Days felt like weeks and weeks felt like months and the nights felt like torture, leaving me absolutely alone and in the dark. I had no idea if or when Harry was ever coming back, despite what Dr. Blake had led me to believe.

I was in agony for several more days while he cleaned my wound and changed the bandages. While the physical pain gradually began to lessen, it was my heart that hurt more and more without knowing what had happened to Harry and where he was and if he was ever truly coming back. I had begun to convince myself that I could stay in this wretched place forever if only he would come back and be here with me. What could they possibly be doing with him?

Or to him?

Late one afternoon, I realized that I was extremely hungry so I went to the refrigerator and found that the fresh food was starting to spoil. I looked in the freezer and found frozen pizza. I unwrapped two and preheated the oven. I preheated the oven and found some juice that was still good and gulped it down. Water was getting old. I unwrapped the pizzas and soon noticed that the oven was smoking and small flames were licking the bottom of the interior.

"Dammit," I muttered. There had been a mess on the bottom of the oven for a while, remnants of my various cooking lessons with Harry as well as some run-of-the-mill mistakes. I had never really been the best cook. I had intended to clean the oven quite some time ago but now I'd have to wait for everything to cool down before I could open the oven since I didn't want to fill the house with smoke.

I tried to wrap the frozen pizzas back up as best I could and I pulled out some bread. Couldn't go wrong with good old peanut butter and jelly. I ate three sandwiches. And I had another glass of juice. And an apple. And then I scavenged for chocolate chips because dammit, I was craving chocolate and I deserved it.

After I had gorged myself on PBJ's, I decided to take a shower because I was smelling absolutely foul. I couldn't remember if I had even taken one since I'd been shot, and whether I'd changed my clothes. I couldn't remember when my period was coming and I realized I hadn't taken my birth control pills in a long time.

When I undressed in the bathroom, I practically gagged from my own stench. I remembered the bandage on my shoulder and had no idea how to shower with it on, so I just did my best to avoid soaking it as I scrubbed my filthy body. Rivers of brownish red ran down the drain as I washed away the dirt and blood from my body and I eventually discovered that my period had indeed arrived. That might have explained the intense desire for chocolate.

"Fucking wonderful," I muttered. After washing my hair and rinsing every bit of grime from my body, I actually felt a good bit better. A stomach full of food probably helped, too. I found my monthly supplies, set my birth control where I'd remember to take it and put on fresh clothes. I almost felt like a new woman.

I threw my dirty clothes in the trash and went back to my room. My bed was disgusting; the blood-stained sheets still adorned the bed and of course I'd been sleeping there in my own filth for who knows how long? I decided to leave it just like it was and go to Harry's room. But as I prepared to get in bed, I remembered the cameras.

That's when I decided to play baseball. Harry had a wooden bat and ball in a decorative case in his play room. You know, because most normal kids want to look at a bat and ball instead of actually playing with them. I ripped the case off the wall and threw it on the ground, enjoying the satisfying shatter of glass. I carefully picked through the shards and pulled out the bat and ball.

I brought them back to Harry's room and tried pitching the ball towards one of the nanny cams. Luckily, my pitching arm wasn't injured, but I was way out of practice because I didn't quite hit my mark. I knocked a lamp over and some books off his shelves, though. After two or three attempts, I just grabbed the bat in my right hand and let it fly towards the main camera, which was hidden inside of an air freshener. It felt so good to knock that sucker clear off the mantle and into the hallway. I successfully smashed the other two cameras in his room and then I decided to make a day of it.

I went to each room and practiced my swing a few times before nailing each camera with all the guts I could muster. I used the fat end of the bat to hit the cameras that were embedded in the electrical outlets. I had never enjoyed the crack of plastic and ceramic as much as that day. After I'd satisfactorily disabled all the cameras, at least the ones I could remember, I climbed into Harry's bed, comforted by his scent and fell into a deep sleep.

I was awakened by Theodore's evil laughter. "Had fun last night, did you?" He asked, hovering over my bed with the bat. For a minute, I was sure he was going to use it on me, but he just threw it aside where it landed with a thunk on the carpeted floor. "I didn't think you'd resort to vandalism. I paid a lot of money for those cameras."

"Take it out of my paycheck," I spat.

"You're very funny, Juliette. I've always appreciated that about you."

"When are you going to let me go?" I demanded as I sat up. "Or kill me? Surely you can't just keep me locked up in here forever. What good am I to you if you just have to feed me and put up with me smashing things? Oh and by the way, I think I'm due for another few days off."

