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Chapter Thirty-Three

Carly

Carly,

I know you’re mad, but I hope you understand why I had to do this. It was my mess and you’ve been taken because of it. If I had known it would turn out this way, I never would have come to you for help in the first place. You’ll never know how sorry I am. Once I show up, Julian will let you go and if I never see you again, I want you to know how much I love you. You’ve been my best friend since the moment I was born and I never thought I’d be without you. I’m just happy that I got to see you fall in love before I left. Chance is an amazing guy. He actually kind of reminds me of Dad and I know the two of you are going to have an amazing life together. No one deserves it more than you, big sister, and I’m so happy that you were finally able to let go of your past and find the happiness you’ve always wanted.

I love you.

Always.

Vi.

Sucking in a stuttered breath and wiping away tears, I fold the note back up and reach out with my good arm, grabbing Ivy’s hand, as she lies motionless in the bed. The monitors next to the bed continue their steady beeping and the ventilator whooshes as it helps her breathe. Her face and neck are covered in bruises and the doctors keep talking about damage to her brain but as I close my eyes, I will her to wake up. When we arrived at the hospital two days ago, they rushed Ivy away and took me to have a MRI, which confirmed I had a torn rotator cuff in my left shoulder and a broken rib. They operated on me later that day and this is the first time I’ve been allowed out of bed to see my baby sister.

“What were you thinking, Vi?” I whisper, tears threatening to fall again as I squeeze her hand. She knew the hell she was walking into and after everything I did to free her, why would she go back? Chance’s hand presses into my uninjured shoulder and I let out a breath as I sink back into his touch.

“She was thinking the same thing you did when you found out she was in trouble,” he whispers, his voice tortured and my heart aches. “I’m sorry for not taking better care of her.”

I shake my head. “Please stop blaming yourself, Chance. There are only three people to blame for all of this and you are not one of them.”

“Carly,” he whispers, his voice desperate and I know he wants to know what happened, but I haven’t been strong enough to talk about it yet.

A knock at the door interrupts us and we both look up as Detective Rodriguez walks in, offering us a warm smile. “Hey, guys. I need to get a statement from Carly.”

I nod. “Have a seat.”

He grabs Chance’s vacated chair and pulls it over to me before sitting down and pulling out a notepad.

“I know this is probably going to be hard, but can you just tell me what happened?”

Sucking in a breath, I nod again and start from the beginning, telling him about running to the gas station to get junk food and feeling the pain in my neck. I go over coming to tied up in the basement and the more I explain, the tenser Chance grows behind me.

“How was his mental state?” Rodriguez asks and my eyes widen.

“You mean was he competent?” I ask and he nods. “Yes, he was fully aware of what he was doing and enjoying every minute of it.”

He scribbles something down in his notebook. “How do you mean?”

“My legs were tied to the chair and the rope restraining my hands was thrown over a pipe or something and tied to a hook on the wall. He cut my legs free and pulled on the rope to make me stand. It was excruciating and when I screamed, he enjoyed it.”

Chance lets out a low growl behind me and I reach up, holding my hand out for him to grab and he takes it, kissing the side of my head.

“I’m sorry, Carly, but just to clarify, you’re saying he got off on hurting you?”

I nod. “Yes.”

Rodriguez scribbles down something else, his face unreadable but his knuckles are white.

“And what happened next?”

Squeezing Chance’s hand, I suck in a breath. “Julian told me that if Ivy didn’t come back, it would cost me my life. I told him to go ahead and kill me and he laughed, saying that they weren’t going to kill me.”

He glances down at his notes, nodding. “And by they, he meant himself and Damian Griggs?”

“Yes.”

He jots down another note before meeting my eyes again. “Go on.”