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“Bitch. I hate you!” Anabel screams through her tears. “You knew I loved him. How could you?”
Jane pushes me away. “Get off me.”
I frown and put my hands up innocently.
Am I the enemy now?
Anabel breaks down into tears, her limbs going limp in the other girls’ grasp.
“Are you done being a fucking psycho?” Maria scolds her.
“Maria.” Gabby points to Jane, who’s bleeding pretty bad through her sweatpants.
“I’m fine.” Jane winces, trying to use the cloth to dab the blood. But it keeps coming.
“Look what you did, asshole.” Maria pulls Anabel’s hair and quickly inspects her face to make sure she’s done raging like a lunatic. “Gabby, wraps and antiseptic, now.”
I can’t believe what’s happening. My heart feels like it broke through the ribcage and is bouncing around my entire body. There’s a darkness around me. A terrible feeling of not belonging.
“Guys, I’m sorry.” I stare at Jane’s wound. “I didn’t mean—”
“Shut up,” Jane says. “This isn’t about you right now.”
The women leave Anabel to wilt on the floor and tend to Jane’s wound.
Even Gabby is ignoring me.
What have I done?
Chapter 22
Alessia
I spend the whole day in my room, curled up, inhaling the scent of my own vomit while the girls talk shit in the living space. Sometimes it’s loud accusations, or disbelieving whispers, but it’s all about me and the terrible deed I’ve done.
What happens if I leave my room?
God, what happens if Leandro comes down and the girls blab that I’m pregnant?
I can’t raise a baby with a killer and his harem. This is insane.
Anxiety blooms in my chest. My breath shortens. I have to muster up the courage to face them, and plead them not to tell.
It’s time to leave this compound, isn’t it? There’s no way I can raise a child like this. I have to start somewhere else, quiet, where there’s no chance of a hit job around me.
I’ve been avoiding this reality for weeks now, instead fantasizing that Leandro and I can just keep on falling for one another in this strange blissful way. But now the thoughts are flowing in. In witness protection, they’ll provide a basic set-up, at least. Insurance for doctor visits, food on the table.
Here, you have a nurse, and three other loving women, a rogue thought slips in.
Don’t be an idiot. Anabel will steal your kid and kill you in your sleep.
I swallow hard at the thought.
Will the women ever get over this? I have no idea.
Things were just starting to click too. I’d fallen into a nice cooking routine with Jane, and built good relationships with the others. To think my sneaking around ruined everything.
I nod to myself, knowing it’s time to say goodbye. After a long sigh, I open the drawer beside my bed, and stare at the earpiece device Arnold gave me, just sitting amidst bobby pins and a nail clipper.
