Zeke
Monday | 10:37am
My wrists weretied so fucking tight I couldn’t feel my fingers. Every time I tried to pull free, the rope burned deeper into my skin. My ankles were strapped down, too. Stuck in a metal chair, breath shallow, head pounding, my heart beating like it was trying to escape through my chest.
The room was cold: concrete walls, no windows. That flickering light overhead buzzed, loud enough to drive me mad. Blood tainted the air. I couldn’t tell if it was mine or dried into the floor.
Footsteps echoed slowly and heavily, and each one brought a chill to my spine. I tried to lift my head, but it felt likesomething had split open in the back of my skull. I tasted iron. My mouth was dry, and my lips cracked.
“Please,” I mumbled. My voice was hoarse. I barely recognized it.
A shadow stepped in front of me, but I couldn’t make out the face. The next thing I knew, a fist came down hard right across my jaw. My head snapped to the side. Stars danced in front of my eyes.
Another punch. Then another.
My ribs felt like they cracked. My shoulder went numb.
I begged, but they kept hitting me.
“Zeke.”
I shot up screaming so loudly my heart damn near exploded in my chest. Dodging liquid, my body jerked off the floor, gasping like I had been drowning. “Ahhh!! What the…”
Wiping my face, I blinked a few times, trying to get my bearings. My shirt clung to me, soaked in sweat and something sticky. My mouth tasted like whiskey and vomit. Then, I saw Evelyn standing over me with the empty tequila bottle still in her hand. Her eyes didn’t flinch, and her lip curled up like I was something she wanted to scrape off her shoe.
“What the fuck, Evie?” I tried to sit up. “You… poured liquor on me?”
“You smelled like it already,” she said flatly. “Figured I’d make sure the outside matched the inside.”
I looked down at myself on the floor in the corner of my office. I was still in the same clothes from yesterday. My shirt was stained, and my pants were halfway unzipped. I smelled like piss, liquor, and fucking failure. Shame settled on me like a second skin. “Evie…” I started crawling toward her, reaching. “Come on. Help me, baby. Don’t leave me like this. Please.”
She stepped back. “Don’t you touch me, Zeke.”
“I fucked up,” I said. “I know I did. But I didn’t mean to…”
“Yes, you did. You’re selfish and…”
“Please, Evie. Call your father. Lend me the money.” I dropped my head, my voice breaking as I spoke. “I ambeggingyou. I don’t have anywhere else to turn, baby. Please.”
Evelyn let out a short, bitter laugh that had no humor in it at all. “You think my father wants to help you after the bridge you burned years ago? You burned every bridge and then stood there smiling like God would keep saving you.”
“I was fixing it,” I said. “I was trying… to hold everything together.”
“You weren’t protecting me,” she shot back, voice trembling with rage and heartbreak. “You only cared about your damn image, your pulpit, your secrets. Not me. Not our daughter. Never us.”
I pushed myself up onto my knees, my head spinning, my stomach turning. “Princess is gone because of me,” I said quietly. “I know that. I will carry that forever. But if you help me now, I can get her back. I swear to you, I will make all of this shit right.”
She crossed her arms and stared at me for a long moment. Her face was tight, her eyes hard, but there was pain there too. Deep pain that I had put there over the years. “You make a habit of swearing,” she said. “And you make a habit of breaking every single promise you open your mouth to give.”
“I know,” I said. “I know. But this time is different.”
“Because this time you finally ran out of room to hide,” she replied. Silence stretched between us. I could hear my own breathing, uneven and desperate. Finally, she turned away from me and walked toward the desk. She rested her palms against it and bowed her head for a moment like she was gathering herself. “How much do you still need, Ezekiel?”
“Just under a million.” Her head spun around, and I exhaled deeply, hanging my head lower. “I owed two and a half.”
She sighed heavily. “I will get the rest of the money,” she said at last, her voice flat. “Not because I believe in you. Not because I trust you. I am doing it for my daughter and to rid myself of you.”
My head snapped up. “Evie, baby…”
