Page 40 of Say You're Mine

I uncurl slowly, every muscle screaming in protest as I force myself to stand on shaking legs. The world tilts and spins around me, but I grit my teeth and ride out the wave of dizziness. I don't have time for weakness, for self-pity. Not now. Not when June needs me to be strong.

I take a deep breath, centering myself, drawing on the well of love and fury and determination that burns like a second heart in my chest. The baby kicks, a tiny foot jabbing against my ribs, and a watery laugh bubbles up in my throat.

"That's right, little one," I murmur, rubbing soothing circles over the spot. "We're going to fight. We're going to bring Daddy home."

A gentle hand on my shoulder startles me from my reverie. I turn to see Natalie, warm brown eyes soft with sympathy and shared pain. "Damn straight we are," she says, fierce conviction ringing in every word. "And we're not going to do it alone."

She takes my hand, pressing it firmly against the swell of my belly. "You've got an army behind you, Cara. The Corleones, Sarah, Amethyst... we're all in your corner. All fighting to bring June back to where he belongs."

Tears sting my eyes, gratitude and relief a hot lump in my throat. I'd almost forgotten, in the depths of my anguish, that I'm not alone in this fight. That I have friends, allies, people who love June almost as fiercely as I do.

"Thank you," I whisper, the words woefully inadequate but heartfelt nonetheless. "I don't... I don't know what I'd do without you. Without all of you."

Natalie smiles, warm and genuine, and pulls me into a hug. She's careful not to crush my belly, but the embrace is still tight, still desperate, two women clinging to each other amidst the storm.

"You'll never have to find out," she promises, her breath ruffling my hair. "We're with you, Cara. To the ends of the earth, to the gates of hell themselves. We're going to make this right."

I cling to her, drawing strength from the iron certainty in her voice, the steadfast loyalty in her touch. For a few precious moments, I allow myself to just breathe, to exist in the circle of my best friend's arms and believe that somehow, someway, we'll find a way through this nightmare.

But all too soon, the weight of reality intrudes, the ticking clock of June's torment an insistent metronome in the back of my mind. I pull away, swiping at my tears with the back of my hand.

"Okay," I say, drawing in a fortifying breath. "Okay. What's our next move? How do we get him out of there?"

Natalie's eyes glint with something fierce and flinty, a lioness preparing to defend her pride. "Dante's working on that as we speak. He's got his best people combing through every scrap of intel Sarah's managed to smuggle out, looking for weaknesses, exploitable flaws in Elaine's security."

She guides me to the couch, her touch gentle but insistent. "The doctors said you need to rest, to avoid stress for the baby's sake. I know it's hard, but you have to trust us to handle this. Just for a little while."

The world tilts and spins around me, a dizzying kaleidoscope of fear and desperation as Natalie's words sink in. "What do you mean, I can't go with you?" I demand, my voice rising in pitch and volume. "June needs me, Nat. He needs to know that I'm here, that I'm fighting for him!"

Natalie's expression is a study in conflicted anguish, her eyes shimmering with unshed tears. "Cara, please. You have to understand..." She takes a deep, shuddering breath, as if steeling herself for a blow. "Sarah's latest intel, it's... it's bad. Really bad."

A chill skitters down my spine, icy fingers of dread plucking at my vertebrae. "What is it? What aren't you telling me?"

She closes her eyes for a moment, visibly gathering her strength. When she opens them again, they're bleak and haunted, twin pools of sorrow. "Faulkner's been using your image, your voice, to torture June. Twisting his memories, his love for you, into a weapon to break his mind."

Nausea rises in my throat, hot and acrid. I press a trembling hand to my mouth, swallowing convulsively against the urge to vomit. "No," I whisper, a broken, disbelieving plea. "No, he can't... they can't..."

But even as the denial falls from my lips, I know it's true. Know it in the marrow of my bones, in the shattered remnants of my heart. The hateful, poisonous words June spat at me over the phone... they were a product of Faulkner's depraved machinations, a twisted reflection of the love he's perverted into a source of agony.

"I have to go to him," I insist, shaking my head frantically. "I have to show him that it's not real, that I'm not the monster they've made me out to be!"

Natalie grips my shoulders, her fingers digging into my flesh with desperate strength. "Cara, listen to me. If you go charging in there now, in your condition, with June's mind in the state it's in... he might not react the way you want. The way you need."

A sob hitches in my chest, a broken, animalistic sound of purest anguish. "What are you saying, Nat? That my love of my life might hurt me? Might hurt our child?"

She flinches as if I've struck her but holds fast to her resolve. "I'm saying that June's not in his right mind. That Faulkner's fucked with his head in ways we can't even begin to imagine. And if seeing you, hearing your voice, triggers some kind of violent episode..."

I recoil, bile scorching the back of my throat. The idea is unthinkable, a nightmarish scenario that my mind rebels against with every fiber of its being. June would never hurt me. Never lay a hand on me in anger or madness. He's the gentlest soul I've ever known, the kindest heart to ever beat in tandem with mine.

But that was before. Before Elaine's cruelty, before Faulkner's sadistic games. Before they took the purest, most precious thing in our lives and twisted it into an instrument of torture.

"I can't abandon him," I whisper, my voice a thready, broken rasp. "I can't leave him to suffer alone, Natalie. What kind of wife, what kind of mother, would that make me?"

Natalie's expression softens, her eyes liquid with sympathy and shared grief. "The kind that understands that sometimes, the bravest thing we can do is step back. Let others take the lead, just for a little while, until it's safe to be in the fray again."

She presses a hand to my belly, her touch infinitely gentle. "This little one needs you, Cara. Needs you whole and healthy and ready to be the mama bear they deserve. And June... June needs to know that you're protected. That Faulkner can't use you as a pawn in his sick little game anymore."

I squeeze my eyes shut, hot tears leaking from beneath my lids to scorch trails down my cheeks. Every instinct, every fiber of my being, screams at me to fight. To claw my way to June's side and drag him out of the hell he's trapped in, no matter the cost.

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