Chapter 02

Bella's POV

"Bella, we haven't really talked since you got out."

Ruby stood by her white car in the hotel parking lot, keys swinging from her finger. Her smile was soft and sweet, the same smile she wore in court five years ago.

"Let's ride together. Just the two of us, okay?"

I looked at Logan. He was buckling Sophia into the back seat of his car.

"Yeah, go with her," he said without looking up. "You two are like sisters. You should talk. We'll take the other car."

"Logan, I don't want—"

"Bella." His voice turned hard. "Ruby is trying. Don't ruin this."

Danny leaned out of the window. "Be nice to Mother, okay?"

I swallowed the words in my throat and got into Ruby's car.

For ten minutes, she said nothing. She just hummed along to the radio. Then she missed the turn to the restaurant.

"Ruby, that was our exit."

"I know." She turned onto a dirt road. Old warehouses stood on both sides, their windows broken and black.

"Where are we going?"

She didn't answer. The car stopped in front of a huge gray building with a rusted sign. Weston Meat Processing. The paint was half gone.

My stomach dropped. I knew this place. Years ago, when Ruby had nothing, I begged a friend to give her a job here.

"Get out," Ruby said.

"No."

She reached under her seat and pulled out a small black stun gun. Before I could move, pain shot through my side. My whole body jerked, and everything went white.

*********

When I opened my eyes, my wrists were tied to a metal pipe. The air smelled of rust and old blood. Right beside me stood a giant steel meat grinder, its wide mouth full of dull, heavy blades.

Ruby stood in front of me with her arms folded.

"Bella," she said sweetly. "Did you really think you could come back and take everything? Dream on."

"Ruby, you psycho!" I pulled at the ropes until my skin burned. "What are you doing?"

"You think you can take back everything?" She laughed. "Logan, Danny, Sophia. I'm the only one they care about now. Not you. Never you again. I won't let you win."

"I never did anything to you! I gave you a home!"

"You gave me *this*." She threw her arms wide. "You made me work in this hellhole. Cutting meat. Smelling blood every day while you danced on a stage and played the perfect wife. I suffered here, Bella." She walked to the wall and put her hand on a big red switch. "Now it's shut down. It's the perfect place to end you."

She pulled the switch.

The grinder roared to life. The blades started turning, slow, then faster. The noise filled the whole building. The floor shook under my feet.

"Ruby, stop! Please!"

Headlights flashed through the broken windows. A car door slammed outside.

Ruby's face changed in one second. She threw herself onto the floor, grabbed her leg, and started to scream.

"Help! Somebody help us!"

The big door slid open. Logan ran in first, the kids right behind him.

"Ruby!" he shouted. "Bella!"

"Godmother!" Sophia cried.

"Mother!" Danny ran past me without stopping. He fell to his knees beside Ruby.

"Logan, my leg," Ruby sobbed. "She dragged me here. She tried to push me in. I fought her, and she tied herself up to make it look like... I can't walk, Logan. I can't walk!"

"That's a lie!" I screamed over the machine. "Logan, she did this! Look at the ropes! How could I tie myself?"

Logan looked at me. Then he looked at Ruby crying on the floor. I watched him choose.

"Bella, you're the strong one," he said. "Wait. Let's save Ruby first. We'll come back for you."

"Logan, no! Turn off the machine! Please, just turn it off!"

He lifted Ruby into his arms. Danny and Sophia held onto her hands like she might disappear.

"Hold on, Mother," Sophia whispered. "We've got you."

Not one of them looked back at me.

Over Logan's shoulder, Ruby opened her eyes. She smiled. Then her hand slipped into her coat pocket, and something small and silver dropped from her fingers.

A lighter.

It hit the oily floor near the door, still burning.

The fire caught at once. It ran along the dirty floor like a living thing, climbing the old wooden crates, licking up the walls. Black smoke rolled toward the ceiling.

"Logan!" I screamed. "Logan, come back!"

The door was already empty.

Smoke filled my mouth. My eyes burned. The heat pressed against my skin. I pulled at the ropes again and again until my wrists were wet with blood. The grinder kept roaring beside me.

They said they would come back for me.

They never did.

The last thing I saw was the orange light swallowing the doorway. Then everything went black.

**********

A soft beeping pulled me awake.

White ceiling. White sheets. The sharp smell of medicine. My wrists were wrapped in bandages, and my throat felt like I had swallowed sand.

A hospital.

I was alive.

The phone on the small table beside my bed buzzed. I reached for it with shaking fingers.

"Hello?" My voice came out as a rough whisper.

"Bella? Where are you? Bella Carter?"

Tears filled my eyes before I could stop them. "Evelyn?"

"Yes, it's me. I called your house, and your maid said you were in the hospital. I got your room number from her.". "Are you all right?"

"I'm alive," I said. "That's enough."

"Listen to me. Bella, I booked your flight. I'll pick you up in a week."

I closed my eyes. One week. Seven more days, and I would be free of all of them.

"Thank you, Evelyn," I whispered. "I'll be ready on time."

The line clicked off.

"Ready for what?"

My heart stopped.

I turned my head slowly. Logan stood in the open doorway, a paper bag of fruit in his hand. His eyes were fixed on the phone in mine.

"Where are you going, Bella?"