Precarious

Chapter 24

"Where the hell were you, Sierra?" Ashley screamed. "Did you know that your brothers were wondering where you were? You're so selfish!"

"Where are they exactly?"

"Why is that any of your concern? You were the one who decided to wander off to wherever the hell you've been and now you're acting like you care about your brothers? Honestly, Stefano never should've agreed to take you in from the first place. You've caused nothing but trouble so far. When he gets back, I'm going to tell him to get rid of you. Dammit, I should've told Nancy to—"

Before she could finish her sentence, I punched her in the face. Instantly, blood started spilling from her mouth and she looked shocked. I guess she didn't expect me to do something like that. Neither did I, but I didn't regret doing that. In all honestly, she should've known that this treatment wasn't going to last.

After a few moments passed, she started to hit me multiple times. A few punches were targeted at my face, a couple of hits were directed to my torso, and Ashley kicked me to ensure that I wouldn't be able to fight back. Blood started leaking from my nose and mouth. Soon, I heard a crack, and it didn't take a genius to know that she broke my ribs. The pain I felt from what my mother did to me or that sparring match from earlier was nothing compared to this encounter. Unlike Ashley, my mother knew when to stop. Eventually I blacked out.

When I woke up, I found myself in a strange room. Only a few lights were illuminated, and from what little I could see, it looked more like a storage room than anything. My assumption was this was a basement or perhaps, a secret room located somewhere in this house. If anything, Ashley probably moved me here, and my brothers likely didn't know about this. Given that Ashley seemed like a massive manipulator, she'd probably let me out sometime later when Stefano came back in order to paint herself as the hero. Well, I was going to do everything in my power to stop that.

The first thing I had to do was locate an exit. Since the room didn't seem that large, I figured it would be easier to find a door. The only issue was I was badly injured, and too much movement would hurt my body a lot. I also had difficulty breathing because of my broken ribs, and there weren't any painkillers nearby. After looking around a while, I couldn't see any doors. That was strange, don't storage rooms have some sort of exit? If I got put here, there had to be some sort of logical explanation of how that happened. When looking around for a second time, I came to the conclusion that there were no doors. Something wasn't right.

Then it dawned on me — maybe I couldn't find an exit because I was looking for the wrong thing. I was so focused on trying to locate a door, that I neglected to find any other form of exit, one example being stairs that lead to a trapdoor. Of course, how could I be so stupid? Ashley was smart, she wouldn't put me in a place that I could easily escape. After all, she wanted to see me suffer.

Eventually, I found a ladder that lead to a part of the ceiling. Thankfully, the trapdoor opened so I was able to leave the room. I ended up in the kitchen where I overheard a conversation between Ashley and Gavin in the foyer.

"Ashley, I'm not joking, what the fuck did you do to her?"

"I don't have to tell you anything. Stefano and Jett are at work, Adrian's with his friends, and Cole's sleeping. Be careful with what you say though, you wouldn't want her death on your hands, right?"

"You're such a fucked up person. What does Stefano even see in you? Sierra never even did anything."

"She punched me in the face an hour ago. She's an unhinged child and if it was up to me, she'd be put in an orphanage already. Fucking piece of scum."

"If she punched you, then that's because you deserve it. It's not her fault that you're a disgusting piece of shit."

"It doesn't matter what you think. I'm not telling you where she is, and that's final. You've been nothing but a nuisance ever since I met you, and now, you're at my mercy. If you fuck this up, I'll kill that bastard child with my own hands. Do you really want that to happen?"