Page 128 of Done Waiting

“Don’t get excited, killer. What you did to Brittany is disgusting. I have zero respect for you.”

Ben’s eyes light up and I think I’m going to vomit. “Ah, Brittany was such a beautiful girl. She looked even better when the life drained from her eyes.”

“You’re a sick bastard,” I grunt, disgust swirling inside me like a tornado.

“I’m glad you brought her up. I have a surprise for you.” He claps his hands together. “I have a video to show you.” He pulls his phone from his pocket, then pushes a button and flips it around so my mom and I can see it. I try to lunge for his phone but he pulls it back, shoving me against the wall. The breath is knocked out of me when I hit it. “Tsk, tsk, Maddie. You should know better.” He flashes me a vile smile as I wince, pain shooting down my spine. His eyes dart to my mom. “Maddie is more of a fighter than you are.”

Although I hate Ben and am furious at him, his words cause me to look over at my mom. She glares at Ben. “Maybe I’m just not as stupid as she is,” she hisses.

Ouch.Narrowing my eyes, I glare at her until she turns her head to mine. A look passes between us, like she’s trying to send me a signal. I just don’t know what it is.

“Control yourself, Maddie,” Ben snaps. “You need to see this.” He holds the phone out again, keeping it out of my reachand hits play. “Belinda Hillyard. She was quite the beauty. She was the star of the video I sent to Jagger. Did he show it to you?” That fanatical gleam is back in his sapphire orbs, his face twisted with a strange psychotic pride.

When I don’t answer, he chuckles, stooping down in front of me. If I wasn’t in so much agony from my back and head, I’d kick him in the nuts.

Ben reaches out, and I try to turn my head, but I’m not quick enough. One hand holds my chin in place while the other caresses my skin. Trembling, I bite my lip, closing my eyes.

But they fly open when he says the words that fill me with sickening revulsion. “Belinda stayed on that same mattress that you’re sitting on.”

My spine snaps straight, bile burning the back of my throat as an uncontrollable shudder sweeps through my body. “You’re fucking psychotic.”

As soon as the words leave my lips, fear courses through my spine. But I relax when Ben laughs. “I’ve been called far worse.”

He releases me, standing and pacing again. “There’s so much you don’t know, young Maddie. Things that Maura here is aware of, though.” He flashes his teeth at her, an insincere smile with eyes simmering from rage. “Let me start with this. Don’t act so snobby about the conditions in which you find yourself. The foster home I lived in as a child was horrific. It was very similar to where you find yourself now. I slept on a mattress on the floor and was only given a tiny blanket to cover up with. No toys or anything. They packed the kids in the bedroom and kept the refrigerator padlocked, so we were only fed when our foster parents allowed us to eat.”

I can’t help but feel a wave of sympathy crash through me. “I’m sorry, Ben,” I whisper.

He rolls his eyes. “Don’t be such a bleeding fucking heart, Maddie. It toughened me up. Helped shape me into who I amnow.” He chuckles, gaze moving to my mom. “Maura helped ensure that. Didn’t you?” His face hardens as he slowly moves closer to her. His hand shoots out, wrapping around her throat. “Answer me, bitch.”

I freeze, the choking noises coming from my mom catching me off guard.

“Stop it, Ben.” Twisting, my hands shoot out, grabbing his arm. He shrugs me off, one hand leaving my mom’s throat as he jabs his elbow into my eye.

Ow. Fuck.I lay on the smelly mattress, my eye watering and hurting, my bound hands covering it.

Ben resumes choking her, the noises made me cringe, before he stops, her loud gasps as she sucks in oxygen fill the room. Slowly, I push back onto the dirty mattress. It takes me several attempts to sit up, but finally I do.

“Yes,” my mom finally chokes out.

Tears come from my eye that he elbowed as soon as I move my hand away, flowing down my cheek. “What are you talking about?” Wiping my cheek, I blink several times, finally able to focus on them.

“Do you want to tell her, Maura?” Ben’s voice is as cold as an iceberg as he glares at my mom.

She nods, sucking in a breath, before exhaling. “I was the social worker who helped him get placed into a foster home. Ben was sent to live with his grandparents in Pennsylvania, but they were in a fatal car accident three months after he arrived. I was no longer his social worker when I accepted a job as a social worker for the prison while going to school to become a police officer.”

Oh. She screwed him over, just like she did Jagger.

“You did more than that, didn’t you, Maura?” He doesn’t raise his voice, but the fury in it is palpable. “You had me placedin that fucking horrific home because you were biased against what my father did and assumed I’d turn out just like him.”

My mom swallows hard. “Your father raped a thirteen-year-old virgin. She was barely alive when she managed to escape. She was the youngest of the dozen young women he raped.”

Ben, who had been pacing around the room, whips around and storms over to her. He points his finger in her chest, spittle flying from his lips, as he loses his composure. “And my dad was thrown in jail. My mother killed herself when she found out what he’d done, and I was left with a life of misery.All because of you,” he screams, slapping my mom across the face. Her head turns with the hit, the loud crack making me wince.

He takes a step back, his body trembling from rage. I watch him cautiously, knowing he’s extremely volatile. “But that’s not all you did, is it, Maura?” Ben’s voice is eerily calm compared to the rage twisting his face into a grotesque monster. “Tell your daughter how you used your college boyfriend, Lawrence, who became a police officer after he graduated college and moved to Florida. Tell her how you helped him frame my father, acting as an accomplice, and in exchange, he’d help you get promoted since his uncle was a prominent political figure who pulled some strings for you.”

My head snaps to my mom, who ignores me. All her focus is on Ben, her eyes flashing venomously, her jaw clenched.

Ben snaps and rushes to her, slamming her against the wall, his hand wrapped around her throat. “Tell her,” he screams, spittle flying from his mouth as he seethes at her.

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