Snakes Terrified Me, I Left My Husband

Chapter 5

Beatriz shook her head desperately, lunging forward in a frantic attempt to grab him, but she only managed to catch the hem of his pant leg.

"Lucas, I swear to God, whatever happened to Hazel had absolutely nothing to do with me! Please don't do this!"

Lucas didn't even flinch. He just cast a cold, detached look down at her from above, then gave his bodyguard a sharp nod. "Get her out of here."

The bodyguard ruthlessly dragged Beatriz off the floor. Following the doctor's orders, they hauled her straight into the treatment room and strapped her into the electroshock therapy chair.

Beatriz thrashed against the restraints, her voice filled with absolute terror. "No! Please, stop!"

The next second, the doctor flipped the master switch. A violent surge of electricity ripped through her body. A bone-chilling, agonizing pain radiated through every single nerve ending, and she instantly lost control, letting out a blood-curdling scream. "Ah!"

Even through the heavy, closed door of the treatment room, Lucas could hear her screams echoing down the hall. His brow furrowed as a sudden pang of guilt hit him, and he instinctively took a step back toward the room.

Hazel quickly leaned her weight into his chest, blocking him. "It's just a pathetic act to get your attention. Don't tell me you're actually feeling sorry for her right now."

Lucas looked down at the bruised, messy marks on Hazel's body, and the tiny shred of sympathy he had just felt for Beatriz vanished into thin air. "You're right. It's about time she learned her lesson. This will make damn sure she never dares to bully you again."

With that, he bent down, scooped Hazel up into his arms, and turned his back on the room.

Inside the chamber of horrors, Beatriz forced her tear-filled eyes open just in time to see Lucas pick up his sister and walk away without a single backward glance.

Hazel looked back over his shoulder, her face twisted into a smug, triumphant smirk meant to mock her.

Beatriz's eyes burned with pure, unadulterated hatred as she glared at her. She thrashed against the leather straps, wishing she could break free, sprint out there, and rip that arrogant, psychotic look right off Hazel's face.

But her resistance only earned her another massive jolt of electricity.

Again and again, the current tore through her. The room became a loop of endless, blinding torture. Beatriz wept until her tear ducts ran dry, her throat bleeding and raw from screaming.

By the time the machines finally clicked off, her muscles gave out completely. She slid right out of the chair, collapsing onto the cold tile floor. Her entire body convulsed with involuntary post-shock tremors.

But the nightmare wasn't over. There were still two men left in the room.

One of them was holding up a smartphone, steadily recording the scene, while the other slowly began unbuttoning his shirt.

As the second man stripped, he looked down at Beatriz, a disgusting smile spreading across his face. "Hey, don't blame us, Miss Cadler. We're just getting paid to take care of a problem. You brought this on yourself the second you tried to compete with Miss Thorne over a man."

"Look at the bright side. Even if Mr. Mercer thinks you're damaged goods and dumps you after he sees this tape, a gorgeous girl like you can always just screw around with me instead."

Beatriz's pupils shrunk to pinpricks. Panic giving her a final burst of adrenaline, she dragged herself backward across the floor. "Don't touch me! Whatever Hazel is paying you, I will match it! I'll give you ten times that amount! A hundred times!"

The man just threw his head back and laughed in her face. "Come on, you're just Mr. Mercer's side piece. How much money could an ordinary girl like you possibly have?"

Beatriz's face drained of what little color it had left. To keep her safe from high-society predators, her parents had spent her entire life hiding her true identity. To the rest of the world, she was just a nobody from a middle-class family.

Beatriz scrambled to explain. "I'm serious, you have to believe me! I have money! I'm loaded!"

But the guy had completely lost his patience. He reached down, clamped his hand around her jaw, and leaned his greasy, repulsive face straight into hers.

Overwhelmed by a wave of pure nausea, Beatriz used every ounce of strength left in her arms to shove him away. "Get away from me! Don't touch me! Get the hell off me!"

The man's face darkened instantly. He raised his hand and swung.

Smack!

A blinding, white-hot pain exploded across her cheek. Beatriz collapsed sideways, her ears ringing so loudly she felt completely dizzy and lightheaded.

The man grabbed a handful of her hair, yanking her head back violently. "You better start behaving yourself right now, b***h, or things are going to get a whole lot uglier for you."

Beatriz stared up at him through a blurred, spinning haze. Between the electroshock and the beating, her consciousness was slipping fast. But one fierce, stubborn thought burned through the fog in her brain.

She could not let them do this to her. She would rather die than let them destroy her dignity.

As the man's hands carelessly traveled over her skin, a flash of lethal determination lit up her eyes. She suddenly threw her head back with everything she had, then drove her forehead straight into his face in a brutal headbutt.

Bang!

"Ah! Goddammit!"

The man let out a pathetic shriek, clutching his bloody nose as he stumbled backward and released her.

Beatriz scrambled up from the floor, gasping for air.

The guy who had been holding the phone suddenly realized things were going sideways. Terrified that she was going to bolt out into the hallway, he lunged toward the treatment room door to barricade the exit.

But Beatriz didn't run for the door. She sprinted straight for the window.

Before either of the men could even process what she was doing, she threw herself over the ledge and jumped out into the open air without a single moment of hesitation.

Down on the first floor, Lucas was walking through the lobby, still carrying Hazel toward the exit.

Suddenly, a sickening, heavy thud echoed from the courtyard outside.

A second later, someone outside the glass doors let out a horrified shriek. "Help! Oh my God, someone just jumped off the building!"

Lucas's chest tightened in a sudden, inexplicable grip of sheer panic. He whipped around, and the blood completely drained from his face as his reality shattered.

"Bea!"

Beatriz was crumpled on the pavement just a few yards behind him, a dark pool of blood slowly spreading across the concrete beneath her broken body.