Page 31 of Say You're Mine

She holds me tighter, her slim arms belying the strength within. "Anything for you, Cara mia," she murmurs, the old endearment falling from her lips like a prayer. "Anything at all."

We stay like that for a long moment, two friends reunited, two mothers bound by the unbreakable ties of love and shared pain. And for the first time since this nightmare began, I feel a flicker of something dangerously close to hope.

Because I'm not alone. I have Natalie, I have Amethyst, I have this tiny, fierce little fighter growing inside me. And together, we're going to bring June home.

We're going to make our family whole again.

No matter what it takes. No matter what demons we have to face.

For love, for our children, for the shining promise of the future...

We'll risk it all.

Chapter nine

June

Pain is an old friend. I know how to grit my teeth and bear it, to retreat into the fortress of my mind where they can't touch me. No, it's not the physical torment that truly terrifies me. It's the insidious whispers, the malevolent promises of what's to come.

"You're doing so well, Juniper," Dr. Faulkner croons, his gloved fingers prodding at my latest incision with clinical detachment. "Your body is responding beautifully to the treatments. Soon, you'll be ready for the next phase."

I try to speak, but the words are trapped behind the bite guard they've shoved between my teeth, my tongue thick and clumsy from the sedatives pumping through my veins. Faulkner seems to take my garbled grunt as encouragement to continue.

"We're going to make history, you and I," he says, his eyes gleaming with a feverish light. "Imagine it - a chip implanted directly into your brain, allowing your mother to guide your every thought, your every action. The perfect son, obedient and compliant."

Cold horror slithers down my spine, bile rising in my throat. To be a puppet, a marionette dancing on my mother's strings... it's a fate worse than death.

Faulkner leans in close, his hot breath washing over my face. "And just think of the power it will bring me. The wealth. When I present Elaine Deveaux with the most obedient son on earth... the whole world will be at my feet."

He straightens up, tossing his bloodied gloves into a nearby bin. "But I'm getting ahead of myself. We still have a lot of work to do before you're ready for the chip. Rest now, Juniper. You'll need your strength for what's to come."

With that, he's gone, the heavy metal door slamming shut behind him with a resounding clang. I lay there, my body throbbing and my mind reeling as I try to process the depths of their depravity, the sheer Machiavellian scope of their plan.

A chip. A fucking mind control device wired directly into my gray matter. It's like something out of a dystopian sci-fi novel, a nightmarish violation of the most intimate kind.

But even as revulsion and terror churn like battery acid in my stomach, a small, feral part of me begins to laugh. Because they don't know, these arrogant, sadistic bastards. They don't realize that by revealing their endgame, by tipping their hand... they've just made their most critical mistake.

Knowledge is power. And now, armed with the horrific truth of what they intend for me, I can fight. I can plan. And I can burn their whole twisted empire to the ground.

But I can't do it alone. I need allies, resources, a way to get a message to the outside world. And that means playing the long game, biding my time until opportunity presents itself.

Gritting my teeth against the pain, I force myself to sit up, swinging my legs over the edge of the cot. The room spins sickeningly, black spots dancing across my vision, but I breathe through it, focusing on the slow, steady thud of my heartbeat.

I've already begun to piece together a mental map of the facility, gleaned from snippets of overheard conversation and my own painstaking observations. The guard rotations, the placement of the security cameras, the weak points in their defenses... it's not much, but it's a start.

Limping over to the small, barred window, I peer out at the sliver of sky visible through the 4reinforced glass. It's a clear, cloudless blue, the sun a blinding white disc that hurts my light-starved eyes. But it's beautiful, a small, defiant reminder that a whole world exists beyond these walls, a world where Cara waits for me, our child growing inside her.

The thought of them, of the family we've created against all odds, sends a surge of fierce, primal love coursing through me. It mixes with the ever-present rage, the thirst for vengeance, creating a potent, intoxicating cocktail that sets my blood aflame.

I will get back to them. I will hold my child, touch my lips to Cara's swollen belly and feel the flutter of life beneath my palm. I will be the father, the partner, the man they deserve. And God forgive me for the thing I'll do to make it happen.

A key rattles in the lock, the sound as loud as a gunshot in the tomblike stillness of the cell. I tense, my muscles coiling in preparation for a fight, but it's not Faulkner or one of his goons who enters.

It's Sarah.

Sweet, sympathetic Sarah, with her kind eyes and unwavering commitment to my cause. She looks pale and drawn, her normally neat ponytail disheveled as if she's been running her hands through it.

"Sarah," I croak, my voice a rusted hinge from disuse. "You're back."

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