Chapter Six: An Assault

Angry tears slipped down my eyes as I slammed my room door shut.

My wolf was in pain too. Why did I feel like I’d lost something I never had?

I reached for my phone to call Audrey, before recalling how late it was. I put the phone down, shuffled into my bed and cried myself to sleep.

_

Dreaming of the faceless stranger I’d met at the club was a much welcome distraction, but it too came to an abrupt end.

I gasped awake.

I was drenched in cold, freezing water.  

“Wake up you home-wrecking whore!” came my sister’s furious voice, and then I was pulled from the bed by my hair.

Disoriented as I was, it had taken me a moment to take everything in. I was being attacked.

I fought to free myself from her hold, but Rosalia was much stronger than I was, she’d always been.

“Who gave you the right to speak to Asher?” she asked, seething in rage. 

“He deserved to know the truth—he deserved to know that you don’t give a shit about him,” I spat back in my defense.

“And let me guess, he didn’t believe you, did he?” To that, I said nothing. “When will you see that no one gives a damn about what you have to say?” she asked, “When will you see that you’re no more than a pest everyone is forced to put up with?”

“Let go of me, Rosalia,” I gritted.

“Or what? you’d go crying to my fiancé?”

She shoved me away, and I lost my footing. I landed hard on the ground, completely winded. The impact was followed by an excruciating pain around my abdomen. Just then, I felt the wetness between my legs.

My water had broken.

A panic sigh left my lips.

“The baby… it’s coming,” I gasped wide-eyed.

I still had weeks to go, the baby wasn’t supposed to come now.

Rosalia watched my struggles with nothing but hatred in her eyes, and then a small smile spread on her lips.

“Rosalia, please… call the healers,” I breathed out,

“And why would I do that?” she questioned, her smile only spreading wider,

“What’s the saying again—snitches get stiches.”

With that, she turned around and walked away.

“Rose…please!”

The door slammed shut, and the locks clicked in place, trapping me inside.

Every movement I made left me in excruciating pain, and yet I had no other choice but to keep moving. I crawled to the bedstand where my phone sat, and blindly retrieved it.

My breaths left me in pants now, and my hands trembled as I dialed Audrey. The call went through at the second ring.

“T-the baby is coming, p-please come q-quickly,” I cried into the receiver.

“Bellatrix?”

The voice on the receiver wasn’t Audrey. I stared down at the contact again.

Asher.

“Where are you?” he asked, urgency in his tone. Fresh tears filled my eyes, and my chest contracted with the memory of his betrayal.

He’d not only called me a liar, he’d told her.

I was only realizing that the Asher I’d conjured in my mind was very different from the man he truly was.

“Beatrix—please, tell me where you are,” There was a hint of desperation in his voice now, or maybe I’d just imagined it. That must be it.

I needed help, and yet I couldn’t bring myself to seek his.

Call it selfish, call it stupid and even reckless, but I just… couldn’t.

I cut the call.

I attempted Audrey’s line, but the call went straight to voice mail. At the third dial, my trembling hands dropped the phone.

I’d been brought back to the memory of when I was five, Rosalia had persuaded me into a game of hide and seek, but she’d had other plans and I only realized it when I’d gotten into the cupboard and she’d locked me in. The feeling of helplessness I’d felt then wasn’t different from what I felt now.

Black dots clouded my vision. I could feel my wolf trying and failing to heal us. Right before the darkness took over, I heard footsteps.

Something—or rather someone rammed into the door, forcing it open, and I was immediately hit with the familiar scent of pine and trees.

Asher.

~         

I blinked awake, only to be met with the same excruciating pain I’d thought I’d escaped.

I took in my environment. I was in one of the ward rooms of a hospital I couldn’t recognize.

I wasn’t alone. Seated on the bench was… my mother?

For a moment, I wondered if I was still dreaming—it had to be. But I wasn’t. She was really here.

Almost like she could sense my gaze on her, her eyes met mine.

“I’m so sorry, Bellatrix,” she said softly, and that was… odd.

She never apologizes. Never.

“W-what are you doing here?” I croaked,

She shook her head slowly, almost like there wasn’t something she couldn’t quite bring herself to say.

“I… there’s something you must know,” she said quietly. “It’s about the child.”

The child.

The memories came flooding in.

Rosalia’s assault, the blackout.

“I—I need a healer—the child it’s coming!”

But she sat there, like I hadn’t said anything, tears welling in her eyes.

My heart jackhammered in my chest, as an overwhelming sickening feeling ran through me.

“Aren’t you listening to me! I said I need a healer, now!”

“No you don’t.”

“My water broke—the child is coming!”

“The child is dead!” she snapped, tears streaming down her face. “They did their best—I promise you they did, but the healers said your system was too weak and the child was already gone before you were brought in—”

“No!,” I snapped. “You’re lying—tell me you’re lying, mom,” I cried.

“I’m sorry,” 

“No, no, no!” I cried, “Don’t you dare tell me that, just don’t!”

“Bellatrix—”

“No!” I snapped.

But no matter how hard I tried to deny it, no matter how badly I wanted it to be a lie, the evidence was right in front of me.

The stitch at my abdomen, indicating I’d just been through a C-section and my very empty stomach.

My child was gone.

I burst into tears.

Why did fate have to be so cruel and unfair? Why do I always end up losing every single thing I cared about?

No.

This wasn’t fate.

This wasn’t supposed to happen—none of it was.

My child would have made it out, I would have been a mother in a few weeks, if it hadn’t been for Rosalia.

Fury ran through me in waves, my veins pulsed with it.

I rose from the bed, not caring about the fact that some of my stitches had been forced open by the abrupt movement.

“Bellatrix—”

“It was Rosalia.”

“What?”

“She killed my child.”

“How could you say that about your own sister?” 

“Because it’s the truth!” I snapped, “She is the reason I went into labour weeks before my due date, she is the reason I lost my child!”

“I know you’re going through a lot right now, but I will not let you speak about your own sister in that manner,” My mother defended fiercely.

“When will you see!” I cried out, “When will you all open your eyes and see what a beast she is!”

At that, every emotion in Grace's eyes disappeared, and now she stared at me with cold hatred.

“The only reason your sister is not yet Luna is because of you,” she spat. “I’d spent years building our family’s name, and yet you threw it right into the mud like it was nothing.

Now I watch other women openly speak about us—and how I couldn’t even raise you right. They don’t respect us anymore, and it’s all your fault!”

“You were setting me up to marry a man twelve years older than I was!” I snapped, finger pointed accusing at her, “A man I didn’t choose. But what was worse is you asking me to lie to him!” I said, my pitch rising an octave higher.

“Well what difference would it have made? You lost the child anyway!”

I stumbled backwards, like I’d been physically hit.

“W-what did you say?”

“We all lost something, Bellatrix. It’s only fair that you do too.”