Chapter Thirty-Three
Carly
Carly,
I know you’re mad, but I hope you understand why I had to do this. It was my mess and you’ve been taken because of it. If I had known it would turn out this way, I never would have come to you for help in the first place. You’ll never know how sorry I am. Once I show up, Julian will let you go and if I never see you again, I want you to know how much I love you. You’ve been my best friend since the moment I was born and I never thought I’d be without you. I’m just happy that I got to see you fall in love before I left. Chance is an amazing guy. He actually kind of reminds me of Dad and I know the two of you are going to have an amazing life together. No one deserves it more than you, big sister, and I’m so happy that you were finally able to let go of your past and find the happiness you’ve always wanted.
I love you.
Always.
Vi.
Sucking in a stuttered breath and wiping away tears, I fold the note back up and reach out with my good arm, grabbing Ivy’s hand, as she lies motionless in the bed. The monitors next to the bed continue their steady beeping and the ventilator whooshes as it helps her breathe. Her face and neck are covered in bruises and the doctors keep talking about damage to her brain but as I close my eyes, I will her to wake up. When we arrived at the hospital two days ago, they rushed Ivy away and took me to have a MRI, which confirmed I had a torn rotator cuff in my left shoulder and a broken rib. They operated on me later that day and this is the first time I’ve been allowed out of bed to see my baby sister.
“What were you thinking, Vi?” I whisper, tears threatening to fall again as I squeeze her hand. She knew the hell she was walking into and after everything I did to free her, why would she go back? Chance’s hand presses into my uninjured shoulder and I let out a breath as I sink back into his touch.
“She was thinking the same thing you did when you found out she was in trouble,” he whispers, his voice tortured and my heart aches. “I’m sorry for not taking better care of her.”
I shake my head. “Please stop blaming yourself, Chance. There are only three people to blame for all of this and you are not one of them.”
“Carly,” he whispers, his voice desperate and I know he wants to know what happened, but I haven’t been strong enough to talk about it yet.
A knock at the door interrupts us and we both look up as Detective Rodriguez walks in, offering us a warm smile. “Hey, guys. I need to get a statement from Carly.”
I nod. “Have a seat.”
He grabs Chance’s vacated chair and pulls it over to me before sitting down and pulling out a notepad.
“I know this is probably going to be hard, but can you just tell me what happened?”
Sucking in a breath, I nod again and start from the beginning, telling him about running to the gas station to get junk food and feeling the pain in my neck. I go over coming to tied up in the basement and the more I explain, the tenser Chance grows behind me.
“How was his mental state?” Rodriguez asks and my eyes widen.
“You mean was he competent?” I ask and he nods. “Yes, he was fully aware of what he was doing and enjoying every minute of it.”
He scribbles something down in his notebook. “How do you mean?”
“My legs were tied to the chair and the rope restraining my hands was thrown over a pipe or something and tied to a hook on the wall. He cut my legs free and pulled on the rope to make me stand. It was excruciating and when I screamed, he enjoyed it.”
Chance lets out a low growl behind me and I reach up, holding my hand out for him to grab and he takes it, kissing the side of my head.
“I’m sorry, Carly, but just to clarify, you’re saying he got off on hurting you?”
I nod. “Yes.”
Rodriguez scribbles down something else, his face unreadable but his knuckles are white.
“And what happened next?”
Squeezing Chance’s hand, I suck in a breath. “Julian told me that if Ivy didn’t come back, it would cost me my life. I told him to go ahead and kill me and he laughed, saying that they weren’t going to kill me.”
He glances down at his notes, nodding. “And by they, he meant himself and Damian Griggs?”
“Yes.”
He jots down another note before meeting my eyes again. “Go on.”
I do as instructed, telling him how Julian cut my chest before leaving and when the door opened again, Damian was there.
“Had you met Damian before a couple days ago?”
“Yeah, she runs into him all the time but now I’d say it was intentional,” Chance snaps, releasing my hand and turning away from me.
