head throbs, and I try to make out what they’re trying to say, but I only catch a couple of words.
Cora. Thief. Killer.
Silas
“See? She is not who she’s made herself out to be,” Stefano says, ignoring Ivy. He takes in a breath, his finger still hovering over the button on his phone like a threat.
And I contemplate shooting him right there and then, but if I do … his fucking thumb might still hit that button, and then it’ll all have been for nothing.
“Come with me. I’ll show you the proof if you don’t believe me,” Stefano says, walking out the second door in the kitchen.
“Proof of what?” Heath asks.
The only reason we follow him at all is because of that phone in his hand.
“Wait, you guys,” Max says. “I think Ivy was trying to tell us s—”
He abruptly stops speaking. In the bedroom across the hallway, an extremely pale woman lies in a bed, along with the machines next to her body, which are deadly silent.
“Ivy unplugged my wife from this machine that kept her alive after she stole my child.”
Heath shakes his head like he can’t believe what he’s hearing.
“It’s true,” Stefano says. “This is the proof.”
“Why would I believe you?” I growl.
“Why would I kill my own wife?” he says, grabbing her hand to kiss it. “I loved her.”
I turn to look at Ivy again, who continues mouthing words without saying them out loud as if her voice box has stopped functioning.
I don’t know what she’s trying to say, and it pisses me off.
Pushing herself up from the floor, she brings her hands together, making some strange movements with her fingers that I can’t decipher or comprehend.
But Max’s eyes widen, and he sucks in a breath as his eyes skitter between us and her.
What did he see?
Suddenly, he bolts to her, distracting me for a moment.
Just one fucking second looking away.
OOMPF.
A knife is flung at me, and it hits me straight in the thigh.
“Stupid fucking boy, you think you can take my child and not pay a price?” Stefano yells as I go down to the floor in agony.
“Silas!” Heath pulls me back and aims for Stefano’s head.
BANG!
A smoke bomb goes off, swiftly filling the entire room and hallway with smoke.
“You cut the wrong guy, motherfucker!” I yell at Stefano as I rip the knife out of my bleeding leg, but he’s already bolted out of the room.
BOOM!
Panic seizes control of my heart, and I sit up straight.
Did the bomb just go off?
Ivy!
CHAPTER 58
Ivy
Max’s eyes connect with mine as he drops to his knees in front of me.
He brings his fingers up to eye level …
And signs.
Close your eyes.
But I’m too flabbergasted for a moment.
He knows how to sign?
Something goes off in the hallway, filling the hallways and the kitchen with smoke. Then a knife is pushed against my chest, and I swallow away the lump in my throat.
Even if I’m scared, I have no other option but to trust Max right now.
I gulp in a breath and close my eyes, then wait.
He cuts through the straps with ease, and the bomb falls off. He catches it and chucks it into the hallway.
A bright flash fills the area, and the floor beneath me shakes.
Cora’s panicked face frightens me. I can see her scream even though I can’t hear it.
Can you walk?
Max signs to me again.
I nod.
He helps me up and signs once more.
I believe you.
Tears make my vision cloudy, but from the corner of my eye, I spot the barrel of a gun coming from the hallway. I try to scream.
Too late.
It happens so fast.
One flash and Max is on the kitchen floor, bleeding from a gunshot wound in the back.
I grab his face.
Max, please! Get up.
He leans up to sign.
Can’t. Take Cora. Run.
I sign back to him.
You’re hurt. Can’t leave you.
So he signs back.
You should. I love you. Stay safe.