CHAPTER FIFTY SEVEN: ESCAPING EVIL'S GRASP

\-BELLA- 

"What could she possibly be doing with Catherine?" I whispered to myself as I watched the bloodstained Catherine groan with her mouth taped and her arms cuffed. 

"Catherine here happens to be more than just your maid." Delilah let out a chuckle. 

She snapped her fingers, the sound bouncing back before a little boy walked in with a letter. The boy was no ordinary boy; he was a criminal, a very hardened criminal who could wash away the forces with his fingertips. 

"Madam Delilah, the doctor happens to be a miscreant who wants us gone. He's indicated our location to the cops, but I had killed him and turned the indicator off." He huffed.

"Jim, my boy. There's no need to be worried; the cops are the least of our problems. They'd barely be able to survive an attack from our forces." She flicked her wrist, a protruding ring on her finger. 

"Do you know that Jarvis has a kid?" She let out. 

She walked towards me, the wooden board creaking beneath her feet. Her jean trousers stood firmly on her legs, giving her flexible movement space. 

"Here you go." A smile lit up on her face as she passed me the envelope. 

I grabbed the envelope, unable to open it with one arm. The chains weren't helping matters as they kept my hands inches away from each other. 

*Oh! You can't open a single envelope. What a cripple." She snatched the envelope from my arms, unveiling it the next instant. 

"Do you need help reading it?" Jim let out, jumping to get a hold of the paper. 

"Go to your room now, Jim. You'll have a lot of time to play with your victims." She chuckled, directing the little boy to the darkness.

"See you later, Mom. Don't stay late playing with them." He said playfully. 

"Mom? He's your son." I exclaimed. 

She said nothing, unfolding the white paper from the envelope. With the paper properly stretched, she let her arm swing over, the paper landing before me. The words were written boldly, my eyes capturing the information. 

"DNA Test." My eyes lingered on the words as I kept spotting my name along with Catherine's. 

"Result positive?" I stood there stunned, unable to believe what I had seen. 

"It's true, Bella, you're blood-related to Catherine over here." She held up a smile. 

"We are not blood-related; don't say that. I can't believe that. This is forged, forged I tell you." I retorted, not wanting to believe the fact.

"I wouldn't say so." She began pacing around, watching me struggle with the chains. "I've checked using four doctors and yes, five criminal inspectors who have an A class before leaving the cops jurisdiction."

"I don't believe you." I spat.

"Suit yourself." She walked towards Catherine, stashing out the tape on her mouth. 

"Catherine darling, would you be so kind as to let your sister know the truth?" She raised an eyebrow as she stared at the ruffled Catherine. 

"Is it true, Cath?" 

She didn't speak, dead words falling from her mouth. Noneewould speak at such an intense time, but she had to be an exception. She was fearless, stood up against me a couple of times, and didn't even budge at my threats. 

"Speak up, Catherine. You know you've always wanted to tell her, or wasn't that the reason you became a maid for the Mercedes?"

The temperature of the room rose, the heat smacking me on the face as I stared at terrified Catherine. She wasn't poised enough to speak; she couldn't. 

"Cath?" I uttered, hoping Delilah was joking around. 

"It's the truth, Mandy." Catherine spoke. 

A bitter look on her face explained that she was telling the truth. Her head was lowered, her hands crunched to knuckles as she kept on repeating her words. 

"Mandy? Who's Mandy?" My eyes narrowed as I tried to refuse the name I had once borne in the orphanage. 

"Yours, Bella." Delilah laughed. "Your real name is Mandy Madelyn. You do know that because you were fifteen before you got adopted at the orphanage."

"Who gave you this information?" I clenched my fist, the chains making clanking sounds behind me. 

"We're criminals; information is the least we can get without having to struggle." 

"So what do you plan on doing with this information?" I asked. 

"Since you're so curious and in chains, I'll put you through. Catherine here has a ledger, or shall I say journal, where she keeps all her knowledge." She bent before Catherine. "We'll use that to find your journal and spread the word about the fallen Mercedes who killed her ex-boyfriend."

"You can't find my journal, Delilah; no one can." I blurted out. 

"The journals you ladies have are twin pairs, connected with a button tracker. All we have to do is link it, and we'll get that journal within minutes." She chuckled mischievously. 

"Good luck to you." I held up a smirk as she turned her back on me. 

"Chain the maid opposite the lady. Let them bond before I get their heads away from their neck." Delilah ordered the hefty men, who bolted to action, locking Catherine with the chains. 

"And don't you dare think of escaping. I almost forgot, you're stuck to the walls." They laughed at their humor as they walked into the darkness. The metallic door closing behind them. 

"How come, Catherine? How could you get captured?" I asked. 

"You're here too; why ask me?" She snorted, her face stern. 

"I walked in here by myself." My stomach suddenly went soft as a hollow feeling built up in me. Sorrow had never for once been a thing of mine, and it wouldn't be at this point. 

"So why are you in chains then?" She raised her eyebrows. 

"There's nothing to see here. It's all just a plot, a plot to throw the enemy off their guard and let me live in peace." I grinned. 

"You're going up really well in those chains." She averted her gaze, staring into the darkness. "Artemis is still in trouble, deep trouble to be precise."

I gazed at her pale and worried face. Her hands dripping with blood, she had been cut more than three, maybe five. I wasn't sure about the numbers, but the blood was enough to lose emhereif not taken care of.

"Big Mom sent me on an errand to get some things for her. I had been carried away by the fascination the building gave that I didn't realize that I was being followed. I returned to the mansion just in time and headed for my quarters, but that only made things worse." She tilted her head. 

"They attacked me when I was about to go to sleep, stopped me from shouting with a bag over my head. They injected me with some kind of serum, made me sleepy, and when I woke up, I was in this underground facility." Tears flowed down her eyes. 

"You should have just left when I told you to leave a month back. Without you I would have accomplished all my plans, and there'd be nothing stopping me." I flushed. 

"Artemis suffered all because of you. I can't let you do that to her a second time by taking her right. Aren't you satisfied that you have a family to live with? I lived all on my own after I ran away from the orphanage."

"We're not the same." I groaned. "You left me alone, left me to die in the rubble while you got to run a coffee shop with that old hag." 

"That old hag is the only reason you're alive. He made sure he gave me enough bonuses, which I sent to the nuns as your upkeep and saved you from your illness. Did you think the orphanage decided to help you on their own?" 

"That's a lie."

I was always alone, no pity, no sympathy; everything about me was littered in the darkness. I had been ill, told I wasn't going to survive if I couldn't get treated within a week. The money was huge, able to feed the orphanage for years, but I never went through the treatment because they felt they couldn't save a child when there was a lot more to keep in order. 

The nuns had blessed me with holy water, praying for me to be cured, but I was only getting worse. Two days before the end of the week, I was given out to the Mercedes, and I had my treatment before time was up. 

"The Mercedes and the old hag are family. He hid his identity from me till he was murdered in cold blood. He had pleaded with his childless son to adopt me, but I claimed you needed it more. I never left you."

"Stop trying to create a fictional world. You didn't do anything. I was blessed to be with the Mercedes; no one worked it out for me." 

"That's it there, the only reason why you keep falling off the railings. The urge to become who you're not." She said, a frown on her face. 

"You know nothing about me."

"I know that you have zero chances when it comes to Artemis. You're still the same nobody, and you'll always be."