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“Me three!” Sedric replied.
“Oh me four!” Helen giggled and one by one they all got under the covers.
“Guys—” Liam started to say but stopped when Ethan sat down on the small edge of the bed right beside me. He didn’t say anything but his cheeks turned just a bit red. Laughing, I wrapped my arms around him and kissed his cheek.
“Mommm,” he muttered under his breath, but hugged me back.
“Apparently we have a little revolt happening.” Evelyn crossed her arms.
“Just one movie and then we will go? You said you would watch a movie with us before, Mom, but you didn’t,” Ethan replied.
I had forgotten about that.
“Fine, one movie,” Liam agreed and took the remote from the bedside table. The flat screen came out of the wall. “Then it’s your job, Ethan, to make sure everyone leaves.”
“Got it!” He puffed out his chest.
For some reason, I didn’t think I could fight this…this family. My family. This wasn’t the first time I had been shot, nor did I think it would be the last. However, it was the first time I was surrounded by so many people. I knew they were my family. I was there for all their birthdays and Christmases, but this was the first time I actually saw them being there for me. I felt overwhelmed by it.
“Mommy?” Wyatt called out when I glanced to him; he had somehow gotten the remote in his tiny hands.
“Yes?”
“The movie, which one?”
“Anything is fine.” The moment I said it, they all started to call out movie titles as I just sat there leaning against my headboard.
Cora, the child whisperer, somehow came in time, holding baby Darcy in one hand and calming the rest of them with the other. They settled on something called Spy Kids. The moment it came on they stopped talking, their eyes focused on the screen like little zombies.
Creepy as fuck.
Even so, I was so mesmerized by them that I didn’t notice when Liam snuck out of the room. Declan was the one who tiptoed around to me and handed me a cell phone. He didn’t say anything. The screen came on…there in our basement was Ruò Jiàn. He gave me an earpiece, and petting Helen’s head, he left just as quietly as he had come in.
Apparently I was going to be watching another movie.
LIAM
“Mel…She was shot…I don’t know how bad but…”
“There is a lot of blood in front of those hospital doors...”
“Her condition is critical, but we managed to stop the bleeding. However, if she doesn’t get a new heart in the next day or so—”
“She’s coding! I need a crash cart in here!”
“Her heart is failing…”
Like a horror show, the events of the last two weeks replayed in my mind over and over again. It haunted me, to the point where I felt like I was losing my mind. For Mel’s sake, for our children’s sake, I had to push past it. I had to act as if I was above it. All the smiling, all the laughing was taking a toll on me. I didn’t want laugh or smile. I wanted blood.
“Who’s there? You don’t know who you’re messing with.” Ruò Jiàn foolishly cried out, his head whipping in every direction when I stepped into the room.
“Untie him and take off his blindfold,” I said to Neal, who did so as I took off my jacket and handed it to Fedel.
“It’s you…” He gasped out as I lifted the tie from my neck.
Slowly, I undid the buttons of my sleeves and rolled them up. “Leave us.”
Fedel, Neal, and the two other guards in the room walked out, leaving me alone with the only person I could take my aggression out on right then. Sliding off my wedding ring and placing it in my jacket pocket, I put on the brass knuckles. His eyes widened.
