Chapter 49 In The Boathouse
Serena
Mrs. Rivers lifted her hand and smacked me hard across the cheek.
My head snapped to the side from the force of it.
The sting exploded across my skin, causing my cheeks to heat up.
I fought to hold it in, but a small, involuntary gasp still slipped out.
She snatched the phone from my trembling fingers.
“Time’s up,” she purred into the speaker, knowing full well that Saint and Sin were still on the line, listening.
At least I had done one thing right, I had managed to call them. Our location was now out in the open. She clearly hadn’t expected me to have a phone at all.
The moment Saint and Sin left after Mrs Hale's shocking announcement, I knew something bad would go down.
That nagging feeling that I needed to go grab my phone refused to leave me, so I went and took it. Not long after, Mrs Rivers and Lara forced me and Mrs Hale to follow them out of the house.
“You should have learned by now,” she said, turning her cold gaze back to me, “that what belongs to me stays with me.”
With a sly, satisfied smirk, she ended the call and let the phone drop to the wooden floor of the boathouse we were in.
It landed with a loud, final crack that echoed in my head.
Then she lifted one stiletto-clad foot and brought it down.
Once. Twice. Three times. Four. I winced every time it made the ‘kraaaa’ sound.
The sharp heel shattered the screen into glittering pieces, the glass cracking and splintering until the entire display fell out in jagged tatters.
“You thought you ruined my plans?” she asked, her voice dripping with mock sweetness. “You only made things easier for me. But frankly, I never thought they were this obsessed with you. Deep enough to follow you all the way down to Mexico.”
Her lips curled into a cruel smile. “The drama will be fun, don’t you think?”
I swallowed the metallic taste of blood that had pooled in my mouth when her slap made me bite my tongue.
“I think you’re a thief,” I said, my voice steady despite the fire burning in my cheek. “You stole children that didn’t belong to you. Now you’re trying to steal an entire family legacy. For what? So you can lead a cult of bitter widows just like you?”
Mrs. Rivers’ smile faltered for half a second, just long enough for me to see the flicker of rage beneath the perfect mask.
Then it returned, colder and sharper than before.
All thanks to Mrs Hale, I now had full knowledge of what her plans were.
“You have no idea what you’re talking about, little girl.”
I lifted my chin, refusing to back down even though my legs were shaking.
“I know enough,” I said. “I know you poisoned Mr Rivers. I know you’ve been manipulating everyone for years. And I know you’re terrified that the twins will deal with you. What I don't understand is how you managed to hide the truth for so long.”
She stepped closer, towering over me in her heels, her eyes gleaming with pure hatred.
“You think you’re special because they fuck you?” she hissed. “You’re just a warm hole to them. A toy. A distraction. When they realize what you’ve cost them, they’ll throw you away like the trash you are.”
I smiled, though it was small and weak, it was defiant.
“Then why are you so scared of me?”
Her hand twitched like she wanted to slap me again.
But she didn’t. Instead, she straightened her spine, smoothed her already-perfect dress, and looked down at me with icy contempt.
“Because you’re a complication,” she said. “And I don’t like complications.”
“I won't let you get rid of me that easily. You brought me into a boat-house in Mexico. Really?” I asked her.
Mrs. Rivers had dropped the phone in her haste, forgetting one crucial detail: this boathouse was old and weak.
The floor beneath us was rotting wood, the kind my father’s friend used to warn us about when I was a kid.
“Never stomp,” he’d say. “You’ll cause a leak.”
Once, at fifteen, I had fallen straight through the floor and landed right on top of his nineteen-year-old son.
It was the most embarrassing moment of my teenage life, and after that, I made sure never to visit them if they were in the boathouse.
But right now? It was going to be my salvation.
“Of course,” Mrs. Rivers sneered. “There are fishermen here who will take you for the amount I’m offering.”
It was my turn to smile, because she had no idea she'd shot herself in the foot.
“You brought the wrong girl.”
“What…?” she asked, confusion flickering across her face for the first time.
I didn’t explain. I jumped. I brought my full weight down with every ounce of strength I had left.
The floor groaned, then gave way with a loud, splintering crack.
Mrs. Rivers shrieked like a mother hen whose chicks were being taken, her arms flailing as she tried to catch herself.
I fell through the broken wood and landed hard on the sacks of rice piled below.
She wasn’t so lucky. She crashed onto a stack of fishing apparatus, I mean the nets, hooks, and metal poles, with a sickening thud.
She fainted on impact. I pretended not to see her.
Ignoring the sharp pain blooming in my hip, I pushed myself up and went in search of Mrs. Hale.
I moved quickly, because I knew Mrs. Rivers would be up soon.
“Serena!” Mrs. Hale whisper-shouted from the far end of the lower level.
She was stretching her hand desperately through the narrow gaps between two thick wooden bars.
They had tossed her into a makeshift wooden cell.
Lara had been the one to suggest they separate us to prevent us from making any plans.
I rushed over, ignoring the ache in my side, and grabbed her hand through the bars.
“I’m getting you out,” I whispered, already looking for a way to break the lock.