Rage tore through me like a live wire. I shot to my feet and shoved Eleanor to the ground.
"Kenneth, help me!"
I pinned her beneath me, slap after slap raining down without pause.
Kenneth arrived and kicked me off her.
"Betty, have you lost your mind?!"
"She's pregnant, do you even know that?!"
Eleanor buried her face in Kenneth's chest, sobbing, whimpering that she was scared, that it hurt.
My bloodshot eyes locked onto Kenneth.
He noticed the phone on the floor. Something flickered behind his gaze.
"This is what you hit her over?"
"Pictures are already taken. What, afraid someone might see?"
His voice carried seven parts cold mockery and three parts careless anger.
"Betty, I really have spoiled you."
"Time you learned a lesson."
Kenneth snapped his fingers, and men flooded into the room.
Two of them seized my arms and pinned me against the wall. Kenneth took Eleanor's hand.
"Hit her back."
"Until you feel better."
Eleanor's eyes lit up. She swung hard, her palm cracking across my face.
That wasn't enough for her. From somewhere, she produced a small knife and dragged the blade deep across my cheek.
"Everyone says I look like you. Let's see who says that now."
"A disfigured woman, tossed on the side of the road, and nobody would even glance twice."
"Kenneth will never want you again!"
My screams, my cries for help, Kenneth heard none of it.
He kept his back to me the entire time, until Eleanor walked to his side.
"Betty, think about what you've done."
"Tomorrow, I'll let you out."
Kenneth disappeared, and the door slammed shut. The last sliver of light vanished with him.
Thirteen years ago, he brought the only light my life had ever known.
Thirteen years later, he took it all away.
I crawled across the floor and reached for the forgotten phone, dialing the number I knew by heart.
"Mom, I want to come home."
On the other end, alarms blared.
I lay on the ground and sank into the dark again.
The next morning, Kenneth arrived at the Syndicate to find his men scattered across the entrance, sprawled out on the ground.
"What the hell happened?"
Kenneth was livid.
"S-someone came looking for trouble. They took her, they took Betty!"
His breath stopped. His fingertips wouldn't stop trembling. Kenneth tore through the building and reached the cellar door.
She was gone.
A pool of blood stained the floor, so stark it made his stomach lurch. Kenneth screamed until his throat cracked.
"Where did all this blood come from?!"
