He Bet My Life On A Table And Called It Justice For Her Chapter 03

He Bet My Life On A Table And Called It Justice For Her Chapter 03

I woke to someone shaking me hard.

When I opened my eyes, all I saw was the stark white ceiling of a hospital room.

For one blinding second, joy surged through me.

“Bram!”

The voice that answered was Thane Calder’s low, furious growl.

“Auden Marlowe.”

I turned my head in a daze.

Thane stood beside the bed. His expensive suit was badly wrinkled, and the hair he always kept perfect was a mess.

His eyes were bloodshot. His voice was rough.

“Are you insane?”

“Greer gets a little attention, and now you’re cutting yourself? Ruining your legs wasn’t enough, so you went for your wrists too?”

“Do you understand that if I had been one second later, you’d be dead?”

“Greer is right next door. Blood makes her faint. If you want to die, can’t you do it somewhere far away from her?”

I wanted to die somewhere far away too.

But Uncle Thane, my Achilles tendons were severed because you ordered it.

I couldn’t even crawl that far.

His shouting made me lower my eyes.

In my memories, Thane Calder had once been gentle.

Whenever I got sick, he dropped everything and stayed by my bed all night.

He told awkward jokes just to make me laugh. If I said I wanted chicken noodle soup from the Dove Street Diner, he would drive across the entire city to get it.

Even when Greer first came to Calder House, he had stroked my hair and said, “Auden will always be the most important person to me.”

Then came that family dinner.

Greer suddenly collapsed, foaming at the mouth.

In the juice she had been drinking, Thane found traces of the medication I was allergic to.

That was the first time I saw him lose control like that.

“Auden Marlowe! You took this from my drawer, didn’t you? What else do you have to say?”

I shook my head desperately, tears blurring my vision.

But I couldn’t get a single word out.

A sharp ringtone cut through the memory.

The moment Thane saw Greer’s name on the screen, all the anger on his face vanished.

In its place came a softness I hadn’t seen in so long it almost hurt to look at.

“Greer, don’t be scared. It’s fine now.”

“How could Auden really be willing to die? She’s throwing a childish tantrum. She knows you can’t handle blood, so she did it to scare you. I already yelled at her.”

“All right. I’ll come back now. I’ll bring your favorite strawberry shortcake from Hearthline.”

He ended the call.

The tenderness on his face froze over at once. His eyes cut back to me, cold as glass.

“Greer has been crying nonstop. She can’t even eat.”

“She was finally doing a little better, and because of your little stunt, she’s spiraling again.”

“You’ll stay here and think about what you did. When you learn how to behave, I’ll consider taking you back.”

After that, he yanked roughly at the gauze around my wrist and adjusted the IV drip.

Then he turned and slammed the door behind him.

I watched his back disappear and laughed softly.

Don’t worry, Uncle Thane. I’ll make sure I die far away. I won’t get in your way again.

I turned my head toward the window.

This was a private recovery center by the ocean. Below the building, steep cliffs dropped into the waves, and the water crashed white against the rocks.

Good.

This was far enough.

Clean enough too.

I gripped the edge of the bed.

Using every bit of strength I had left, I pushed my body up with my arms, dragged myself onto the window ledge, and fell like a dead leaf.

As I dropped, the door burst open.

Thane had come back.

He stood in the doorway, his eyes splitting wide with horror.

He had returned for the cake he had bought for Greer and left behind.

When he passed my room, his heartbeat had suddenly raced for no reason.

Something made him come inside.

Just in time to see me fall.

“Auden!”

His scream was torn apart by the wind.

Maybe I really was cursed. I couldn’t even die properly.

When they pulled me from the water, I coughed so hard it felt like my chest was tearing open.

Seawater and blood poured from my mouth.

Thane grabbed the collar of my soaked hospital gown and laughed in sheer rage.

“Auden, are you ever going to stop?”

I couldn’t answer.

A slap cracked across my face with the force of the wind.

Half my face went numb. The thick taste of blood spread through my mouth.

Thane’s hand was shaking. His chest rose and fell hard for a long time before he forced two words through his teeth.

“Take her back.”

His bodyguards shoved me into the back seat of the car.

In the dark, with the car jolting beneath me, my consciousness scattered piece by piece.

For a moment, I thought I heard my brother’s voice in the dark, warm and almost smiling.

He was calling me by my old nickname.

Audie.