A New Beginning

Chapter 76: Torment

Warning: This chapter has some intense moments.

Chapter 76: Torment

Jack sits in his cell, he hasn't slept at all since Emma and Peter left him to go home. His tuxedo jacket lays under his head as a sort of pillow and the corsage he'd been wearing was now on the floor. The poor man is exhausted; today was supposed to be his wedding day, the happiest day of his life, instead, it may be the worst, up there with the near death in the sinking and the death of his parents in the house fire. His body is telling him to rest, his eyes drooping, but his mind won't shut down. Thinking the same thing over and over...

Rose is missing... Rose is missing...

He keeps crying into his hands as her beautiful face appears afraid and tormented in his thoughts. He remembers the night when Cal was holding her knifepoint while the tycoon threatened Peter, Emma, and Sybil with his gun. The look on her beautiful face, it should not have such expressions on it. He thinks about how helpless she must've felt... how scared. He doesn't want to picture her face now, wherever she may be.

He doesn't have to think too hard of where she is. He can say for certain that Cal abducted her from the church. How he managed to do that without being caught is not important anymore, what matters is that Rose's and the baby's lives are in great danger. The four friends knew that Cal was not a man of restraint nor one of mercy. He abducted Sybil and left her on the deck of the stern, not caring if she froze to death. He shot Peter in the leg without a second thought and then he shot at Rose and him, chasing them into the heart of a flooding ship. Emma was the only one who managed to escape Caledon Hockley's wrath that night, which was fine because Jack would not force it on his worst enemy... which was the already-mentioned man. Still, she knew as well as anyone how jealous and vengeful the tycoon was. He did not like to lose and he'd do anything to get his way. The man would not be above killing him and Rose's unborn child.

The problem was the police weren't listening to either him or his lawyers when they told them about Mr. Hockley. They all believed that he was a respected and wealthy member of American Society and knew nothing of his dark side. To add insult to injury, Emma and Peter had no proof that Cal had kidnapped Rose nor that he'd been the one to report Jack to the police. It was stressful and Jack was on the brink of full insanity.

He slammed his fist against the wall in anger. It hurt, but the pain of not being with Rose and his child was much greater. He continues looking upward at the ceiling of his cell, wanting to find some way to escape and find his fiancée. He was like an animal trapped inside a cage; forced inside as the walls closed in around him. He was now the butterfly trapped the jar, slowly being suffocated, helpless to do anything. He squeezes his hands together in frustration. He has to find Rose, he has to get out of here.

If Cal had been out for revenge on Jack, he'd certainly succeeded in tormenting him, trapping him in a literal cage, unable to rescue Rose again or interfere again.

...

"Are you sure everyone has gone?" Cal asks his manservant as he locks the front door of his mansion. He had just had a lavish dinner for his fellow business tycoons as they discussed the next phase of the steel plant they'd be expanding. They hoped that such a bold move would bring in even more money to their companies and provide more jobs for the working class. Of course, Cal only cared about the money, but it felt nice to do some regular business.

However, the dark-haired man was getting anxious as all the men finished their cigars and brandy and thanked their host before leaving. His heart beat in his chest, he was looking forward to what he had planned for the rest of the evening. Something that involved the cellar.

"They have sir," the manservant says. He now refuses to look his master in the eye, not just out of fear, but also anguish, knowing what was going to happen next.