All Chapters of BETRAYAL: The Day I Died.: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

My hands were shaking.The message kept replaying in my mind, a gun to my mother's head, haunted every second I tried to breathe.And Aurora. That wicked smirk she gave me across the room. She wasn't even trying to hide it.I couldn't stop myself. I walked down the steps slowly.I didn't feel my legs moving, I just knew I had to get to her. People were staring, whispering, confused. Some guests stood, others pulled out their phones, murmuring things I couldn't hear.My feet dragged along the floor until I reached her row.She looked up at me with that same calm, polished face. Her legs crossed. Like she hadn't just threatened my mother's life. I grabbed the neckline of her dress and pulled her up."Where is she?" I cried, voice cracking. "Where is my mother?! Why do you have my mother? What's your connection with her?”Gasps rippled through the crowd. A woman dropped her champagne glass behind me. I didn't look back. I couldn't.Aurora yanked my hand free from her dress and shoved me

We sat in the SUV, parked a block away from Lucy's jewelry store. The engine was off. The street was quiet, empty except for the soft hum of streetlights and the occasional passing car.Benjamin sat beside me, calm as ever. One hand rested on the wheel. The other held his phone, checking the time every now and then. He hadn't said a word in a while. Neither had I.My hands were cold. I kept rubbing them together, but it didn't help. I wasn't nervous. I wasn't scared. I was just... full. Full of everything. Rage. Pain. Pressure. It felt like something inside me was sitting right at the edge, waiting for a reason to explode."She should be out any minute now," Benjamin finally said, his voice low.I nodded. I could see her car parked in front of the shop. The lights inside were still on. She was probably counting money or locking up a drawer. She always stayed late. The perfect little store owner. The perfect liar.My jaw clenched just thinking about her face. The way she cried in fron

The ride to the hospital felt like it lasted forever, even though the driver was speeding like his life depended on it. I sat in the backseat, cradling Benjamin's head on my lap, while two of his men kept pressure on the wound on his chest. Blood was everywhere, on his shirt, on my hands, soaking into the seat beneath us.I was shaking. He was bleeding so much.I kept whispering his name, praying, begging him to stay alive. "Benjamin, please. Please don't close your eyes."But he wasn't saying anything. His eyes were barely open, his breathing shallow.My mother lay beside us, weak and silent. She hadn't said a word since we found her tied up on that floor.Her body was cold. Her wrists had bruises, and her lips were cracked and dry.I didn't know who to focus on. Benjamin, who had just taken a bullet for me. Or the mother I hadn't seen in fifteen years, barely breathing beside him.Tears wouldn't stop falling from my eyes. I didn't even wipe them anymore.When we got to the hospital,

It had been three weeks.Three silent, dragging weeks since Benjamin was shot. Three weeks since I found my mother nearly dead. And yet, here I was, still waiting... still waking up every morning hoping for a miracle that never came.Benjamin hadn't opened his eyes. Not even once. He was breathing on his own, and the doctors kept saying that was a good sign. But it didn't feel like a good sign. It felt like slow torture. I missed him so much.But I’m thankful, my mother woke up this morning.I carried a tray of food through the hospital corridor, my hands tight around the edges. I hadn't slept more than a few hours each night. I moved like a robot between Benjamin's room and my mother’s room every single day. I barely even recognized myself anymore when I passed a mirror. My eyes looked empty. My lips cracked. And my heart? It was too numb to feel broken anymore.I stepped into my mother's room. She was already sitting up, her head resting against a pillow, arms folded across the thin

We got home late in the afternoon. The car ride had been quiet. Benjamin held my hand the whole way, and my mother sat in the backseat, staring out the window like the city didn't exist. It's been so long since she saw the city. Everything looked new to her.Benjamin opened the front door, and two of his men helped my mother out of the car. She was wrapped in a soft cloak, her feet barely touching the floor as they guided her through the living room. She didn't say a word, but her eyes scanned every corner like she was trying to remember what normal felt like.I followed close behind, not speaking either. They took her to the guest room and made sure she was settled. The doctor who checked her at the hospital said she needed rest and good food more than anything.It was still hard to believe that my mother had survived so many years of silence, locked away like a secret nobody was meant to find.Once she was lying down, I closed the door quietly and walked back into the living room. M