The Rebirth of Sin (Wicked Trinity Book 2) (16 page)

It was the last thing I was able to do before I passed out.

“HELLO?” NATHAN CALLED OUT into the large empty space, waking me. “Shit, Keaton. I had to do some mission impossible actions to get up here. He has you locked up like a prisoner and under guard.”

I squinted for a moment, whispering my discontent into my pillow. I barely remembered how I got back into bed, nor did I remember calling Nathan. I was sure my call was placed to Sonja, the one I knew wouldn’t judge me, and instead, she sent Nathan, the one who would judge me despite promising he wouldn’t.

“Over here,” I croaked, closing my eyes. I couldn’t bear to see his reaction when he saw my naked body laying face down in bed.

Closing my eyes mattered very little. He gasped and whatever he held in his hand fell to the floor with a hard thud.

“Please, Nathan. The pills. Did you get the pills from Brandy?”

His feet shuffled near me. Paper ruffled as he stepped into view. He set a Tupperware bowl of what looked to be Sonja’s soy soup and placed a bottle of pills on the nightstand. He picked up my left hand tentatively. As he shook his head in slow motion, his eyes were shut so tightly wrinkles formed at his temples. Turning around, he pulled up a chair from the corner of the room, and sat cross-legged on the other side of the bed. Releasing an exhaustive sigh, he squinted and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

“Please don’t,” I whimpered.

“As soon as you take those pills, we are getting you out of here. And that ring on your hand is going right where it belongs. Trashed or pawned.”

“When the pills kick in, I have to go to work.”

His eyes widened and his mouth fell agape. He manually closed it and swayed his head from left to right. “I don’t think there is enough Oxy in the world—no judgment—that can make you feel well enough to go to work. Keaton, I think you really need to slow down and think about what matters here. It’s not your job or anything else in the world. It’s you. You have to go to the police about this man before he kills you, or worse yet, you marry him and then he kills you—receiving money that doesn’t belong to him.”

“I have to think about everyone else. I can’t leave him. Believe me, I want to, but I can’t.”

“You have a plethora of people who can make sure he won’t get to you.”

“You have no idea how powerful he is and what he can do. I don’t want anyone else hurt because of me.”

“I knew it at the dinner. You found another Gregory.” He rolled his eyes to the ceiling. “You’re not a magnet for awful men, you’re a goddamn vortex. Why are you really staying with him, Keaton? If you want out, we can get you out. After all, I got in here even though he has you locked down like Fort Knox. 

“I know you don’t love him, because I know you. The way you two are together? Even at the dinner it was clear there is no love there. I kept trying to understand why you’d be with him. Think I know. You found someone to make sure you remembered your guilt and paid for it every day. You were not responsible for what happened to Reese and Phoebe, stop allowing this man to make you feel like you were.”

His words were jagged slivers of truth, attacking my eyes and throat. Both revolted, unable to function properly from the throes of tribulation.

“Think about this: What if he kills you, Keaton? What does anything matter if he kills you?”

“I will leave. I have to be smart about it.”

“Meaning you have to delay until he eventually kills you? I’m not letting that happen.”

“You can’t protect me.”

“The hell I can’t. If you leave this man, I have resources, Keaton.”

“Since…when?”

He bent at the waist and clasped his hands over his lap. “There’s something I need to tell you. I wasn’t supposed to, he was going to in due time. But there is a reason I’m here and why I came back when I did. Me and my entanglements…”

“What do you mean?”

“If you leave, Braedan will help you. He’ll make sure Noah can’t touch you. But you have to take the first step, Keaton.”

“Braedan?” I had suspicions about the man before, despite the good nature that made me feel…different. But now my suspicions were mind numbing. “Why is he helping me and my mother so selflessly?”

“Because his name isn’t really Braedan. You know him—or knew of him.” He leaned closer to me and cupped both hands over his mouth to whisper, “It’s Sander.”

My eyes widened and my mouth dropped in shock. “Sander?” I whispered back, conscious of Noah’s warning about the cameras. “He…escaped?”

“He did, and for obvious reasons, he needs to keep things quiet about his identity and why he’s here,” he replied, keeping his volume low and quiet. “He’s the only unknown, to the world, who got out of Rebirth alive. What do you think Noah would do if he knew Sander wasn’t dead?”

Sander was one of the housemates at Rebirth, but he never spoke, at least not when I was around, and I’d only seen him around a handful of times. I couldn’t remember much about his face, but of what I remembered, he fit the description of the man I glimpsed at during the party. Regardless of whether or not he was altruistic in his desire to help me, I had to meet with him. “How do
you
know him?”

“That’s a long story and whole lot of drinks, Keaton.”

“Give me time,” I said, promising that I would leave Noah when the timing was perfect.

“I’ll give you twenty-four hours. I will not stand by and watch this man murder you because he screwed your head and made you think you couldn’t get out from underneath him and whatever he’s doing to you. I think Sander is legit, and you know me. I do background searches on everyone. I really do believe he can help you. After all, look what he’s done for your mother. Use him.”

“Princess, you are being deeply deluded. The saddest thing is I think you’re fully aware that you are. You like being this way because it’s comfortable. You’ve become complacent while living a big fucking lie.”

