Without A Trace(Luke Hemmings FF)

Twenty-eight

Zoey's POV:
He wishes he would have left me in that house? The house where I was raped, brutalized, violated, and put through the worse situation imaginable every day for a year? I knew it was my fault that he got shot and he assured me that it wasn't.

I hate him! Only, I don't hate him. I love him. I don't ever want to see him again. Except, I do. But I can't after what he said to me. I'm sitting on my bed staring at my wall. Alice is sitting at the foot of the bed staring at me.

"I don't blame you, you know." She finally speaks up. I look at my lap.

"For me winding up at Mark's house. Anybody who had to encounter what we encountered would have left when they had the chance. You dealt with Mark for a year. I was with him for a couple of weeks, but you had to go through all of that plus more for a year. You are much stronger than I am. I would have killed myself after the first month." She adds. I look at her and sniffle.

"I tried to kill myself, but Mark revived me." I tell her. Her eyes widen.

"He revived you?" She asks, clearly surprised.

"Yep. He revived me, then sentenced me to four hours of live filming." I frown and she groans.

"You know Luke didn't mean that, right?" She says and I sigh.

"I don't know. I mean, he's right. Had he left me there, you wouldn't have been kidnapped, Luke wouldn't have been shot, and Ashton wouldn't have a black eye and a busted lip from Luke." I tell her.

"Maybe I'm doing more harm than good in this world. Maybe..." I choke back tears.

"Maybe the world would be better off without me in it." I cry and she quickly crawls to me and wraps me in a hug.

"No! Do not say things like that! No matter what Luke said, I have benefited so much from you being in my life. I mean, just look at where I lived before I was abducted. Two drug addict parents who sold me to Mark for drug money. You gave me a home and more than that, you gave me a friend and a chance at life." She says and I sniffle, my head in her lap as she strokes my hair.

"I mean, girl, you almost robbed at bank for my ransom money." She says and I smile a little.

"I love you, Zoey. I don't know what I'd do without you." She says.

"I love you, too, Ali." I tell her.

"Hello?!" I hear Mali downstairs on her way up.

"I called her. I figured you'd want her comfort as well as mine." Alice says and my door opens.

"What the hell happened? All that Alice told me on the phone was that you needed me." Mali asks, sitting on the bed.

"Luke just told me that he wished he would have left me in that house, that I'm the reason he got shot, and that I'm the reason Alice was kidnapped." I tell her, sitting up.

"What?! Why the hell would he say that?" She wonders.

"Because Ashton told him that he kissed me and that he's in love with me." I tell her.

"He told him that?! Is he insane?!" Mali groans.

"Bigger picture, M." I tell her.

"Right, sorry. I cannot believe that he'd let something like that even enter his mind much less leave his mouth." She replies.

"So, I know this isn't the point, but I don't think you should take him back this time." Alice says and I frown.

"I know. We are so over this time. He slept with Maya and I caught him at her house, yet what he said to me hurt way worse. Even after everything I've been through, what Luke said to me was by far the most painful thing I've ever encountered." I tell them and they sigh.
...