Charlotte Dean POV:
For the first time in my life, I didn't look away from Eleanor Sullivan’s icy stare. I met her gaze, and though my heart was a frantic bird against my ribs, my voice came out quiet and steady. "I’m not going anywhere."
Eleanor’s perfectly sculpted eyebrows rose a fraction of an inch. Then she laughed, a short, sharp sound devoid of any real humor. "Oh, darling," she said, her tone dripping with condescending amusement. "You think you have a choice?"
She gave a subtle, almost imperceptible nod to the two hulking men in dark suits standing behind her. They moved immediately, their size filling the doorway, their faces blank and hard. One took my left arm, the other my right. Their grips were like iron.
I struggled, but it was useless. My body was weak from weeks of stress and poor nutrition. "Gabe knows what you’re doing!" I cried out, the words tasting like a desperate lie even as I said them. "He won’t let you!"
As if on cue, Eleanor’s phone began to ring. The screen lit up with a single name: Gabe.
A slow, triumphant smile spread across her face. She held up a hand, and the bodyguards paused their efforts to drag me from the bed. She answered the call on speaker, her voice instantly shifting, becoming warm and motherly. "Gabe, sweetheart. Is everything alright?"
Gabe’s voice, tinny and anxious through the speaker, filled the room. "Mom, is Charlotte with you? Is she okay? I just… I have a bad feeling."
Eleanor’s eyes, cold and cruel, were locked on mine as she delivered the killing blow. "She’s fine. We had a little chat, and she agreed to cooperate. She understands it’s for the best."
I stared at her, my eyes wide with disbelief. I shook my head wildly, trying to scream, to tell him the truth, but one of the guards clamped a heavy hand over my mouth. The rough leather of his glove scraped against my lips.
There was a pause on Gabe’s end. A long, telling silence where his conscience warred with his cowardice. Cowardice won. "Okay… good," he finally said, the relief in his voice a physical blow. "Just make sure she’s comfortable."
"Of course, dear," Eleanor cooed, not giving him a chance to have second thoughts. "I have to go, we’re on our way now." She ended the call.
The hand was removed from my mouth. The air I sucked in felt like ice in my lungs. Gabe’s call hadn’t been a lifeline. It had been a weapon, and his mother had just used it to gut me.
Eleanor slipped the phone back into her purse, her smile gone. "See?" she said, her voice flat. "No one is coming for you." She waved a dismissive hand. "Take her."
The guards hauled me out of the bed and dragged me from the room. They didn't take me through the main lobby. Instead, they steered me down a sterile service corridor, the kind meant for staff and laundry carts, and into a private elevator that descended into the belly of the building.
The doors opened onto a dim, cavernous underground parking garage. A black Lincoln Navigator, sleek and menacing with no license plates, was waiting with its engine humming softly.
This wasn't a transfer to another hospital. This was a kidnapping. Panic, cold and sharp, clawed at my throat again.
As they forced me toward the open rear door of the SUV, I twisted, planting my feet. "You’re kidnapping me," I said, my voice shaking but clear. "This is a crime."
Eleanor leaned down, her face close to mine as she pushed me the rest of the way onto the cold leather seat. She shut the door, then tapped on the tinted window. "For people like us, darling, it’s called ‘problem-solving’," she said, her voice muffled by the glass. "You should feel honored to be a part of it."
The vehicle pulled away smoothly, merging into the anonymous flow of New York City traffic. I pressed my face against the window, watching the city lights blur past. The hope that had burned so brightly just minutes ago felt a million miles away, sealed out by the silent, air-conditioned interior of this car.
We drove for what felt like an eternity, maybe thirty minutes, in suffocating silence. The SUV finally slowed, turning into a private drive and stopping before an elegant, classical brownstone on the Upper East Side. A discreet brass plaque by the door read: "The Hawthorne Wellness Clinic."
My blood turned to ice. I knew this place by reputation. It was a private, obscenely expensive clinic whispered about in the circles Gabe and his mother moved in. It was a place where the wealthy went to make their "problems" disappear, no questions asked.
My last shred of hope died. Here, behind these soundproofed walls, no one would ever hear me scream.
A guard opened my door and pulled me out. As my feet hit the pavement, I looked up at the clinic’s imposing marble steps. And I saw him.
A figure stood there, speaking in low tones to a man in a white doctor’s coat. A figure so familiar it made my mind go blank with shock.
My adoptive father, Robert Jennings.
He saw me. There was no surprise in his eyes. Just a placid, reassuring smile that didn’t reach them. He nodded to Eleanor, a silent acknowledgment between conspirators, and then he walked down the steps toward me.
The world tilted on its axis. Eleanor’s cruelty was expected. This… this was a betrayal so profound it stole the air from my lungs.
Robert Jennings stopped in front of me. His voice was the same mild, gentle tone he’d used my entire life, the one that always came before a quiet disappointment or a soft-spoken lecture.
"Lottie, don't be scared. We’re all here to help you make the right decision for the family."
