CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER FOUR

"Where is that scheming snake?!” 

It was the shrill voice of Sarah  Winchester that woke Katelyn from her deep sleep the next morning. She tried to gather her bearings and prepare herself for the full wrath of her mother-in-law that was about to descend on her, but it was too late.Sarah  flung the door open before Katelyn could even make it out of the bed. 

She charged at her like an angry bull and Katelyn braced herself for the pain that would hit her on whatever part of her body that Sarah  chose to assault that morning.

But Sarah  didn’t touch her. Instead, her eyes zeroed in on Katelyn’s luggages from the night before. She had been too exhausted and disturbed to unpack and had gone straight to bed. 

“Oh, good. You’re already packed, this should be easy. Boys!!! Get in here.” Sarah  shouted out. At the command, two heavily muscled men joined them in the room. Katelyn’s heart damn near leaped out of her throat at the sight of the strange men who strolled into her room like they owned it. 

Helplessly, she turned to look at her mother-in-law and asked in a voice laced with fear. “W-what is going on?” 

“Throw out her things. And when you are done, throw her out too.” Sarah  sneered, ignoring Katelyn’s question and stepping out of the way for men to do as she had commanded. 

“Yes, ma’am!” The men echoed. 

One of them went for her luggages first, lifting all three at once and flinging them carelessly out the door. The other  targeted her wardrobe that still had a few of her clothes and shoes and began throwing them to the ground like trash. 

“No. Stop. Why are you doing this? Please stop.” Katelyn begged in a painfully small voice. It was all she could do in the face of the chaos that had erupted in front of her. Her mother-in-law stood by and watched it all happen, her eyes gleaming with pure satisfaction at Katelyn’s discomfort. 

When the men moved towards her bedside table where her most treasured possession—the framed picture of her biological parents—sat, Katelyn couldn’t just stand still and watch it all happen anymore.

“No, don’t touch that. Please, not that!”  Katelyn begged again, with terror in her voice now. The men were more than capable of swatting her to the side like a fly but she was determined to stop them from getting their hands on the only thing she had managed to salvage from the fire that stole her parents from her. 

But her trauma was just another day job for these men. They grabbed the frame amongst all other things, and sent it flying across the room. Katelyn instantly ran in the direction it went, her heart shattering like the glass of the frame when she found it. 

She picked it up, thankful that the only damage done to it was the broken glass and not the picture itself. But it still felt like her heart had been pierced by a shard of  the broken glass and was bleeding out. 

Just what had she done to deserve this cruelty? Sarah  had hated her from the very first day she set her eyes on her. And from then on, treated her like a leper. It was as if Katelyn merely breathing and living around her was a serious sin and for so long, she has endured the maltreatment. 

 Katelyn walked over to her mother-in-law with calm steps that betrayed how unstable she felt on the inside. 

“Just what did I do wrong to deserve this?” She asked, every word was punctuated by the pain slicing through her. Sarah ’s lips twisted in contempt as she jabbed a manicured finger at Katelyn. 

“Are you really standing there and asking me what you did wrong? Fine, I’ll tell you. Your whole existence in this family is wrong!” Sarah  snapped. Katelyn winced at the words despite hearing them in different versions over the years. The pain was still the same no matter how many years have passed. 

“First, it was the estate. God knows what you did to my poor mother to make her hand you something so important to our family. And now, you want to give birth to my son's child after he asked for a divorce? Just how far are you willing to go? Just how shameless are you?”  

Katelyn opened her mouth but words didn’t form. She thought she had time to brace herself before the news got to Sarah  but clearly, it had reached her at the speed of light. She maintained a calm composure,  forcing words out of her mouth.“I already told you that I do not want the estate. You can have it. As for the other thing, it is between me and your son.” 

Sarah ’s eyes flamed, her rage turning her face red in a way Katelyn has never seen before. 

“You must have forgotten your place. Do I need to remind you that you were a pathetic little beggar when my mother took you under her roof?” Sarah  inched closer to Katelyn with every word, “But having a roof over your head and spending money you never had to work a day for wasn’t enough for you, was it? You had to seduce my son too. You poisoned his heart and turned him against me.” 

“I did no such thing.” Katelyn gently replied. She may have readily signed that contract years ago out of the desire to be even deeply embedded into the family, but she never approached Damon. He came to her. 

“Then explain to me why a billionaire like him would suddenly marry a worthless thing like you?” 

Katelyn’s chest was heavy with so much she wanted to say but couldn’t. The contract forbade her from speaking about the marriage arrangement. She even had to lie to Damon’s grandmother years ago, that the marriage was because Damon and her were in love. 

And even if Katelyn had anything to say, it was hopeless. Sarah  wasn’t ready to listen, already deciding in her mind that Katelyn was the villain in their family’s story no matter what. 

“Now that he is fully back to his senses and doesn’t want you anymore, you want to cling to him like the leech you are by having a child for him. I will not let that happen. Not while I am alive! I will not let you stain our bloodline with your dirty one. If he won’t throw you out, I will.” 

“What are you two waiting around for? Throw her out of here.” Sarah  gestured towards the men and they heeded the command immediately. Katelyn backed away towards the opened door, shaking her head, refusing to be touched or manhandled. 

As she tried to escape, she stumbled on her table lamp that the men had hurled across the room. Her feet slipped off the ground and she closed her eyes, expecting the hard fall. Instead, her back hit a wall. A living, breathing, human wall who turned out to be Damon. 

