My Spring at Last

"You're right. Sienna's face probably looks like a ghoul's by now. She shouldn't get in the way of Kate becoming a dancer anymore," my brother, Tim Blanden, said as he fiddled with a stack of photos. He sounded almost relieved.

The photos showed the horrors I'd suffered in the kidnappers' den, every bit of the abuse and torment.

Oliver Edmond, meanwhile, crushed one of them viciously in his fist. In that one, I'd been stripped completely naked.

"If she wants to blame anyone, she can blame herself for being so stubborn and refusing to tolerate Kate. Now, her face is ruined, and on top of that, she's a murderer with a record. Let's see what she's got left to fight with.

"Everything here belongs to Kate."

My heart caved in completely.

I'd spent five years in prison, and now Kate Hewitt's presence was stamped on everything in the house.

There were the ballet shoes she'd worn over the years and the award certificates she treasured in a glass cabinet. Even Oliver's study was littered with her stuffed animals, though he'd always hated anything girly.

The only things that belonged to me were the gruesome photos on the table, mangled by their hatred.

"Still, the way she looks now, are you sure you still want to marry her?" Tim asked.

Oliver's expression was unreadable. For once, he said nothing.

My tears fell nonstop. It felt like my heart had been ripped in half while I was still alive.

It was precisely because I'd promised to marry Oliver that I'd begged the kidnappers to spare me from rape in exchange for letting them break one of my legs.

Dragging my broken leg, I'd managed to grab a phone and made call after call. No one ever picked up.

The kidnappers strung me up and beat me. They splashed acid on my body and slashed my face, cut after cut.

I waited and waited.

All I got in the end was them sending me to prison, turning me from a victim into a murderer.

Two straight weeks of agonizing torture had long since ground away my will to live.

Yet when I was diagnosed with a terminal illness, the doctor asked me to choose, "Spend the rest of your life hooked up to an oxygen machine, or... euthanasia."

Faced with two terrible options, I hesitated.

I hadn't yet had the chance to tell Tim and Oliver what I'd been through all these years. I hadn't yet explained to them that I never scalded Kate on purpose.

Only now did I realize that what had kept me going all this time was nothing but their lies.

Five whole years of clinging to that hope vanished in an instant.

Just then, Oliver glanced down at his watch. "It's time. Let's go."

As they hurried away, I turned and made my way back to the hospital. Numbly, I made my choice. "Please schedule my euthanasia."