-THE SECT

“…thank you, everyone, for your attention and your support over the years.” As my mother stood at the head of the table inside the conference room at F.A.C.E., after formerly announcing her retirement, her employees rose to clap and offer her their best wishes.

I couldn’t stand and the pain pills I had taken were making me drunk with drowsiness. The only reason I was allowed to return to work was because I promised Noah I would quit and remain in my prison. His reactions were unpredictable, and I became terrified over his promise to hurt someone I loved. I wouldn’t make the same mistake twice. Even if it meant my life, I would stay with him to ensure no one else was hurt. 

After borrowing clothes from my mother’s assistant, I spent the entirety of the meeting, remaining in my seat, pretending I had a headache. I became tied up between managing my suffering and figuring out how to tell my mother I had to resign. The last thing on my agenda was to break her heart any more than I already had.

As people began to file out of the room, I tried to disappear behind someone and evade my mother’s attention. It seemed easy enough since she was busy reading a text on her phone. 

The second I stood before her, her eyes darted up to me, then to the ring on my left hand. A look of dread settled onto her face. “Not so fast.” She pointed to the seat at the head of the table.

“I really have to get to work.” I gave her a false smile.

“You’ve been avoiding me for far too many weeks. With that ring I see on your finger, we most certainly need to have a chat. Please, have a seat.” She pulled out a chair for me and sat on the edge of the table.

The moment I turned around and winced, she noticed. She immediately marched toward the doors and pushed the locking mechanism.

Touching the sensor, she made the blinds retract down the glass, leaving us in privacy. “Lift up your skirt, Keaton.”

“Mom…” I stared at her phone on the table curious as to who had texted her.

“I’m your mother. I’ve changed your dirty diapers and cupped my hand over your mouth when you had to throw up while you were sick. I gave you that body. There is nothing to be embarrassed about.”

I shook my head, backing away from her. My mother acted aggressively, out of character, and stunned me. She marched forward and spun me around. She didn’t get a chance to lift up my dress. Her touch at my back provoked the dampness to seep through the bandages and cling to my silk shirt. 

In shock, she gasped and took several steps backward. Grasping her collarbone and collecting herself, she stepped forward and clutched the back of my head while manically running her fingers through my hair with the other hand. “I barely believed it when he texted me.” Her inflection and tone faded into the invisible. “No, baby girl. No. This is not how we raised you. Did that place do this to you? Does that man you are living with make you think you should be marked this way?”

“No,” I said through a sob. “W-who texted you about this?”

“It doesn’t matter. What matters is what’s going on with you to make you think you deserve this. Tell me this was done without your consent, Keaton. Tell me he forced you into this.”

My lip quivered as I fought to refrain from falling apart. Embarrassed that my dark secret had been revealed, I found it impossible to face my mother with the truth.

“Do you love him? Is that why you allow this?”

I shook my head as though it were fragile.

“Then, why would you allow him to do this to you? You are a treasure. You should want a man who treats you like his pot of precious gold. You were not raised to be this way, nor to accept any man who treated you this way.”

“It’s not what you think—it’s hard to explain.”

Studying my face, she narrowed her features and frowned. “That…monster.” She gasped the words while releasing me. She clutched her stomach harshly as though she tried to abate the need to retch. “Noah—he had me fooled until he decided to put his hands on a senator and talk to me that way. I saw the real him. Keaton…” Her lip spasmed as she stared at me. “Did you lie to us about him?”

“Lie about what?”

The intense look in her light-brown eyes made it difficult to withstand her scrutiny. “You know what I’m asking about. Did you lie to your father and me about who Noah really was?”

I couldn’t answer her. I bowed my head.

She slid off the table and sank into a chair. Her exhaustion showed through her movement. “I read about this. After you were found, I…ordered every book I could find about captive situations in order to know how to be empathetic toward you and what you needed from me. You were so different when you returned to us, I had to do something. I read about women who fall in love with their abusers and captors. They begin to equate the torture to love.” Her eyes shot up to me. “Pain is not love, Keaton. Anything a man gives you which is derived from pain is evil, twisted hatred.

“The man who has been with my daughter under false pretenses has fooled her into believing she should be with him because she can’t do any better.” Showing her disapproval, her head moved from left to right. Her dark shoulder-length hair swayed back and forth across her shoulders. “I hate him for transforming the strong woman you were raised to be into a woman who is a shell of who she used to be. You have so much potential. Don’t let him squander it.” She clutched her phone and began to punch a series of numbers. “I’m calling the authorities. You can tell them the truth about what Noah’s done to you. I hope they send him away to prison for a very long time.”

“Mom…” I finally looked at her and put my hand over hers to stop her. If she called the police, I couldn’t predict what Noah would do. He was the mold of unpredictability and volatility. While I would’ve done anything to prevent what I tried and failed to do about Gregory with Noah, I couldn’t take a pious stance and tell the truth about him, putting the ones I loved in danger. “He’s not forcing me to do this. I ask him to because it’s what I need.” I told her a lie. “Because I enjoy it. This is a part of my private life, and I’m sorry, but it’s none of your business.”

“This doesn’t sound like you. Don’t you see what he’s doing, Keaton? He’s trying to separate you from the people who love you and make you think he’s all you need. Open your eyes. There’s a big world outside of the one he’s isolating you from.”