If I Say Yes (28 page)

“It’s because of you… and that whore of a mother you had… you
two are the reason my father neglected me and never wanted anything
to do with me.” I’m speechless, unable to comprehend what she is trying
to get at. “It’s time you pay. You have spent all these years pretending
that your past is nothing but a distant memory. You gave everything
up, and for what? To hide like a scared little kitten? I’m going to make
sure you never see the light of day again. You don’t deserve happiness.
You don’t
deserve
Elias or Reid… they will pay for what you have done!”
she screams at me, and I flinch. I move to take a step back, but she
reaches for me, grabbing a handful of hair at the back of my head, and slams
my head into her knee.

The sight of blood pulls me back to the night of my mother’s death.
I crumple to the floor, hyperventilating, and barely hearing anything
Heidi says as I stare at the blood falling from my nose. “My father,”
she strikes me on the back of the head with a sharp object, “was in love
with your mother.” Another blow hits my head, and I can feel the
warmth of the blood trickling down my neck. A glint of sliver flashes
in the sunlight pouring into the vast open room, and I barely glance in
time to see that she has a knife. “He spent years pining for her while she was busy screwing around with that boyfriend of yours.”

That’s when I realize who she really is. “Your father is Robert?”
The same man who broke into my apartment a few weeks ago.

She laughs and strikes me again. “Have you paid attention to
anything I have said?”

I push off the ground. I have to get out of here and call for help. I
feel the heel of her shoe dig into my back as she pushes me back down
onto the floor. A sharp pain hits my side, and I cry out. She stabs me
with the knife. Blood pools around me as I begin to lose consciousness.
The last thing I see before I black out is the memory of my mother’s
contorted body. “Reid…” I say softly before the blackness engulfs me.

***

I jolt awake to being splashed in the face with cold water. It takes
a few minutes for my vision to clear, and when it does, I find myself in
another part of the house, the one room I was avoiding— my parents’
room. My side stings from where I was stabbed. I instinctively reach
down and find a bandage wrapped around me. The room is dark, with
a lamp on the nightstand next to my parents’ bed providing the only
light in the room. The light is dim, and I can only see about a foot
around me. I hear footsteps moving around but can’t see where they
are coming from. “I took care of your wounds for you, so you don’t
have to worry.” Heidi’s voice sounds throughout the darkness. “I have
plans, and they don’t include getting rid of you so soon.”

The footsteps grow closer, and I fight against the restraints that
have me pinned to some sort of chair. I squint my eyes, trying to see through the pitch black in front of me, and find which way Heidi is
coming from. I sense her presence behind me before I hear her. “I think
it’s time our company joins us, don’t you?”

Before I can respond, the overhead bedroom light flickers on and
blinds me for a moment. After blinking my eyes a few times, my vision
comes back. I cry out as tears form in my eyes. Across the room are the two people I care for the most— bound, gagged, and seemingly
unconscious.

“Let them go,” I say harshly. Heidi laughs and walks around me.
She finally comes into view, with a large knife in hand. She walks
slowly towards Eli and Reid, who are both shirtless. I start to fight
against the chair and doing everything in my power to break free. It’s
useless, the rope she is using is tied tightly. “No!” I scream as she
glances back at me, holding up the knife, waving it back and forth
with a sinister grin plastered to her face.

“Let’s see…” She places the knife against Reid’s stomach and starts
to press in. I hold my breath and wait for some sort of reaction from him, but he doesn’t stir. “Right about here”— the knife digs into his
skin — “is where your scar starts… is it not?” I close my eyes so I don’t
witness her cutting him.

I hear something drop against the floor and force my eyes open.
Blood is trickling down Reid’s stomach from his open wound. I glance
back to Heidi, who is standing back with her arms across her chest and
admiring her work. On the floor, near Reid’s foot, is the knife that she
just used to cut him open. The tears stream down my face, and all I can do is blame myself.

“Before we continue,” she winks to me, “I want these two to be
awake. They need to hear what I have to say.”

Heidi turns her attention to Eli. While walking the few feet between
the two of them, she sweeps up her long hair into a bun on the top of
her head. I watch as she walks past Eli and into the master bathroom.
I
listen as the faucet turns on and the sound of water echoes out into
the room. My mind starts to reel at how she possibly subdued them,
much less get them up here, but I’m not able to give it much more
thought. My focus shifts as I watch her exit out of the bathroom with
a bucket I presume is filled with water. I hold my breath and turn my
head as she dumps the contents of the bucket over Eli’s head. I hear
the sounds of Eli coughing and glance towards him. His eyes are wide
and disorientated. He fights against the cloth that is gagging him in
a
ttempt
to say
something
. “Oh look, pretty boy wants to say something.”
Heidi chuckles and pulls the gag out of his mouth.

“Liza! Wh—“

“Nuh-uh-uh,” Heidi interrupts. “It seems that you too have forgotten
who she really is. If you are to speak, you will call her Elizabeth.”

“Fuck you!” Eli shouts. Heidi smirks, reaches behind his chair, and
pulls out a bat. She raises the bat and brings it smashing down against
his knee.

“Stop!” I scream. “It’s me that you want! Leave them alone!”

Heidi hits Eli again and I wince as if I can feel his pain. She pulls the gag back over his mouth with ease while he is grimacing in pain.
“Keep your mouth shut.” She peeks over towards me. “Speak out of line
and you will only make it worse for them.” She starts to walk towards
me. Behind her I hear Reid groan and see that he is starting to wake
up. “Yay!” Heidi cries out and claps her hands in excitement. “Now, we
can really get the party started.”

