Chapter 1
902 Words
Helena's POV:
The call clicked dead. No sooner had the line gone silent than Martin's sneering laugh curled through the air.
"Brothers? You've lost your mind from fear, haven't you? You're just an orphan. Where the hell would you get nine brothers?"
I clenched my jaw so hard my teeth ached, every word of his unmasked contempt burning into my skin.
When I married Martin all those years ago, his younger brother had just passed away. To keep things low-key, I'd told my nine brothers not to come to the wedding.
I never would have guessed that he'd take that to mean I was a helpless orphan he could push around any way he wanted. I never would have guessed he'd actually hurt my own son without a single ounce of remorse!
"Mommy... it hurts!"
My son's whimper of pain cut through the room. I scrambled to yank him out of the vase and crushed him tight against my chest.
His tiny face was as pale as death, tears brimming over his wide eyes, every last bit of him screaming with pain.
"I beg you! Take Kyle to the hospital first! He's your own son!"
My voice shook so hard I could barely get the words out, I was already sinking toward my knees begging him.
Martin didn't even twitch. He just stared down at us from where he stood, cold and indifferent.
"Take him to the hospital? So the whole world can find out I, Martin Collins, have an autistic son? A useless waste like him, just being alive embarrasses me."
He waved a hand dismissively, barking an order to the bodyguards behind him.
"Stop the bleeding, don't let him die. I'm keeping him to put on a maimed freak show for Aria to enjoy."
Kyle's little body shook violently in my arms. "Mommy... it hurts so bad..."
It was the most complete sentence he'd ever spoken in all his years.
He rarely speaks, but this time he poured every last bit of his strength into crying out how much pain he was in. My heart felt like it was being ripped to shreds, tears blurring my vision until I could barely see.
"Baby, Mommy's right here. Don't be scared. Your uncles will be here soon."
I brushed my hand over his hot forehead and kissed his sweat-soaked hair.
Martin scoffed, "Autistics are all born useless. They can't even say a proper sentence. At least now he's good for something, making Aria happy. That's the only useful thing he's ever done."
I snapped my head up, my gaze boring into Martin like burning coals.
"Martin! How can you be so cruel? He's your own flesh and blood!"
He just laughed, cold and sharp.
"A defective kid never should have been born in the first place. All he does is cause trouble. Cut that miserable look out. If this one's gone, we can just have another healthy one later, easy."
Those words pierced right through the last tiny shred of hope I'd been clinging to.
Another one? To him, was Kyle really just a broken thing he could throw away like trash?
Right then, his phone buzzed.
He glanced at the screen, and his whole face softened in an instant. "Aria? What's wrong, baby?"
"Martin, I scraped myself by accident, it hurts so bad."
A soft, breathy, coquettish female voice drifted out of the speaker. Martin tensed up immediately, all concern.
"Don't panic! I'm bringing a doctor right over. Wait for me!"
He didn't even spare us a second glance before turning and hurrying out the door.
Staring at his hurried retreating back, my heart plummeted straight into a frozen pit, ice-cold all the way to my bones.
Once upon a time, he'd looked at me that same worried way.
Back when we first got married, I cut my hand pretty badly while cooking. He was so upset his eyes turned red, and from that day on, he never let me step foot in the kitchen again.
When I got pregnant with Kyle, he was even more on edge than I was. He padded every sharp corner of every table and chair in the whole house, terrified I'd bump or scrape myself by accident.
When Kyle first got diagnosed with autism, he pulled me into his arms and comforted me. "It's okay, we'll raise him together. He'll get better."
But all that warmth came to a screeching halt the second Aria William wriggled her way into our lives.
She was the widow of his little brother who'd died young.
She was Martin's first love.
Now, just a tiny little scratch on her was enough to send him rushing off in a panic, leaving his own dying son and his lawfully wedded wife behind without a second glance.
"Mommy..."
Kyle let out another faint, pained whimper, his big eyes swimming with raw terror and desperate pleading.
"Hold on just a little longer, baby. Your uncles are almost here, they're gonna save us," I murmured softly into his ear, all the while keeping a sharp, wary eye on the man by the door who was already getting his tools ready.
Martin thought I was just a helpless orphan with nobody to back me up. But what he didn't know was that I had nine brothers, all of them holding high-ranking positions in the military.
And right now, they were already barreling straight this way.
- Writer