Damon gripped her tightly by the waist, preventing the fall and holding her still while his eyes scanned the mess in front of him. 

“Mom?” He called out, “What is this? What are you doing?” He demanded, while still holding on to Katelyn. He was dressed up for work and his face showed that he had been oblivious to the commotion this entire time. This was also the first time he would step foot in Katelyn’s wing since their marriage. 

Sarah  directed her glare at him, “I should ask you the same question. What are YOU doing? Genevieve came to see me this morning. The poor girl was crying her eyes out because this cunning little thing wants a baby from you.” 

Damon sighed, slowly slipping his hand away from Katelyn’s waist after steadying her. “Is that why you brought thugs into my home without my permission?”

Sarah  didn’t look a bit sorry for her actions. She simply shrugged, “if you’re not man enough to do the needful, I will.” 

Damon’s eyes flashed with anger. “Are you calling me a coward?” 

“You can call it whatever you like but I’m doing this to protect you and your future. Genevieve is a sweet, smart and beautiful girl from a highly respected family like ours.” Sarah ’s voice actually turned soft as she spoke now. “She is the one who you should have married. The one who truly deserves you. Do you want to lose her?” 

Katelyn’s heart ached for a totally different reason as she listened to her Mother-in-law speak. Sarah  not only knew Genevieve, she was also talking  about her with so much warmth and adoration. So many times in the past, Katelyn has had to bend over backwards just to get a smidgen of that affection from Sarah  and she failed. 

“This is not enough to make me lose Genevieve. I would never have told her if I didn’t care about her. And she understands the situation more than anyone else.”

Sarah  looked at her son like he had grown two heads. “Are you saying you are really going to go on with it? You will let this…” she pointed a finger at Katelyn, “…woman have your child?” 

“That is my business, mom. And I will handle it as I please. I am a grown man and I won’t be told what to do.” He responded, voice thick with authority no one could dare go against. 

Sarah ’s face twisted with too many emotions to name, but the one that was so obvious was annoyance. It was boldly written there. 

Damon ignored whatever his mother had left to say and turned to the men who were still standing in the middle of the mess they made. “You two have one minute to get out of my house before I call the police.” 

“I will leave too.” His mother said, her voice raised. “But this isn’t the end, Damon. I won’t stand by and watch you ruin your life.”  Then she turned to Katelyn, eyes full of nothing but contempt for her. “As for you, I will make sure you are punished for ripping my family apart.” 

She stormed off with the men, her heels clicking harshly against the tiled floor. Katelyn’s lips quivered. She could feel the tears itching at the back of eyes. She took deep breaths in and out to keep them at bay. She was weak but she kept the appearance of strength because Damon was still standing right beside her. 

Katelyn lowered herself to the ground, legs wobbling as she did, and slowly began to gather her things that were strewn everywhere on the floor of her room. She could feel Damon’s gaze burning at the back of her head like it wanted to penetrate skin to meet skull. 

“What did you say to her?” He spoke at last. Katelyn winced like he had hit her. He wasn’t even apologizing or showing a hint of concern for what she had just gone through. A small bitter laugh left her mouth. What had she been expecting? No one in the family cared about her. 

“Don’t worry, I didn’t say anything I shouldn’t.” Katelyn responded without looking at him, using one of her shoes to gather the shards of the glass from the broken picture frame to one side. 

“Why don’t you put an end to this madness and just leave? You can have all the money you want. Do you really have to go this far?” 

Katelyn paused and pondered for a second if a baby was truly worth the experience she just had, and more that was about to come. Memories of her life before Alana took her in, flashed across her eyes. She squeezed her eyes tight, shutting them out after getting her answer. 

“I already told you what I want, and I won’t change my mind.” She replied. She has endured for fifteen years. What was a few more weeks that she couldn’t take? Silence passed between them for a brief moment. 

“Have you picked a date yet?” He asked again. 

Katelyn snapped her head up and regretted it instantly because Damon was right there, his face mere inches away from hers. So close that she could feel his hot breath against the skin of her face, and suck the intoxicating smell of his cologne deep in her lungs. 

She had been so occupied with cleaning up the mess that she hadn’t realized he’d crouched down too in front of her in a way that was too close for comfort. She staggered backward, eyes wide in surprise while his face remained as calm as ever. 

“You don’t have to pretend you don’t want it. You boldly asked me for a baby and now you want me to believe sex with me is extreme?”  His lips twisted up in a smirk. 

Those words jerked Katelyn’s senses back to life as she realized that he meant what he said the day before. He was really going to sleep with her?

“No, I—that’s not it.” She mumbled, flustered, unable to meet his eyes. It was true that Damon had that effect on everyone, but it was as if something had shifted from the very moment he said the word ‘Fuck’ to her. 

“What is it then?” He pushed further and with a deep commanding tone, he added. “Look at me, Katelyn.” 

Even if she wanted to refuse, she just couldn’t, not with that tone. She flicked her eyes up and met his gaze, eyes twitching and cheeks burning. For a moment, he said nothing and Katelyn could have sworn she caught him staring at the shade of red her cheeks had turned. 

After what seemed like forever, he cleared his throat and stood, adjusting his tie. 

“Don’t waste my time. The earlier we get this over with, the better. I’ll be waiting.” 

With that, he walked away from her, leaving her head a jumbled mess, just like her room.