Amelia

Chapter Nineteen

Waking up in the hospital for a third time left a bitter, awful taste in my mouth. For a moment, I felt my heart skip, thinking I had imagined the whole life with Fin, that I had really been in an Alexander-induce coma the whole time, but a quick assessment of my body led me to believe otherwise. There was no lingering soreness, no stiffness or ache in my bones or muscles to indicate an altercation with Alexander. A relived sigh left my lips as I sank into the cool hospital sheets.

The relief was short lived as I tensed not even a moment later. If I wasn't here from something Alexander did, then that meant that whatever had happened with Fin was real. Someone had called the cops on Fin, he'd been beaten, he'd been arrested. Oh, no.

I gasped and flew up in the bed, scanning the room frantically only to find a frighteningly familiar face peering at me from the corner of the room.

"Hello, darling."

"Mother."

She walked closer, her eyes colder and more distant than I'd ever seen them before. I shivered, looking around for the call bell to alert the nurses. Just as I spotted it, Mother snatched it from my reach, holding it just far enough away that I couldn't reach it.

"Moth-"

"You stupid, insulant bitch." I froze silent at her words. It's not that I wasn't expecting her anger, but I hadn't really been prepared to deal with such an intense level of animosity so early in the morning.

"You just couldn't shut up and do as you were told, could you? You had to run off and make your father and I look like fools!" She shook as she spoke, her eyes blazing with undeniable hatred. "You're lucky the Quincy's are too stupid to believe anything other than the lie their son sold them. If they had known the truth, you might've had to get a...a divorce." The words was spoken on a hiss, less of a word and more of a curse. "And then where would we be? Ruined! You would be used goods, damaged goods. What would we do with you then? Stupid girl."

"H-how did y-you...f-find me?"

She shot me a glare and a sneer, simultaneously annoyed at my stuttering and proud that she had outsmarted me. "You used your debit card. Honestly, Amelia, did you think we wouldn't find you? I knew you'd come running back to money; you couldn't bear living in poverty with that...that man."

The card. Of course. God, how could I have been so stupid!?

"What did you do to him?" No stuttering now. I had to find out what had happened to Fin.

There was that smirk again. "That criminal got what he deserved. Your "kidnapper" is currently behind bars."

"No!" I made a mad rush out of the bed, as if I would run right out of the hospital, down to the local police station, and demand that they release Fin. He couldn't go back to prison. He'd just gotten out. He was free. What have I done?

Mother forced herself in front on me, the lingering effects of the drugs in my system slowing me down enough that she was able to push me back onto the bed. "Where do you think you're going!? Insolent girl! You will stay in this bed, and when the Quincy's come in you are going to pretend that you were kidnapped. You will do as I say."

"I won't!" The room seemed to freeze. In fact, it suddenly felt as though the temperature had decreased by ten degrees. Mother's glare had that kind of power to it.

"Excuse me? You won't?" Her voice was a whisper, a sure sign that she was way past being pissed off. But I wasn't scared. Fin had shown me a better life, had shown me that I could be free. And I was not about to put myself back in that cage.