Page 52 of Seduction

Ithink Hope is permanently traumatized. It’s been a week since they made our place a winter wonderland to make me feel better, and she is still hiding far under couches and beds if I’m not there with her. Not that I blame her.

Who would want to risk being caught on fire and then dunked and flushed in a toilet?!

For a group of grown ass men, they epically failed at handling that situation.

That being said, I love that they went all out and made the house so warm and inviting for Christmas, knowing it will be the first one I can celebrate where it actually feels like home.

I can’t promise I will be able to be the cheery, happy Haliee they want, but I will do my best.

“Ms. Morgan,” my teacher calls from the front as we’re packing everything up.

“Yes, sir?” I answer, hauling my bag over my shoulder and following Lukas to the front of the classroom.

“There’s been a package delivered to you this morning.” His eyes narrow on me, and I share a look with Luke.

“A package?” I ask, swallowing past the nervousness. Please don’t let it be another one from Dimitri.

I’ve received several of them over the past week and they all contain a letter and a photo of another body part.

First, it was a picture of a foot, then a picture of a woman’s legs, followed by a picture of her torso. Every image has the same outfit, so we know he’s sending pictures of one woman, but we aren’t sure who.

I have an inkling that it’s my mother, but it’s been so long since I’ve seen her, it would take seeing the woman’s face to know for sure.

If it is my mother, I don’t understand why he’s sending me pictures of her piece by piece like some sort of sick and twisted puzzle.

“Yes, Ms. Morgan. There was a package for you inside my teacher’s mailbox.” He shakes his head, pulling out a small bubble envelope and passing it to me. “Refrain from getting gifts delivered via teacher, will you?” he snaps, and Lukas growls at him, taking a step towards him.

“Refrain from speaking to women like that. I don’t know why I would need to point this out to you, but if someone left an unmarked envelope with her name on it in your mailbox, it most likely means she didn’t know about it!” Lukas snaps.

The teacher backs away from us, visibility shaken before nodding his head.

Lukas grabs my hand and pulls me out of the classroom as I clutch the envelope in my hand, shaking and too afraid to open it.

“Luke,” I whisper, my voice catching, and he pulls me into his side to guide me over to a bench.

“It’s going to be alright, Scratch. Whatever is in that envelope, we will deal with it.” He kisses the side of my head. “Do you want to wait until we get home to open it?” he asks, and I shake my head.

“No. It will just stress me out even more if it’s burning a hole in my bag all day.” I sigh and then rip open the envelope.

Holding it open, I see the polaroid and letter along with another, smaller envelope.

Pulling the picture out, I know it’s different from the one’s he’s sent me before because it doesn’t look dated in any way.

I close my eyes, taking a steadying breath before opening them and flipping the picture over. A sob breaks free as I look into my father’s eyes.

He’s sitting in a dark room, tied to a chair and his face looks like he’s been hit several times, but all at different stages. No one bruise is in the same healing phase as the other.

“Lukas,” I cry, throwing my hands around his neck.

His arms wrap around me, holding me tight as he tries to calm me down and I hear footsteps coming up behind us.

“Doll?” Creed’s voice cracks, and I sob into Luke harder, gripping the image of Dad tight.

“Take that picture, Creed,” Lukas orders and I have to fight Creed before he finally gets the image from my hands.

I don’t want to let it go. I want to torture myself and live in his pain because it’s my fault he was taken.

My own stupid and childish decisions are what ultimately allowed Dimitri to get his hands on him, and I will never forgive myself for that.

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