"See?" He chuckled. "Very funny." He took a seat on the end of the bed and leaned against the footboard, as if we were old friends catching up on each other's news. "What I intend to do, Juliette, is to make sure that you and Harry can never, ever threaten what is rightfully mine."

"What the hell are you talking about?" I groaned. "We don't want anything of yours. Nothing. No collectible piece of shit you might have lying around, not this wretched house, not even your stupid money. I just want to go home."

"Be that as it may, Harry may still fight me for what's rightfully his now that he's had an awakening, thanks to you."

"Oh my god, quit talking like some evil villain from a fucking James Bond movie and just tell me what you're going on about!"

He sighed in frustration. "Turns out Harry was the smart one and you, Juliette. You've always been a little slow."

"Fine, spell it out for me then!" I snapped.

"This," he said, motioning around him. "The house, the property, the company, Blake Enterprises. Don't tell me you never figured it out."

"It's a family company," I said. "I got that."

"Yes, but whose family?" He sneered. "Not mine. I'm not a Styles, as you figured out, and I wasn't born a Blake. I was adopted into the Blake family. And my stepfather - the only father I ever knew - was planning to hand the company down to me after his retirement. My older brother didn't want anything to do with Blake Enterprises. He wanted to go to medical school and I had worked side by side with my father since I was ten years old. He groomed me to be part of the company and the eventual owner."

"Yeah, so now you're the owner. You have what you want," I groaned. "How does this concern Harry?"

"Surely you're familiar with the phrase blood is thicker than water, right?" He asked in a condescending voice.

"Yes," I said, losing my patience.

"In 1997, I was twenty-three, working as my stepfather William's vice president. He was in his late forties and his success had been so great that he was planning to retire around the age of 50, maybe 55 at the latest. But that was the year Harry was born, William's biological son. I was only his son by a legal document. Guess which one of us he ultimately chose to be the heir to the corporation?"

"Oh, geez," I said, trying to sound like I had at least a smidgen of compassion for him. Theoretically, I got it, but I didn't even care because Theodore didn't deserve one red cent. "That must have sucked. So you wouldn't get anything if Harry inherited the company?"

"Well, Harry is not going to inherit anything," he said adamantly. "But yes, the plan was that, as of his 21st birthday, he was to assume ownership of the estate and the company while Benjamin and I were to each receive $5 million."

"Five million dollars is a shitload of money," I said.

"So is $128 million, the combined value of the company and the estate," he shrugged. "I'd rather have that."

"So you'd manipulate your brother and drug him and try to kill him just so you can keep the damn company?!" I asked. "Knowing Harry, he probably doesn't even want a part of it anyway. Just let him sign it over to you and we'll be gone forever. You have my word."

"As if Darling Little Harry would let it go so easily. He isn't family to me, he's a thorn in my side. It was a good stroke of luck that I was able to take over the company when I was twenty-four. I've been able to convince everyone that had anything to do with the company that I was the rightful owner and heir."

"A stroke of good luck?" I said in sickened disbelief. "Harry's parents were killed in that wreck and you call it a stroke of good luck?"

He shrugged. "Now that Harry is old enough to understand that he can be a part of this, he won't walk away as easily as you think. Everyone loves money."

"So why don't you just give him the $5 million you were supposed to get and just let him go? I know he doesn't know or care one bit about the damn company. And hell, with $5 million, he can build his own mansion somewhere far away from here."

"Do you really think he's just going to walk away after everything I've done? You were the one who took away all the control I had over him and now he knows that he deserves better than what I've given him."

"You don't know Harry like I do," I insisted. "Just let me talk to him, please. I know he just wants to have his own life. We'll just leave, I promise you. Please." He looked unconvinced. "If you've done one thing right, Theodore, you have definitely made Harry hate you. I know he'll want to leave and never look back."

"Maybe I'll have a little discussion with Harry before sending him back here, just to make sure he doesn't challenge anything I've worked so hard for," Theodore said. "And then we'll see about letting you go."

At first, I thought that maybe we had finally had a breakthrough. After he left, I had a momentary spell of peace until I realized that Theodore was a liar and a cheat and would never, ever, just let us walk away. He had just confessed anything and everything I could use against him. Why would he do that unless he had a surefire way to make sure I never told anyone?

Black fingers of dread slowly crept into my heart at the realization.

Theodore was going to kill me.

* * * * *

Don't forget that I love happy endings <3 <3 <3