My Rescue Was Their Reunion, My Hell Was Their Project Chapter 06

My Rescue Was Their Reunion, My Hell Was Their Project Chapter 06

The color drained from all three of their faces at once. 

Julian was out of the car first, hitting the ground running before the car even shifted into park. 

“Elena!” 

He screamed my name. His hands reached for me – 

stopped. 

then 

I weighed almost nothing. The torn fabric of my clothes had fallen open, and underneath there was no skin left that deserved the word – just ulcerated wounds, thick, 

overlapping scar tissue, old and fresh fused together until there wasn’t a clean patch anywhere. 

Julian’s face went blank. Like something inside him had shut 

down. 

“What… what did they do to you…” 

Arthur stumbled forward and pulled me from Julian’s hands, pulling me hard against his chest. His tears fell hot onto my 

face. 

“Elena 

don’t do this to me. Open your eyes. Please, open 

your eyes – ” 

He shook me, and my torn collar shifted. Bruises covered my 

shoulders – violent, dark, fresh. 

Arthur went still. Then, with shaking hands, he pulled the 

fabric aside. 

Bruises. Everywhere. Chest, arms, waist. 

“No… no, no, no 

Nolan hadn’t moved. Three steps away, frozen. His throat bobbed. Nothing came out. 

Screams rose from the wedding guests. Phones whipped out. Flashes went off like strobe lights. 

Julian snapped out of it. He ripped off his jacket, wrapped it around my body, and turned on the crowd. 

“Put the cameras down! Get out – all of you, GET OUT!” 

He scooped me up and ran for the lobby, his voice breaking apart. “Someone call 911! Call a goddamn ambulance!” 

Arthur stayed on the ground where I’d landed. My blood on his hands. His mouth moved, but nothing came out. 

Nolan backed into the car and slid down the side until he hit the pavement. He pressed both hands over his face. His whole body shook. 

I watched all of it from above. Weightless. Detached. Already 

gone. 

The ambulance came. They loaded my body onto a stretcher. 

The ER light came on. The three of them paced the hallway like men who already knew how this ended and were just waiting for someone to say it out loud. 

Arthur pressed his forehead to the wall, hitting it again and again. “My fault… this is all my fault…” 

Julian put his fist through the wall. Bone cracked, the sound 

echoing down the corridor. He didn’t flinch. 

Nolan stood facing the ER doors. He hadn’t blinked. His eyes were raw, bloodshot all the way to the edges. 

Thirty minutes. The doors opened. The doctor lowered his 

mask, and his face told them before he did. 

“The patient fell eighteen stories. She has catastrophic skeletal trauma and massive internal hemorrhaging.” 

He paused. The pause hurt worse than the words. 

“During the examination, we found evidence of prolonged, systematic abuse. Her body is covered in injection sites. There’s extensive tissue necrosis under the skin. Multiple organs are in failure.” 

He looked at the three of them. None of them seemed to be breathing. 

“She also has end–stage cancer. It has metastasized throughout her body.”