Twelve Years Gone, Like The Wind

His grip was so tight that I could not breathe. I desperately slapped his hand.

“Cough... Harry?”

Miles flung me aside in a rage. He kicked the coffee table over with one stomp.

“Wendy told me everything! You went after her like a psycho this afternoon!

“She took Harry to the pharmacy to get his cut bandaged. The second she turned around, he was gone!

“Who else would kidnap a three-year-old besides you?!”

I coughed violently. I looked at the enraged Miles in disbelief.

“I never even left the house! Miles, are you insane?!”

“You’re the insane one!”

He looked extremely anxious. He pointed at me and yelled, “You’ve been spraying me with alcohol every single day for six months. You’ve been messed up in the head for a long time. Now, you won’t even leave an innocent kid alone!

“Call the people you hired now!”

I gritted my teeth and stepped backward.

“I told you I haven’t seen him! If you can’t handle it, then divorce me!”

I turned to grab the divorce papers off the table.

“You’re not going anywhere today until you tell me where Harry is,” he said angrily as he grabbed me by the back of my collar.

The immense force tore my dress apart. Buttons were scattered all over the floor, exposing my body.

Before I could react, he seized my wrist and dragged me toward the washroom with all his strength like he was hauling a prisoner.

“Miles, what are you doing? Let go of me!” I screamed in terror.

At that moment, I could barely tell the difference between Miles’ hands and the hands of those men from the alley when I was sixteen.

“Until you tell me where Harry is, I’m going to knock some sense into you today!”

He kicked open the washroom door and slammed my body into the ice-cold bathtub.

He then turned on the shower. Freezing cold water poured straight down on me from above.

I choked on the water and struggled violently. I tried to crawl out of the bathtub.

“Cough... help...”

Miles unbuckled his belt, pinned my hands behind my back, and tied them tightly to the metal handle of the bathtub.

I thrashed my body wildly as it shook violently in the icy water.

Miles turned and pulled out that large bucket of high-concentration disinfectant alcohol from under the sink.

He unscrewed the cap and poured the pungent alcohol directly over my head and body.

“Don’t you love tormenting people with alcohol? Talk! Where’s Harry?”

The alcohol smell was so strong I could not breathe. It made my eyes sting.

Miles did not care. He forced my head down again and held it under the disinfectant water in the bathtub.

I choked so hard that I could only mumble a few unclear sounds. A violent spasm twisted in my stomach.

“It hurts so bad—”

Before I finished speaking, a sharp, extreme cramp cut through my lower abdomen like a knife.

Warm liquid ran down the inside of my thigh.

The warmth mixed into the cold bathwater instantly turned into a bright red pool.

I just stared at the blood spreading in the water. I forgot to fight.

Just then, the phone he had thrown on the sink started ringing.

Seeing the caller, he hesitated for a moment before answering the call.

From the other end of the line came a policeman’s voice, sounding resigned.

“Is this Mr. Lumb? Your kid isn’t missing!”

“He went up to the mall rooftop to play on the slide by himself. When we found him, he was eating an ice cream cone.

“You parents couldn’t even keep an eye on your own child. Then you insist it was some planned kidnapping and attempted murder. Aren’t you just wasting police resources?”

In an instant, only the sound of the shower spraying water remained in the bathroom.

The phone and the alcohol bucket in Miles’ hands crashed to the floor.

He turned to look at me. His face turned deathly pale.