After I came to, they acted no different than before. Still loving. Still caring.
But the very next day, I was kidnapped again.
This time, the abductors threw me into a pool teeming with starving piranhas.
"No!" The water churned with them, hundreds of them, their dark bodies writhing over one another. My mind nearly split apart.
They were crazed with hunger. They latched onto me and wouldn't stop biting.
Tearing away flesh.
My blood turned the entire pool red.
The terror consumed me whole, and I blacked out again.
When I woke, another two months had slipped away.
That very night, the third accident happened. I was dragged into a psychiatric ward, where electric batons and beatings were routine.
And then came now.
The more I thought about it, the more my heart felt like it was being carved out of my chest, slice by slow slice, until I couldn't breathe.
"Miss Harding? Why are you sitting on the floor?"
A maid appeared out of nowhere, her voice cutting through the hall. The three men in the living room fell silent at once, their gazes snapping toward me.
I met their eyes and smiled. A wretched, hollow smile.
Before any of them could react, I vaulted over the third-floor railing and jumped.
"Lorna!"