Chapter 444
I wake up with a violent start, my chest heaving as my eyes snap open. For a second, I just lie there, disoriented and confused, trying to understand why my body feels so tense, why my heart is hammering like something terrible has happened… And then it hits me and my eyes widen as the connection I made yesterday before I fell asleep crashes over me like an avalanche. The moment it sinks in, I sit up so fast the room spins around me.
“Fuck,” I whisper breathlessly as I throw the blankets off and climb out of bed.
I start pacing as panic begins clawing its way through my chest. “No, no… That can’t be right p>
My hands drag through my hair roughly as I try to think logically.
Maybe my mind is playing tricks on me. Maybe I’m exhausted. Maybe I haven’t been sleeping properly and my brain is trying to connect things that aren’t actually connected. Maybe I’m hallucinating.
Maybe, maybe, maybe— But the more I try to deny it, the more impossible it becomes because it’s not just the eyes. Now that I’m really thinking about it, everything lines up so perfectly it makes me feel sick.
The voice, the hair color, the height, the build and even the shape of her brows. Eyes could have been a coincidence, but what about everything else? There is no way that those others are also a coincidence.
I stop pacing abruptly, breathing hard as realization crashes into me all over again. Elena is the nurse. The same nurse that tried to kill me after my accident.
“Oh my God.” The words come out broken.
How can she be the same woman who smiled at me during yoga sessions? The same one who comforted me while I cried over my daughter? The same one who sat across from me drinking coffee while pretending to care? How can that same woman be the one that wanted me dead months ago?
A scream rips out of me in frustration. I take a pillow and haul it in anger before grabbing my hair.
How did I miss it? How did I not see it before?
I clutch at my hair harder, my entire body shaking as every interaction replays in my head with horrifying clarity, but before I can even figure it out, the door suddenly flies open so hard it slams against the wall.
“Sierra!” Lilly rushes inside immediately before freezing at the sight of me.
I’m breathing hard, clutching my hair, pacing like I’m about to lose my mind. I must look completely insane and maybe I am because finding out the truth has just broken something in me.
Lilly reaches me in seconds and grabs my arms, forcing me to look at her.
“What happened?” she asks urgently. “What’s wrong p>
I open my mouth to answer, but no words come out because even now I still can’t fully process it.
I trusted Elena. Maybe not deeply, but enough to sit beside her, to speak openly around her, enough to let my guard down and now I’m realizing she’s been lying to me from the very beginning. The betrayal slices through me so sharply it physically hurts.
“Sierra,” Lilly says again more gently this time. “Breathe p>
I force myself to inhale and then exhale again and again, even though my thoughts still spin violently, but eventually I calm down enough to think clearly.
Lilly studies my face carefully. “Talk to me p>
I swallow hard before whispering, “Call Noah first p>
Her expression changes instantly.
“What p>
“I figured something out and I need his help getting to the bottom of it p>
Lilly doesn’t waste a second. She immediately pulls her phone out and starts dialing while I continue pacing the room restlessly. I barely even register her speaking because my thoughts are too loud and too restless for me to focus on anything but them.
Did Elena know I would be at the wellness center from the beginning? Was that whole thing planned? Did she intentionally get close to me so she could finish what she started months ago?
The thought makes my blood run cold and before that one could even sit, another realization crashes into me so violently I stop moving completely.
If Elena is the nurse, then does that mean she’s working with Brook? Or with the mysterious person helping Brook?
My breath catches as yet another realization hits me. Does that mean that she knows where my baby is?The thought nearly knocks the air out of me and without thinking, I grab my phone and immediately call Adrian.
“Sierra?” he answers on the first ring.
“Come to Lilly’s apartment, please,” I say immediately without even greeting him.