I WATCH IN HORROR
as Heidi stitches the wound she created on Reid’s stomach. Every time he grimaces or cries out in pain my heart
breaks just a bit more. This isn’t fair. It’s all my fault, and I really don’t
understand the full extent of it all. All I know is that Robert is Heidi’s
father, who was in love with my mother, who cast him aside because
she was screwing around with Jacob. Sure, I am connected to all of
them, but none of what has happened is my fault. No, the blame is on
them. More importantly, it’s on my mother, but she’s gone now. Isn’t that enough?

After Heidi’s done stitching Reid up, she wraps a white ace wrap
around him, just like she did with me. Blood is covering her hands
and smudged onto her clothes, but she doesn’t seem to notice. She
stands up from her kneeling position and turns to glances at me. Her eyes are crazed with terror and she looks wicked.

“Now,” she says as she licks her lips and walks towards me. She stops, leans close to me, and stares straight into my eyes. “I’ll let you have the honor of telling everyone why we are here.”

My eyes flicker over to Reid, who is still clearly in pain, and he is staring at me with confusion written on his face. When I can’t take it anymore, I turn my attention to Eli, who seems less confused. Heidi
told him to call me Elizabeth, but I know he is still confused as to why.
“I still haven’t got the slightest idea. Sure, you have a vendetta against
me for whatever reason, but them—” I glance over to the two men
“—they
have nothing to do with this. Just let them go.” I begin to cry.

Heidi raises her hand and slaps me across the face. “You are not
the victim here! I am!” she shouts. “Now, you can start by telling Reid
everything. You can tell him the truth about who you really are and whose house we are in.”

I can barely see the man I love through my tear soaked eyes. I
squeeze my eyes closed tightly and open them when I feel the tears
sliding down my cheeks. I didn’t want to tell him this way, but I have
to go along with Heidi until I can figure a way to get all of us out of this situation. “T-t-this is my house,” I say weakly.

“I’m sorry… what was that?” Heidi laughs. “Speak louder so we can all hear.”

“I said that this is my house.” My voice is still weak but significantly
louder. “I mean, the house I grew up in. I haven’t stepped foot in this house for six years, until today.”

“Why is that?” Heidi interjects. This is the part I am going to have
the hardest time telling. I’m afraid once Reid learns the truth, he will
see me as a product of two seriously messed up people. People who are
nothing but monsters, and decide he wants nothing more to do with me.
Add in the fact that he is being held captive and just had his stomach
split open because of me. It’s over between us before we really got started.
Heidi hits me again, and the force of her strike splits open my lip. I
stick my tongue out and taste metal. The taste of blood. I can’t look at
Reid. The way he is staring at me, with hopelessness in his eyes, is killing
me piece by piece. I glance at Eli, sympathy clearly shining, and he
knows I haven’t told Reid. That I haven’t told anyone. He nods his
head slightly, encouraging me to spill the secrets I have been hiding.

“My father murdered my mother. Right here in this room.” The
look in Reid’s eyes isn’t what I was expecting. I was expecting disgust,
or perhaps shock, but neither of those make an appearance. Instead,
sorrow fills his eyes. He is staring at me softly, slightly nodding his
head, as if he has known all along. Oh my, what if he has known all
along. “My real name is Elizabeth Lewis…” I take a deep breath. “My
father is Jared Lewis.” I don’t have to explain who he is because my
father was a big time defense attorney.

“The prodigal child has returned!” Heidi exclaims. I’m not entirely
sure what she means by that, but I’m not sure I know what or who she
is anymore. “This is where I come in.” Heidi walks a few paces until
she is standing in the middle of all three of us. “You see,
Elizabeth
, over
there,” she is speaking to Reid, “Her mother was a whore. She didn’t
know how to keep her legs closed, no matter who it was. First, she was
with my father. She got knocked up, and when he asked her to marry
him, she went running into the arms of Mr. Big Shot. Her mother kept
a relationship with my father. She kept telling him she made a mistake
and promised that she would get a divorce and that they could raise their family together.”

Wait…what?
“It’s not possible that my mother was pregnant with
another child. I’m an only child.”

“Don’t you get it?” Heidi says in a low voice. She stalks towards me with a smile on her face. “Jared wasn’t your father… Robert was. My father is your father… which makes us sisters. Crazy, isn’t it?”

No, no, no. She can’t be telling the truth. It’s all some sick twisted
ploy of hers. No way in hell is Robert my father. I close my eyes and shake my head. She’s lying. She has to be. “Believe what you want.” I open my eyes and stare at Heidi. “But we are sisters.”

“I could never be related to someone as twisted as you are.”

“Which brings me to my next point. The reason we are here.” She glares at me, and I’m sure hatred is filling her every bone. “After your
mother married Jared, my father was heartbroken and distraught, and
began a relationship with my mother. When she discovered she was
pregnant with me, he left her high and dry. Yeah, he sent money every
month, but he wasn’t there. He was too busy crawling into bed with
your mother and watching you grow from a distance. When your
mother grew tired of him and cast him to the side, he came crawling back, begging for forgiveness, but it was too late by then. He tried to explain that love made him stupid, that he regretted not being there. But I know if it wasn’t for your mother trading him in for a much
younger boy toy
, your boyfriend, he would have
never come
back
at all.”

“You still aren’t making any sense.”

“I’m not? Let’s see if you can make sense with this.” She picks up
the baseball ball lying next to Eli’s chair and smashes it against his other
knee. “Tell me, am I making sense now?” She hits his knee again.

“Stop!” I scream. “What do you want?”