Broken Hands, Cold Heart

4

Rage burned my eyes red. I was going to find Eric and make him tell me the truth.

That was when the door slammed open from the outside.

Eric charged in and clamped a hand around my throat.

“Where have you hidden Rita?!”

“She's pregnant! How could you do this?!”

“Every wrong here is mine! I pitied her! I went soft! I slept with her! You want to take it out on someone, take it out on me. Why would you hurt her?!”

His grip cut off my breath, and my face flushed dark red.

We stayed locked like that for a moment, then all at once he let go.

I dropped to the floor and broke into violent coughing.

Eric stood over me, looking down.

“Talk. Where is Rita?”

I coughed and coughed.

“I don't know……I really don't know……”

His hand came up and slapped me across the face.

I held my cheek and lifted my head to look at him.

“Even if you kill me……I still don't know where she is.”

He seemed right at the edge of exploding, and instead of anger he laughed.

“Fine. Very good.”

He turned and gave the order to the bodyguards behind him.

“Take her to the hospital. Whatever it takes, get Rita's whereabouts out of her.”

Several bodyguards rushed forward, seized my arms roughly, and dragged me into a psychiatric hospital.

In front of me was an electroshock chair.

A wave of raw panic swept through me.

They strapped me down tight to the chair.

Eric stood beside it, his face cold and hard.

“Begin.”

I fought with everything I had.

“Eric! How can you do this to me! I told you, I really don't know where Rita is! Why won't you believe me!”

My eyes stung, and the tears spilled over.

I felt my heart being torn apart, piece by piece.

He said coldly,

“She took your first-chair seat, and she's carrying my child. Of course you hate her. You just shouldn't have gone this far.”

The next second, he pressed the button himself.

A savage current bored into every limb, into my bones.

I screamed from the pain.

“It hurts! Help me! Ahh!!!”

“Please……let me go……”

Three rounds of shocks, and I was completely broken.

In a daze, I was unfastened from the chair, my whole body twitching.

The next second, someone gripped me by the collar and shoved me down hard into water.

“Still not talking?”

I thrashed under the water, my hands clawing at the air.

“Just kill me……”

For three whole days, they tortured me in shifts.

By the third day, the hallucinations came again and again.

Then a sudden heat below me, and warm liquid poured out from between my legs.

I looked down and saw the dark red spreading across my dress.

I pressed a hand to my belly, looked at the blood in my palm, and let out a soft laugh.

“Heh.”

A voice in my head kept repeating,

“You deserve to die. Go on and die.”

“See? Nobody cares about you. What are you living for?”

Just then, someone reported from the doorway,

“Mr. Henson, Miss Fox has been found.”

They threw me down on the floor, and I gulped for air, every breath tasting of blood.

Eric spun around and rushed downstairs.

He had just reached the courtyard, hadn't gotten into the car yet.

Then he sensed something above him.

He looked up and saw me sitting at the window.

I looked at him the way you'd look at a stranger.

The next second, I spread my arms and threw myself out.

Wind screamed past my ears, and everything went quiet.

Eric's eyes split wide with horror.

“Maisie! Don't——”