“Chance,” I whisper, my heart aching. All he’s done since I was rescued is blame himself for not paying attention to the obvious signs and no amount of consoling from me will ease his guilt. Especially not with me covered in bandages and in this sling.
“Don’t, Princess. Just finish your story,” he whispers, leaning his shoulder against the far wall as he crosses his arms over his chest.
“What happened next, Carly?” Rodriguez asks softly and I turn away from Chance with a sigh before explaining how Julian and Damian met and what they wanted to do to us.
“He said they had purchased us,” I whisper.
“What the fuck?” Chance roars, pushing off the wall and crouching down next to me. “What do you mean they bought you?”
I glance over at him and suck in a breath as tears pool in my eyes. “According to Damian, my mother is running low on money and she sold Ivy and I to them.”
“What?” Chance hisses, horror twisting his features as he stands up and paces back and forth across the room. Rodriguez scribbles furiously in his notepad before glancing up at me and nodding.
“After that, Julian came in with Ivy and started hitting her. Damian said she had to be punished for leaving and when Julian took her away, she was unconscious.”
Rodriguez nods. “And Mr. Griggs was still in the room with you?”
“Yes.”
“Did anything else happen?” he asks and as soon as the words are out of his mouth, I can feel Chance vibrating with anger even with the wheelchair separating us.
“He was going to rape me, but Julian called him upstairs and that’s when Rosie snuck downstairs and helped me leave.”
Rodriguez sighs and slaps the notepad closed, rubbing a hand over his face. “All right. I think I’ve got all I need for now, but I’ll give you a call if anything else comes up. Mr. Griggs and Mr. Henshaw are still in custody and I will be dispatching someone to go pick up your mother.”
I nod. “Thank you.”
He nods, shaking my hand as he pushes the chair back against the wall and walks out. Sighing, I drop my head back and count to ten.
“You okay, Princess?” Chance asks and I nod.
“Yes. I know I should probably be falling apart but I’m just so fucking angry and I want justice.”
He nods, turning the wheelchair so I’m facing him. “No one is telling you how to feel and I’m pretty fucking angry myself. I can’t apologize to you enough.”
“Chance,” I whisper, cupping his cheek with my hand. “This was so much bigger than any of us realized. They planned this for months and you are the very last person in the world I would blame, except for maybe Ivy.”
“It’s my goddamn job to protect you,” he says, his eyes shimmering with moisture and I lean forward, pressing a soft kiss to his lips.
“You can’t protect me from everything, but you did save me. If it weren’t for you and the club, I would still be in that basement. My mother sold me off like property and it would have taken a lot longer for Aunt Dottie to realize something was wrong.”
He shakes his head, his hands slipping up my thighs. “I can’t believe your own mother…”
“You know,” I start when he trails off. “I’m not surprised. It burns like a bitch, but I’m not surprised anymore. This is who she always has been.”
He stands up, leaning over me as he gives me another soft kiss. I know he’s worried about hurting my shoulder, but he could kiss me a little more than this. “I love you, Car. I don’t know what I’d do if I lost you.”
There is another knock at the door and we pull away enough to glance at it.
“Yeah?” Chance calls and it opens, revealing the doctor… and my mother. Rage I was barely keeping below the surface boils over as she strides into the room like she has every right to be here. Chance’s face flushes and his jaw ticks as he levels a glare at her, his fingers twitching. If he wasn’t such a good guy, I have no doubt he’d hurt her.
“Dr. Price, thank you for giving my daughter such excellent care,” Mother says, glancing down at Ivy like she actually gives a damn and my jaw drops. Pushing on the arm of the wheelchair, I shakily stand and take a step toward her. Chance is at my side in an instant, helping me stay upright.
“You have no right to be here.”
Mother scoffs. “She’s my daughter.”
