Chapter 6
I shoved the door open.
Lillian was pressing a pillow over Margaret’s face, the old woman’s frail hands clawing at the sheets as she gasped for air.
“LET HER GO!” I lunged, knocking Lillian aside. The pillow fell, revealing Margaret’s purpling face, her eyes rolled back.
“HELP! CALL AN AMBULANCE!” My screams brought everyone running.
Lucas was the first to burst in. His face darkened at the sight. “Grandma!”
He scooped her up and stormed past me, his gaze glacial.
In the VIP ward, Lucas’s voice was dangerously quiet. “Explain. Now.”
“It was Emily!” Lillian shrieked, pointing at me. “When I walked in, she was smothering Margaret with a pillow! She-she
tried to kill her! When I stopped her, she went for my throat-”
Lucas’s eyes were blades. “Margaret treated you like her own granddaughter. How could you?”
“It wasn’t me-”
“ENOUGH!” He ripped off his tie. “Emily, you will pay for this.”
A glance, and two bodyguards hauled me forward.
“Take her to the rooftop helipad.”
Cold wind and drizzle lashed my face atop the skyscraper.
Beneath the helicopter’s whirling blades, Lucas spoke. “Tie her to the helicopter. Let her ‘fly’ a while.”
He wound the ropes around my wrists himself. As the metal clasps bit into flesh, my voice shook, “Lucas… you know I’m
terrified of heights.”
His laugh was ice. The rotor’s roar nearly swallowed his next words, “That’s why you’ll remember this. You’ll come down
when you’re ready to tell the truth.”
The ropes snapped taut.
I was yanked into the air, the city shrinking to toy blocks below. Dizziness crashed over me.
Biting my lip until blood filled my mouth, I heard Lucas’s order through the radio, “Take it up to 300 meters.”
I screamed, tears ripped away by the wind.
The helicopter climbed.
500 meters. 1000. 1500…
Dawn was bleeding into the sky when he finally signaled to stop.
“Changed your mind yet?” He leaned on the railing, looking down at me.
I opened my mouth-and vomited blood.
“Changed your mind yet?” He leaned on the railing, looking down at me.
I opened my mouth-and vomited blood.
Then everything went black.
Somewhere in the void, I thought I heard Lucas call my name.
But darkness swallowed me whole.
Chapter 6
5.88%
