This Isn’t Giving Up,It’s Choosing Myself

4: 4

He didn't spare me another glance. He turned, lifted Daniela into his arms, and carried her into the bedroom.

I stumbled out of the Matthews mansion.

The wind outside was bitter, cutting straight through my thin coat.

I hailed a cab and gave the driver the address of Downtown General Hospital.

"Please, hurry. I'm begging you."

The driver caught my ashen face and the blood on my skirt in the rearview mirror, and pressed the gas hard.

The whole way there I held my stomach with both hands, but the tears still fell, big and unstoppable.

At the hospital they rushed me straight into surgery.

The doctor examined me, then shook his head with regret.

"You came in too late. We'll have to do a D&C right away."

"Fine. Do it."

This child, never wanted to begin with, ended things in the most final way of all, severing the last thread of feeling I still had for Russ.

After the surgery I lay weak in the hospital bed, and the phone beside me suddenly buzzed like it had gone mad.

The nurse glanced at the screen. "Ms. Henson, it's someone named Russ Matthews. Do you want to take it?"

"Just hang up for me."

The phone went quiet for a few seconds, then rang again, furiously.

The nurse had no choice but to bring it over and put it on speaker.

Russ's enraged voice filled the whole room at once.

"Lily Henson! Think you've grown a spine, huh? Learned how to disappear on me."

"Where do you think you can run to? Without me, you can't even cover your mother's medical bills!"

"I'm warning you one last time. Get back to the Matthews house within half an hour and kneel down to apologize to Dani, or I cut off your mother's treatment."

"Russ," I said softly.

There was a cold snort on the other end. "What? Regret it now? Finally scared?"

"My mother died two weeks ago."

The line went silent for a moment.

"And I don't need you to cover the bills anymore." With that, I hung up.

After the surgery I was wheeled into a room.

The anesthesia hadn't worn off, and I was cold all over.

The door opened suddenly, and an old man with graying hair and a commanding presence walked to my bedside. Looking at my pale face, his eyes reddened at once.

"Miss, Chairman Henson sent us to bring you home."

I looked at him and managed a weak smile.

"Tom Fox, I can finally go home."

Years ago I was abducted and trafficked, passed from hand to hand until the Baxter family took me in.

The Baxters had their own daughter, Daniela, and for more than twenty years I lived like the family's maid.

Two weeks ago my adoptive mother died, and the Henson family finally found me.

I'd meant to wait until Russ finished his wedding, and then tell him all of it slowly.

But now there was no need.

An hour later, a private jet lifted off from Rivergate Airport, bound for Ashford City.