Finally, when my eyes began to burn, and my lungs cried out for air I let go, to see my own hand marks around her neck. Rising, I limped and hobbled towards the doors almost falling outside of them. I managed to make it only feet away from the house before I fell onto gravel walkway outside. I felt so sick, my body shook. Rolling over on to my back, I pulled out the syringe I had saved, wrapped like a jewel in my pocket. Staring at it for a moment, I wished I didn’t have to take it again. My motor functions were failing badly; I needed to keep going. I needed to slowly ease off it or I could die outright.
Fighting back the tears, I clenched my fist before I injected half of the syringe’s contents into my arm. Then in disgust, I threw the syringe back at the mansion. Finally, when I could move again, I sat up as burnt pieces of papers fluttered outside of the house. But before I could move closer…
BOOM.
An explosion blasted through the mansion and I was thrown back again. With my remaining strength, I grabbed onto one of the papers. The edges were charged, but its contents were still readable enough for me to discern that it was a birth certificate. Aviela’s birth certificate.
I stared at his name. I knew this name. I had seen it or heard it somewhere…
Shit.
It’s just the drugs, I told myself as the tears fell, but I knew that was a lie. Ivan was much higher than I ever thought. We were all just puppets. I needed help. Physically, mentally, I needed fucking help, and I knew that there was only one person I could really trust for that.
Lying there, I wished for Liam.
LIAM
I wanted nothing more than to throw the phone against the wall, but I didn’t want to wake Ethan as he slept in my arms. It was 8:30 a.m., and Aviela had never called. I was at my wit’s end, but I didn’t want him to feel so much anger from me.
“Liam, I can—”
“Olivia, if you come in here one more time, I will bust your face in,” I snapped at the woman peeking in from the door. “I don’t need sleep. Goodnight.” She had been like a hawk ever since I came home.
Her eyes narrowed in on me. “I was trying to help, Liam. I didn’t want you to be too overwhelmed. Goodnight.”
“Goodnight, Olivia” Standing up, I placed Ethan back in his crib. My phone rang.
Shit.
Looking through my pockets, I grabbed it quickly, trying to silence it. The number was blocked. Who the fuck was calling me so early? If I had to kill one more person this week I was going to lose my shit.
“Callahan,” I whispered, brushing Ethan’s head.
There was no reply, just a deep intake of breath, and for some reason my heart jumped. I fucking dared to hope. I opened my mouth but I couldn’t even form a fucking sentence.
“Wife?”
There was a dry sob on the other end before I heard her voice. “Hello, husband.”
I felt my knees go weak at the sound of her voice. From head to toe my body shook.
“Love, where are you? Are you alright? Aviela—”
“Liam, I’m fine.”
“You’re lying. What is going on?”
“Liam, I can’t come home,” she cried, almost sobbed into the phone.
“Aviela…”
“Is dead. I checked. She’s dead, Liam. Adriana…”
“Killed herself.”
Running my hands through my hair, I backed away from Ethan’s crib and walked over to the window. “Melody, what the fuck is going on? Tell me where you are. I’m coming—”
“I can’t. I’m not right. I need to fix myself. I can’t…I just can’t...”
“I’ll fix you! You’ll fix me. That’s how this works! What have they done to you? Melody, please, just talk to me. Tell me what’s going on. Tell me where to find you.”
“Liam…”
“If you think for a bloody second that I would ever let you go through any of this alone, you’ve lost your mind. I will find you, I will bring you home, and I will fix you, do you hear me? Because I need you to fix me too.”
She didn’t speak. There was nothing but her breath.
“Fuck, Melody! Answer me. Listen to me.”
“Can I hear him? I need to hear him again.”
“No,” I snapped, pinching the bridge of my nose. “You can hear him when I bring you back home.”
“Liam, I swear to you, I will always come back to you. I love you. I need you. You are home to me. Ethan and you are my only family, the only people I would die for. You are it. You are everything. I need a moment. I can’t come back like this, please don’t make me come back like this. I need to hear him, I’m begging you.”
She sounded like she was in serious in pain…dying almost.