Page 77 of The Lies That Shatter
I scream at the top of my lungs, until my throat becomes sore and my head is pounding as tears roll down my cheeks, but I can’t think of anything else to do. The door in front of me rattles, which silences me straight away. I ignore the throbbing in my head as I look up, desperate to see if someone has come to rescue me…or worse.
The door opens at the same time the bulb above me flickers to life, light flooding the room so brightly my eyes hurt. I scrunch them shut, blinking a few times to encourage them to adapt quicker. That’s when I see a brunette woman enter the room.
Her long greasy hair falls in front of her face, but her dark eyes are wide with concern. She holds her finger up to her lips, telling me to be quiet. “Please, stop yelling. You need to be quiet, or I will have no choice but to gag you, and I don’t want to do that. I don’t want to have to hurt you,” she whispers, her soft Irish accent grabbing my attention.
Her ridiculously short skirt and cropped top are dirty and ripped, and the parts of her exposed skin that I can see are covered in bruises, in various shades and colours—some old, some new. It’s more than clear this girl is a prisoner here, just like me, and probably has been for quite some time. My heart aches for her.
The more I look at her, it sparks a feeling inside me that I can’t seem to shake. It’s a weird sensation, like I know the girl, or I’ve seen her somewhere before. She avoids making eye contact with me, choosing to look down at the floor instead, which doesn’t help.
Maybe the Irish accent is just making me think I recognise her, as I desperately latch onto some part of home. Still, I can’t help but ask, “Do I know you?”
She shakes her head violently. “You have to be quiet.”
Before I get the chance to say anything more, a clicking sound can be heard, and the girl straightens instantly. Her eyes remaincast on the floor, but she moves away from me, turning to look at the door. I follow the direction of her gaze in time to see Melanie Whitlock enter the room.
Fucking bitch! All the time I’ve been laying here, trying to put together a list of suspects who might have done this, and I barely considered her. Her husband was high up on the list, but not Mel. I knew she was evil, but I didn’t think she would be capable of something like this.
Dressed just as perfectly as always in a baby pink designer dress that sits just below her knees, she looks completely out of place here. The sneer of disgust on her face as she takes in her surroundings is almost laughable.
She looks like she wants to shower just from being in this room, and I know how she feels. I don’t even want to think about how much I’m going to have to scrub at my skin to get rid of the grime from this fucking mattress. That’s if I ever get out of here.
“You may leave,” she says to the girl, who doesn’t hesitate to scurry out of the door she came in through. Then Mel turns her attention to me, but she doesn’t say anything. She just looks at me like I’m the shit on the bottom of her designer heels, and the silence is deafening.
The anger and anxiety that’s bubbling away inside forces me to address the deafening silence. “What the fuck am I doing here?”
A sadistic smile crosses Mel’s lips and she wiggles her eyebrows, like she’s about to tell me the best gossip she’s heard in a long time. “You’re here because you tried to take something that belongs to me.”
I freeze, racking my brain as I try to think what the hell she’s on about. She thinks I’ve stolen from her, but I know I haven’t. I would never steal from her, she has nothing I need.
“I’m no thief,” I reply, not sure what else to say. Clearly, this is one big misunderstanding. Though, given the way her eyes flare with hatred, Mel obviously doesn’t agree.
“But you are… I know about you and Finn,” she replies, her voice nowhere near as calm as it was before.
Fuck! If she knows about me and Finn, does she know who he really is?
If Finn’s cover is blown, he could be in real danger. The urgency to get out of here just increased exponentially. Now I need to find a way to alert Finn to the danger he could be in.
Before, when I wanted to get free for self preservation, the desire was strong, but fighting for Finn gives me fire I didn’t have before.
Despite the rage I’m feeling, I keep my face and voice as neutral as I can. I don’t want to give Mel any more than she already has. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m with Ethan. I have no interest in Finn.”
The words taste like bile on my tongue, and I hate saying them, but right now, I’ll say anything to keep myself alive for him.
“Don’t lie to me, you dirty whore. My men have been following you. I know you’ve been having an affair with him for weeks. I know all about the nights he spends over at your flat,” she snaps, leaning closer to me, so I can see just how pissed off she really is.
I keep silent, knowing there’s nothing I can say to make this situation any better. She has the proof, so there’s no point trying to deny it. But if I talk, I may give away more than she knows.
“But here’s the thing, McKenna. I don’t like to lose, especially to someone like you,” she sneers, looking down her nose at me like I’m scum. “So, I’ve decided, when I’m done with you, you’re more than welcome to Finn.”
It’s clear there’s more to that sentence that she’s left unsaid. There’s no way she’s going to justletus be together. “What’s the catch?” I ask, knowing there has to be more to her plan.
When her eyes light up, and her smile widens to the point she looks manic, I regret asking. “Well, the catch is that when I’m done with you, I’m almost certain he won’t want anything to do with you.”
She chuckles, like she just told the funniest joke, but I freeze, fear flooding my senses as my fight-or-flight response starts to kick in. “What are you going to do?” As soon as the words leave my lips, I wish I’d never asked.
Mel takes great pleasure watching my expressions as she tells me her plan. “You see that mirror?” she asks, as she points to the large mirror on the wall in front of me, and I nod. “Well, it’s actually a two-way window. You can’t see out, but the people on the other side can see in.
“For the past hour, some of the most powerful men in the country have been bidding on you. The person who pays the most money will get to come in here and do whatever he wants with you.”
