A Hurt So Sweet Volume Four - Isabella Starling Page 0,5

Time passes. I spend what must be hours lying on that squeaky mattress, palming my cock to the sound of the other inmates screaming, laughing and groaning in pleasure similar to mine.

I'm nothing now. I've been reduced to scum. Nobody wants me in their life anymore. With my parents gone, Lily Anna gone, and Pandora gone, I'm nothing.

I remember a story my mother used to read me when I was a kid, about a boy who would disappear if nobody remembered him. I try desperately to remember the ending. To remember how he solved the problem. But there's nothing there—just the soft, angelic sound of my mother's voice, and her manicured hands touching my forehead as she put me to sleep.

I try to fall asleep, but it's too loud. The guard wakes up at some point to change shifts with another man. I take my hand off my throbbing cock. I close my eyes and pretend I'm somewhere, anywhere else.

They don't give me food.

I use the toilet in the corner of the cell. There's no window. Time passes excruciatingly slowly. I have no way of knowing how many hours have passed. Worry and guilt fuck with my head, making me lose my mind.

I begin to understand what it was like for Lily Anna, being locked up in a place she couldn't escape. And I can't help but wonder whether this is all my fucking fault.

For agreeing to her plan.

For locking her up.

For fucking her mind up beyond repair.

But then I remember what she did. That she killed my parents. She's a monster. And she needs to be brought to justice.

Two more guard shifts and a dry as fuck sandwich later, a guard approaches my cell. I'm ready to go, standing tall and proud, determined to bring Lily Anna to justice.

"Someone here to see you, Booth," the guard mutters. I recognize him as the older brother of one of the Prep kids. He seems to know who I am too, and seems almost embarrassed at the role reversal. Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

I follow him down the hallway, my hands still in cuffs.

We walk to the same questioning room I was in before, and he locks the cuffs to the desk I'm sitting in. I feel like a fucking criminal.

And the worst part is... I now know I am.

What I did to Lily Anna is unforgivable.

And I deserve to be punished for it.

Pandora

3 months later

This is my new normal. Alli is my new best friend. Mother continues to confuse me with her hot-and-cold attitude that changes every five minutes. And as for my life in Eden Falls... it's over. The nightmare is behind me.

I haven't been in contact with anyone from the town. Begrudginly, I've followed the news of Dexter's arrest after Lai's murder. I didn't want to believe it was true, but everything pointed to it—Dex had killed his best friend, and now he was going to serve a long, long sentence. The judge presiding over his trial was determined to make an example out of Dexter. To bring Eden Falls to its knees. To end the town's Firstborn supremacy once and for all.

And then there's the matter of the baby. The life growing inside me. I knew, from the moment I found out I was pregnant, that I couldn't possibly get rid of the baby. Not even knowing I had no idea who the father was. Not even with the possibility the baby's father is a killer.

"I just don't understand," I mutter as Alli flips between the Netflix suggestions on the TV. "Why has nobody come after me? Don't any of them care?"

"I thought you didn't want to go back to Eden Falls," Alli mutters, finally settling on an episode of Charmed. "I thought you wanted to run away once and for all."

I don't answer, worrying my bottom lip between my teeth. She's right. I never belonged in Eden Falls. It was never home—not like Wildwood.

With an exasperated sigh, Alli pauses the TV show.

"Maybe you should go back there," she says, making my head snap up and my heart beat faster.

"Why do you say that?"

"Those men who ruined your life... and their sons. Don't you think they deserve to pay for what they did to you?"

"It's over now," I mutter, protectively resting a palm on my growing bump.

"But aren't you worried they'll hurt someone else?" Alli's stare is aimed right at me, and I feel shame burning my cheeks. "Don't you think they'll do it all over again?