Reborn and Done Being Fooled

I'd barely sat up when the door opened, and a woman in a bathrobe walked in.

[Just accept it, man. There's no way out now. Might as well relax and enjoy it. By the way, do we have to pay to watch what's about to happen?]

I took a slow breath. Then, following the lead the messages had given me, I reached out and started undoing her robe myself.

Seeing my resigned expression, the old woman burst into laughter, the fats on her body shaking.

"I'm going to enjoy every second of Yvette's husband."

The words had barely left her mouth when I moved. I pulled the fruit knife I'd hidden earlier from behind my back and drove it into her stomach.

She screamed and grabbed a fistful of my hair, then slammed my head against the wall.

"You monster! You want to die that badly?"

I bit down on the tip of my tongue. The sharp taste of blood cut through the fog in my head just enough. I jammed my fingers straight at her eyes with everything I had.

She stumbled back, and I ran for the door.

"Get him! Somebody get in here and beat him to death if you have to!"

The woman's furious screams echoed behind me, and my consciousness began to fade. I hadn't even managed to take two steps before I collapsed into a soft, fragrant embrace.

At the same time, a few gunshots rang out behind me.

In the blink of an eye, all the people chasing me had already been taken out.

I forced my eyes open and tried to make out the woman holding me, but the heat crawling through my body kept dragging my mind under. All I could do was fist my hand in her collar and rasp out the only words I had left.

"Help me. Please."

-

When I came back to myself, I was home.

My mother's palm cracked across my face before I could say a word. She slapped the table hard, again and again.

"You worthless boy. You let someone steal you away on your own wedding day. You could've at least had the decency to die out there. Instead, you crawl back here and expect me to look the Sinclair family in the eye? You've destroyed every shred of dignity this family had!"

Frederick rubbed my mother's back and shook his head at me with a look of quiet disappointment.

"Jonathan, if you didn't want to marry Yvette, you should've said so from the beginning. How could you let someone just take you like that? Now the whole city's talking about us. We're a joke."

Elaine stood off to the side and said nothing. She knew exactly what had happened, and she just stood there like it had nothing to do with her.

I pulled in a slow breath and kept my voice steady.

"I didn't do anything. I was set up."

"Set up?"

My mother hurled a cup at my head. "Look at yourself. Look at what's all over your neck and chest. And you want to stand there and tell me you were set up?"

I looked down. Red marks trailed from my collar all the way down to my chest, which made it impossible to pretend nothing had happened.

It wasn't a dream.

My mind went blank. The messages were already racing past.

[The more you explain right now, the worse it looks. Just point the finger at Frederick. Tell them this whole thing was his plan! You saw Elaine take that check, didn't you? Say it. Tell them she's been sleeping with Frederick behind everyone's backs. Tell them they're working together to take the family's money and they framed you to get you out of the way!]

My eyes went wide.

Because those were exactly the words I'd said last time. I'd come home broken and furious, and I'd said all of it.

I had hated them to the bone, but those words had utterly enraged Elaine. She locked me away in solitary confinement and later burned me alive.

My nails dug into my palms as I glared at them.