“And you sold her off like livestock,” I say through gritted teeth as I take a step toward her and she backs up. “You are nothing more than a vile, pathetic cunt and if I were you, I would take what little money you got for your own blood and run far, far away before the police show up at your door. But I would hurry because I just gave my statement to the detective a few minutes ago.”
All the color drains from her face and her back hits the wall. “Carly, dear, you don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Really? So, Damian Griggs and Julian Henshaw didn’t pay you five hundred thousand dollars each for your daughters? And then those same men didn’t kidnap and beat said daughters, making you an accessary on top of a human trafficker?”
“I…I didn’t know,” she whispers. “I thought they were good men.”
I shake my head. “No, you didn’t. You just cared more about maintaining your lifestyle than you did about your children.”
“Carly,” she starts but I shake my head, pointing to Ivy in the bed.
“Look at her!” I scream, tears falling from my eyes again. “Look at what you did to your daughter, your flesh and blood. Is the money really that important to you?”
“Carly,” she starts and I shake my head.
“Fucking look at her!” I wail. Chance presses a hand to the small of my back. She still refuses to look at Ivy and my body shakes as I close my eyes and suck in a breath.
“I’m done with this conversation. If I ever see you again, I’ll punch you in the face and I don’t give a damn if you’re my mother.”
“I’m calling security,” the doctor says, his gaze bouncing between the three of us and I roll my eyes.
Great timing, asshole.
“No. I’m leaving,” she whispers. A second later, the door closes and I sag against Chance, letting out a breath. Damn, I’m exhausted. Chance leads me back to my wheelchair and helps me sit down.
“I’m sorry to have to do this now given all you’ve been through, but we need to talk about your sister’s care,” Dr. Price says and I nod, rolling closer and taking her hand. He looks down at her chart and sighs. “There’s no easy way to say this so I’ll just come right out and say it. We’ve run every test we can on Ivy, some of them twice, and we can’t detect any brain activity.”
I gasp, all the air rushing out of my body as I stare at him, my mind freezing. “What? What are you saying?”
“I’m saying your sister is brain dead. I’m so sorry.”
“No,” I say, a sob rising up in my throat.
“There’s more.”
I meet his gaze and he fiddles with the corner of her chart. “Your sister had a will and in it, she named you her proxy so the decision on what to do next is yours.”
“Are you telling me I have to decide whether to unplug my baby sister or not?” I ask, tears spilling down my cheeks and he nods, hanging his head. I turn back to Ivy and cover my mouth with my hand as I struggle to breathe.
No.
I can’t do this.
* * * *
“Are you ready?” Dr. Price asks, his compassionate gaze flicking around the room to all the people lined up along the back wall before focusing back on me. I grab Ivy’s hand and struggle to breathe as I peek over my shoulder. Chance places a hand on the small of my back and presses a kiss to my head.
“I’ve got you, Princess,” he whispers and pain ripples through my chest as I close my eyes. I don’t know if I can do this. The past two days have been a whole new kind of hell on Aunt Dottie and me. We’ve had endless meetings with doctors and run all kinds of tests on Ivy, only to learn what we already know. There is no brain activity. It doesn’t make any sense to me. She’s here. I can reach out and touch her, feel the warmth of her skin, but in any way that really counts, she’s gone. I’ll never see that silly grin of hers or give her a hard time about showing up late again. She’s just... gone, ripped away from us way too soon.
How will we ever fill this hole?
Glancing up at Dr. Price, I shake my head. “I don’t think I can do this.”
He nods, taking a step back from the bed. “Take all the time you need. It’s okay.”
On the other side of the bed, Dottie sniffles and meets my eyes. “It’s time, Honey. She wouldn’t want us to keep her like this.”
“There’s supposed to be so much more. She’s supposed to fall in love, get married, and have babies. We’re supposed to spend Christmases and birthdays together. She’s supposed to be here with me for so much longer. How am I supposed to do this?” I cry. Chance kneels in front of me and meets my gaze, moisture pooling in his eyes.
