Lucidity

Chapter 34 - Faith in Nothing

Grace was helpless, more helpless than she’d ever been in her life. Unable to fight, unable to talk, unable even to blink.

And she was mad as hell. Mad at Eve, mad at Vincent, but most of all furious with herself for not finding another way before it came to this. She’d given up, believed that since she soon would be dead, nothing that happened to her mattered anymore.

She was wrong. Dead wrong.

At least Jimmy wasn’t here to witness her surrender. Never before in her life had she given up, not even when Lukas—

Then he was there, his flat brown eyes staring into her unblinking ones. Her chest was tight, the muscles paralyzed so that she could barely draw in any air, but his presence made her feel like she was drowning. She fought her panic almost as much as she fought the drug that kept her helpless.

“Grace,” Lukas cried out, tears streaming down his face, splashing warm against her chilled skin. His fingers stroked her hair, pulled it back. “Oh my God, Grace.”

She almost felt compassion for the man hovering above her body. He truly was grief-stricken, brainwashed into believing that her death was an accident, that she had loved him as much as he loved her. Lies woven so seamlessly into his own delusions, she doubted if Lukas had any earthly idea what was reality and what was illusion.

Another thing Eve Warden had to answer for. Lukas was a monster and curing him of his obsession with Grace would only free him to fixate on another innocent woman. How could Eve have ever believed this was a good use of her research, her talent?

“She didn’t suffer, Mr. Redding,” Vincent’s voice came from beyond her vision.

Lukas took no comfort in the words. He fell sobbing to the floor, his head resting on Grace’s chest. His tears soaked through the sheet that covered her, his weight adding to the pressure against her chest. Her vision darkened as she struggled for air.

What if Lukas heard her breathe? Felt her heart beat? Grace froze, trying to still her vital processes as much as the Lucidine had stilled her muscles.

Vincent must have had the same thought because she saw his hands reach out to pull Lukas away. Two pairs of high heels clattered on the floor and Eve appeared on Lukas’ other side, accompanied by another, older woman. Lukas’ mother, Grace recognized from the preliminary hearing four years ago. Back then the woman had stared across the courtroom at Grace with the venomous glare of a death adder.

“Come now, Lukas,” she said in a tone of fake condolence. “Come home with me and everything will be all right.”

“First,” Eve added, maneuvering a syringe from her pocket, “let me give you something to ease the pain.”

Lukas ignored the women, shoulders bowed as he wept. Eve reached for his arm and he shrugged her away. “No. I don’t want any drugs.”

“Lukas, it’s for your own good. Now, be a good boy and do as the doctor says.”

Grace held her breath, prayed that he would obey his mother and leave. End this nightmare. He nodded slowly, his head moving as if it were too heavy for his body. Then he reached for her hand once more.

His fingers tightened on hers. At first a gentle pressure, then with a force that sent waves of pain down her arm. He wrenched at her ring finger, twisting the two gold bands there, tugging them free, revealing the thin ribbon of scar tissue they hid.

“Not gold,” he shouted, examining her wedding band in the bright light that glared down on her. “It’s supposed to be a diamond.” Her emerald engagement ring flashed as he waved it in Eve’s face. “I gave her a diamond.”