I lay face-down on the floor, nails scraping across the tile.
Blood seeped through the gaps between my fingers, leaving dark red smears on the surface.
"Give me back my baby…"
Cecil turned his head and looked down at me.
Nothing in his eyes but disgust.
"Give it back to you? You think you deserve it? This baby is Ruby's the second it's born. You sit there and carry it like you're told—and if anything goes wrong, I'm coming for you."
Ruby walked over and crouched in front of me.
The scent of lilies laced with disinfectant hit my nostrils.
"Don't be upset. I'll take very good care of this one. After all, it cost your first eight their lives."
She dropped her voice low.
Every word dripping with provocation and gloating.
I jerked my head up and stared at her, unblinking.
Pure hatred.
"You'll pay for this."
Cecil kicked me square in the shoulder.
I crashed to the floor again, my vision going black, the pain nearly dragging me under.
"You dare curse Ruby? You must be tired of living. Someone get in here. Lock her in the basement. No one feeds her without my permission."
Two bodyguards walked in, grabbed me by the arms, and dragged me out.
I thrashed and fought, but it changed nothing.
"Cecil Delgado, you'll die screaming for this!"
The iron door of the basement slammed shut.
Darkness swallowed me whole.
I curled up on the freezing dirt floor, listening to the system countdown tick away.
50:00.
Time drained away second by second.
The pain in my stomach kept getting worse, sharper each time.
I bit down on my lip until I tasted rust.
I couldn't die. Not yet. Not before I watched them pay.
Ruby came down to the basement.
She crouched, snatched both my hands away from where I'd been pressing them against my stomach.
Her sharp acrylic nails dug into the skin on the backs of my hands.
Blood welled up instantly.
She didn't care. If anything, her smile got brighter.
She shoved the lilies into my arms, leaned close, and whispered against my ear.
"Want to know why these flowers bloom so beautifully? Because of the fertilizer in the flower bed. I go water them every day. I watch them grow. And I watch your hope die."
My stomach seized.
I tore the lilies apart in a frenzy, shredding petals and hurling them into the air.
Petals scattered across the floor.
I scrambled backward on hands and knees until my spine hit the corner of the wall.
"You're a monster! You're not even human!"
Cecil strode over and kicked the water basin across the floor.
Filthy water splashed across my body, ice-cold to the bone.
"Have you lost your mind? Ruby came down here to see you out of the goodness of her heart, and you spit it back in her face? Ungrateful bitch."
Ruby stumbled into Cecil's arms, clutching her chest, gasping hard.
Tears spilling down her cheeks in big, showy drops.
"Cecil, does she really hate me that much? I just wanted a child to keep me company. If she minds this much, I'll give back the stem cells. My life isn't worth anything anyway."
Cecil pulled her tight against him, then turned and glared at me with pure venom.
"Listen to what she's saying! She's been thinking of you at every turn, and this is how you repay her? I'm going to teach you a lesson you won't forget."
Without hesitation, he pulled off his belt and bound my wrists behind me to the radiator pipe.
The leather bit deep, raising purple-red welts, the kind of pain that doesn't stop at the skin.
"I'm warning you. Upset Ruby one more time, and I will make you wish you were dead."
Vivian handed him a syringe.
Cecil drove the needle into my arm without a second's pause, found the vein, and blood flowed out.
"Ruby got a scare. She needs blood work and a compatibility screen. Consider it an honor."
