Page 238 of Deadly Sweet

“Guys? What's going on? Please, please help me.”

“You got that chain I asked you to set up, big brother?” Daphne asks Caleb.

Caleb looks three seconds away from ripping Ashley apart. “Yup.” Caleb pulls the chain that’s connected to the ceiling down. It’s supposed to hold up a punching bag, but Caleb took it down and added a hook.

Ashley looks at it and starts to panic. “Arms up,” Daphne instructs, yanking Ashley’s arms up to loop them over the hook where they are bound together at her wrists.

“Let me go!” she screams. “I didn’t do anything. You won’t get away with this!”

“Away with what?” Daphne asks, cocking her head to the side. “We only want to ask you some questions.”

“W-what questions? I’ll answer anything you want to know. You don’t need to do this.”

Walker storms over to her, getting in her face. “Be very fucking careful on how you choose to answer this question, Ashley. If you fucking lie to me, I’ll let her gut you like a fucking fish.”

Ashley's eyes widen in terror, her breathing bordering on hyperventilating.

“Is Athena our daughter?” Walker asks, and my heart fucking sinks at the panic in her eyes.

“Of course, she is.” Ashley lets out a hysterical laugh. “Why would you think she’s not?”

“I don’t know... maybe because Corbin Miller said she wasn’t,” Caleb adds, getting in close to Walker and right up in her face.

“W-who?” she asks, her voice going higher, her eyes flicking between Caleb and Walker. “Who’s that?”

“Don’t fucking lie to me!” Walker yells in her face. “You have three seconds to tell us the truth or I’ll let her do what ever the fuck she wants to you.”

“I’m sorry!” Ashley screams as she cries, screwing her eyes shut. “I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry.”

Caleb grabs Ashley by the throat and squeezes. Her eyes snap back open as she chokes.

“Tell us what happened, or I’ll cut your fucking tongue out of your lying mouth,” Caleb spits.

He lets her go, and she coughs. “I didn’t know what to do. I was lost. I was hurt. I was afraid of hurting you guys.”

“Why lie to us?” My voice cracks, the realization of what she’s saying sinking in. “Why not tell us the baby was stillborn? You would have been able to keep all the money we paid you. You had a signed contract that even if you had a miscarriage, you were protected. Why leave us in the dark and allow us to raise a child who wasn’t ours?”

“I didn’t want you guys to get hurt. You were so happy to be dads, I couldn’t break your hearts.”

I bark out a humorless laugh as I wipe my eyes. “Bullshit. You were afraid of losing out on all the money, living with us and being the baby's nanny would’ve gotten you.”

She swallows hard, and I know I’m right.

“So it’s true?” Walker asks, his voice shaking, his body vibrating. “You and Corbin came up with this crazy fucking plan to just pretend our baby didn’t die and replace her with another one?”

“I had to!” she sobs. “I had to. I needed the money. My mom is sick. My school bills, my–”

Daphne backhands her hard enough to make her head snap to the side. “Shut the fuck up,” she says in a low growl.

“Did you know?” I ask her. “Did you know when you met Savannah that Athena was her baby?”

Ashley’s eyes widen in shock. “W-what?” she shakes her head. “No. No, I had no idea. I didn’t know who the mother of the child was. He told me she died during childbirth.”

“So you just let some random man help you ruin people’s lives? Didn’t you think it was sketchy as fuck to just take some random fucking baby?” Daphne asks, but doesn’t let her answer. “No, because you're a sad, pathetic human who only thinks about herself. I looked into you, Ashley. Your mom isn’t sick. And sure, you have some school loans. But that money wasn’t for that. No, the guys paid you enough beforehand to pay that off. You owed the wrong people money, and you knew if you didn’t pay them back, you were as good as dead.”

“I’m sorry,” Ashley sobs, repeating it over and over again.

I stand there as everything comes shattering down around me.

---