My Savior Became My Betrayal Chapter 04
The pressure cut off my air. I swatted frantically at his hands, gagging. “What… what are you talking about?”
Kennith shoved me away in a blind rage and kicked over the table.
“Letty told me everything! You hit her this afternoon and acted completely insane!
“She just took Ernie to the pharmacy to get his wound bandaged, and when she turned her back, he was gone!
“Who else would kidnap a three-year-old? It had to be you!”
I coughed violently, staring at him in sheer disbelief.
“I haven’t even left the house! Kennith, have you lost your mind?”
“You’re the one who’s lost your mind!”
Kennith’s eyes were bloodshot. He pointed a finger inches from my face and screamed at the top of his lungs.
“You’ve been spraying me with alcohol every single day for the past six months, and you’ve completely lost it! Now you’re targeting an innocent kid!
“Call whoever you hired and bring him back, right now!”
I backed away, gritting my teeth. “I told you, I haven’t seen him! If you can’t stand this anymore, we can get a divorce!”
I turned to grab the divorce papers from the overturned table.
“You aren’t going anywhere until you tell me exactly where Ernie is!”
Kennith suddenly grabbed the back of my collar.
A sharp tearing sound followed.
The sheer force of his grip ripped my shirtdress open, sending buttons clattering across the floor.
The chill air hit my bare skin.
Before I could even react, he seized my wrist and dragged me violently toward the bathroom.
“Kennith, what are you doing? Let me go!”
I screamed in terror.
In that moment, his grip felt exactly like the hands of those men in the back alley when I was sixteen.
“If you don’t hand Ernie over, I’m going to knock some sense into you today!”
He kicked the bathroom door open and slammed me down into the cold bathtub.
Reaching up, he turned on the shower, sending freezing water pouring directly over my head and face.
“Help…”
Choking on the water, I thrashed wildly, desperate to climb out of the tub.
Kennith yanked off his belt, wrenched my arms behind my back, and strapped my wrists tightly to the bathtub’s metal handrail.
I writhed uncontrollably, my entire body shivering in the freezing water.
Turning away, Kennith pulled a large jug of rubbing alcohol from beneath the sink.
He unscrewed the cap and dumped the pungent liquid straight over my head.
“You like tormenting people with alcohol, don’t you? Tell me! Where exactly is Ernie?”
The strong fumes instantly stole my breath, and the chemicals burned my eyes.
Ignoring my distress, Kennith shoved my head down into the liquid pooling at the bottom of the tub.
I gagged, managing only a few muffled sounds as severe cramps gripped my stomach.
“It hurts…”
Before I could even finish the sentence, a sudden, piercing pain tore through my belly.
A second later, a stream of warm liquid rushed down the inside of my thighs.
The warmth mixed with the icy bathwater, spreading fast and turning the tub a stark, bright red.
I stared blankly at the blood in the water and went completely still.
Just then, his phone rang from where he had tossed it onto the bathroom counter.
He hesitated when he saw the caller ID, then answered it.
Through the speaker, a police officer’s voice came through, sounding thoroughly exasperated. “Is this Mr. Rowlett? Your son isn’t missing.
“He wandered up to the mall’s top floor to play on the slide. When we found him, he was eating ice cream.
“You parents failed to supervise your child, yet you insisted someone kidnapped him with the intent to murder. Aren’t you just wasting police resources?”
For a long moment, the only sound left in the bathroom was the water spraying from the showerhead.
A loud crash echoed through the room.
The phone and the bottle of rubbing alcohol slipped from Kennith’s hands, clattering to the floor.
He whipped his head around, all the color draining from his face.