“I know, baby,” he whispers, cupping my cheek. “But you know Ivy better than anyone else in this world. What would she want?”
A sob rips out of my throat and I look over his head to my baby sister, lying in the bed. I know he’s right, but can I force the words out of my mouth? How can I give the instructions that will kill Vi?
Blaze steps forward from the back of the room and stands behind my chair, putting his hand on my shoulder. “We’re all here for you, Carly.”
One by one, the guys follow him – Smith, Kodiak, Fuzz, Moose, Streak and Storm. Ali and Izzy come over and kneel by my feet, placing their hands on my knee and I look up, meeting Dottie’s gaze. She nods as a steady stream of tears trail down her cheeks.
“Set her free, Honey.”
I look up at Dr. Price. “Will it be quick?”
He shakes his head. “It just depends on the patient. Most go fairly quickly, though.”
“Will she be in any pain?” I whisper, focusing on her face as my breathing stutters.
“No, ma’am. She won’t feel a thing.”
Dottie nods and a few of the guys gently touch my back or arms, offering me the support I need to choke the words out. After a moment, I nod at Dr. Price and he turns, pressing a few buttons on one of the machines at the head of her bed. A nurse comes up and together they pull the breathing tube out of her throat before stepping back.
“Her respirations will begin slowing down and once they stop altogether, her heart will stop beating.”
Panic slams into me like a freight train, my mind screaming to rewind time and I tense up on my chair, my heart pounding.
No, we’ve made a mistake.
We can’t do this.
I can’t lose her.
“Stop. No, we can’t do this,” I gasp, reaching out to grab her hand again.
Chance wraps his arm around my waist and presses his forehead against my hair. “I’ve got you, baby.”
A sob echoes through the room and my heart hammers away in my chest as I watch the monitor, waiting and dreading the moment the numbers start going down.
“We love you, Sweetie,” Dottie whispers, reaching up to stroke her face. “It’s okay to go.”
Ali and Izzy stand and move to the end of the bed, placing their hands on her feet as tears pour down their faces. My body feels numb as I glance up at the monitor, noticing her respirations are slower than a moment before and my own heart feels sluggish like I’m dying right alongside her. Tears pour down Dottie’s face as she reaches up and strokes Ivy’s hair out of her face before grabbing her hand and bringing it to her lips.
Don’t leave me, Vi.
Closing my eyes, I think back to the last time I saw her conscious – down in that basement as Julian hit her again and again and I sob louder. That can’t be my last memory of my baby sister. I have years and years of good memories with her, memories that will warm my heart every time I think of her but the last moment where she was truly Ivy, will haunt me forever. Why did she have to come back?
“Why did you do it?” I whisper, glancing up at her. “I was ready to die to save you; why did you have to come back?”
“Princess,” Chance whispers, his voice pained as he closes his eyes.
“I love you, Vi,” I whisper and Chance kisses my head, his constant touch somehow holding me together. Ali and Izzy kneel next to my chair again and place their hands on my knee, tears falling from both of their eyes. My throat feels tight as pain crashes over me.
Something flashes on the monitor and I squint up at the screen, my heart seizing when the numbers drop again. I’m as close to the bed as my chair will allow but it’s not close enough and I turn to Chance.
“Help me up?”
He nods and I stand before grabbing his hand and climbing onto the bed with her. Grabbing her hand, I lie down next to her and close my eyes.
“It’s okay. You can let go,” I whisper in her ear, hoping wherever she is she can hear me. “I don’t want to let you go but I know this is what you’d want. I always knew I was lucky to have you as a sister and I’ll carry you with me always.”
“Her heartbeat is slowing,” Dr. Price says and a sob bubbles out of me as I squeeze her hand and press a kiss to her cheek.
“Say hi to Daddy for me, okay?” I whisper, tears soaking the pillow underneath me as I feel a gentle touch on my head. Rolling over, I meet Chance’s eyes. He nods and I turn back to Ivy, holding her hand as she drifts away.