Nine C-Section, Nine Dead Sons, One Escape novel Chapter 4

They carried out the small casket.

My baby lay inside, stiff and still, his skin a dead white. Needle marks covered his tiny body.

My clothes hung in shreds, but I lunged toward him. My knees smashed into the marble floor three steps short of the casket.

Too much torture. Too many days. My legs simply gave out.

The impact of kneecap against stone sent black spots swimming across my vision.

I ground my teeth and crawled. Reached for that small, rigid body.

Julian stared down at me, his expression a tangle of something I couldn’t read, and frowned. “Step aside. Don’t interfere with the psychic’s work.”

I wrapped myself around my child and screamed until my voice splintered.

*“He was your son too! How can you be this cruel? You won’t even let him rest after death?”

Julian signaled for them to restrain me, his voice heavy.

compromise Priscilla’s health.”

He crouched down, trying to sound reasonable.

“The child is gone. I won’t let him

“You hurt Priscilla first. Now your child’s spirit won’t move on. This debt, both of you owe it to her.”

Strength I didn’t know I had erupted from somewhere deep inside me. I slammed into Julian,

broke free of the hands holding me.

I clutched my stiff, lifeless child and grabbed a steak knife off the buffet table, brandishing it at everyone. “Touch him! Anyone touches my child, I’ll kill you!”

Julian stumbled back from my shove. When he straightened, his face was a thunderhead.

“Vivienne! Put the knife down! Do you have any idea you’re delaying Priscilla’s treatment?”

At his command, several security guards charged in.

I slashed wildly with the knife, but they disarmed me in seconds and pinned me face–first to the floor.

They ground my cheek into the crushed ice of the buffet table. Ice shards carved bloody streaks across my skin.

The moment they tore my child from my arms, I heard my own heart shatter.

The occult psychic hoisted the baby high.

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That tiny body hung in the air, limp limbs dangling, every needle mark facing me.

The leather whip came down. Skin split on impact. Dead white flesh tore open, revealing raw, red meat beneath.

Another lash. The skin over his ribs burst apart. White bone glinted through the carnage.

Crack!

Every blow landed on my heart.

Bloody tears streaked down my face. My shriek clawed through the air like a curse from the grave.

“Julian Ashworth! You’ll die screaming! Your name dies with you!”

Right on cue, Priscilla coughed up a mouthful of blood and clutched her chest, eyes glistening.

“Julian… if Vivienne can’t bear to let go… then let it be… I’ll just welcome the end…”

Julian pulled her into his arms, his face twisted with anguish. Then he fixed the psychic with a

savage glare.

“Strike harder!”

The psychic made another calculation and looked up, feigning reluctance.

“Mr. Ashworth, Mrs. Ashworth’s interference closed the window. A flogging won’t cut it anymore. To

break this, we burn the remains and scatter the ashes.”

Julian didn’t blink.

“Do it.”

The system had promised me my nine children would be reborn. But the condition was they

had to be laid to rest properly.

I burned through the last of my strength and broke free of my captors.

I crawled on my knees to Julian and wrapped my arms around his legs. I slammed my forehead into the floor, bloody tears streaming, and begged. “Please… don’t hurt him anymore… he’s your own flesh and

blood… he’s still so tiny…”

Julian shielded Priscilla and stepped backward, then drove his foot hard into my shoulder. One more sound out of you, and I’ll have the rest of them dug up and burned too!”

“Enough!

The force flung me backward.

The back of my skull cracked against the floor. Pain detonated through my head.

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The system notification chimed. [Thirty seconds until world disconnect.]

I lay rigid in a pool of my own blood and watched the psychic lift my child. Watched him hurl that small body into the roaring Great Fireplace.

A heartbeat of silence.

Then I launched myself into the flames after him.

As the fire swallowed me whole, Julian’s scream ripped through the room behind me.

“NO!”

Chapter 4