Swim Deep - Page 98

He abruptly released his hold on me. I had struggled to be free of his grip, but with it gone, I sagged onto the carpet, weak, dizzy, and sick.

(They drugged you, darling. Daddy loves his drugs.)

“What did… what did… you give me?” I asked, using all my energy and will to get out the words. The world had become a nauseating smear, like someone had taken their hand and swiped over it, blurring it, and then wickedly spinning it like a top.

“You’ll be fine after a rest. Don’t panic. Just be still for a second,” I heard Madaster say.

Then someone was pinching my lip, forcing open my mouth. I cried out in protest, and felt something swipe the inside of my cheek. I slapped at the hand near my face, holding onto the wrist. I forced my eyeballs to focus utilizing a monumental effort. For a split second, I saw Ima’s face just a foot away from me.

“Get away from me, you bitch,” I said, but it sounded more like, “Gid away frod me, y’ bid.”

Ima punched at my forearm, releasing my useless grip on her. Suddenly, the disdain on Ima’s face segued to alarm and fear. As if by magic, Ima flew to the side. I heard her body thump heavily on the floor.

“How dare you hit her, you pig. She’s a Madaster. Get out of here before I smash your ugly face to a pulp,” I heard Madaster shout.

“No.”

But my shout sounded feeble to my ears. I struggled again

st those three words—She’s a Madaster—harder than I fought not to lose consciousness. Surely, he hadn’t meant me. Suddenly, Madaster’s face swam into my sight. Blackness edged my vision of him.

“I’m not Elizabeth’s. I’m not yours,” I managed to get out.

His smile slid over straight, yellow teeth.

“Oh, you’re not Elizabeth’s and mine. You’re Elizabeth’s and Evan’s child.”

I heard his laugh as if it echoed through a long stone tunnel.

“That holier than thou husband of yours brought you here to break me. But how do you think he’s going to take it when he learns that he’s every bit as foul as he supposes I am. He’s judged me for sleeping with Elizabeth. He holds a vendetta against me, but he’ll be the one punished when he realizes what he’s done. He not only slept with his daughter. He married her. God, the brilliant irony of it all.”

Blackness narrowed down my vision until it was just a pinpoint. Than, there was only darkness. My hearing remained intact though, at least for a little longer than my vision did. I heard a furious shout.

“I’ll kill you for this, Noah,” I heard Evan roar.

Chapter Twenty-Four

The first time I woke up, it was through a fog. I saw a narrow bed and white sheets, and the form of a body beneath them. It was all disjointed, though. The body didn’t belong to me, it was just an inanimate thing, like the railing on the bed or the white sheets.

The next time I opened my eyes, I was back inside myself—if that makes any sense.

I looked around, not recognizing anything about the small, confined space where I lay. I searched backward in my memory, clawing for some handhold as to why I lay on a skinny bed with ugly, industrial-looking light blue curtains all around me. I couldn’t find anything to grab onto as to why I was here. There was only darkness: a black hole.

It horrified me.

“Evan,” I shouted, sitting up abruptly. I winced in pain, glancing down at my arm. Blood shone at the juncture of my forearm and upper arm. A few drops had spilled on the sheets, the scarlet color on the snowy white fabric shocking my stunned vision.

“Evan,” I screamed, in a complete panic now. I scrambled to get up out of the bed.

The blue curtains whipped back. A blonde woman in her forties wearing pale green scrubs rushed to the side of the bed, placing her hands on my shoulders as I tried to stand.

“Calm down, Mrs. Halifax. You’re in the emergency room. Everything is going to be all right. Please, calm down. You’ve torn out your IV.”

“Where’s my husband? Where’s Evan?” I demanded, still struggling to stand.

“I’m here. Anna.”

I froze. I found myself staring at Evan’s face.

Tags: Beth Kery Romance
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