Dying for Love by Rita Herron Read Free Book Online

ob-gyn, who confirmed I gave birth.”
    A long minute passed, the handcuffs jangling as Ms. Lettie shifted. “Have you ever considered that it might be a blessing you forgot things? That you didn’t know everything that was happening to you?”
    Amelia shook her head. “No, because those moments were stolen from me. And how can I move forward if I don’t know all that happened in the past?”
    “Let it go, Amelia. You’re just opening up old wounds.”
    Amelia stood and slammed her hand on the table. “Tell me, dammit. I have to know. What happened to my baby?”
    “Lord help me, child, I don’t want to talk about this.”
    “I don’t care what you want,” Amelia said. “I need to know.”
    Ms. Lettie heaved a breath. “I hoped you would never remember.” She waited another minute under Amelia’s scrutiny, her breathing heavy in the silence. “It was six years ago. You tried to escape when you went into labor.”
    Relief mingled with anger and a deeper sense of betrayal as she sank back against the chair. “What day was my son born?”
    A hesitant pause. “July fourth. The Commander wanted to terminate the pregnancy, but I convinced him not to. Looking back, that was a mistake.”
    Her child had not been a mistake. “Did you drug me while I was pregnant?” Please, dear God, no . . .
    “No, we eliminated the drugs for months. But once they were out of your system, you started having memories, figuring out what had happened to you and the others. That’s when the Commander realized the experiment was unsuccessful, that the effects weren’t permanent.”
    “Because without the drugs, there was a chance I’d be normal.”
    Ms. Lettie murmured yes.
    “You held me hostage anyway?”
    “It was too dangerous for the Commander. If you’d gotten free and revealed details of the project, it would have ruined all of us.”
    Rage at the injustice balled in Amelia’s stomach. “I didn’t remember the pregnancy until now because you started drugging me again after the birth?”
    “Yes, the Commander ordered a combination of drugs and brainwashing techniques to erase your memory.”
    Amelia leaned forward, pinning Ms. Lettie with a glare. “You believe it was okay to ruin my life and my baby’s?”
    “We didn’t think you’d ever learn the truth.”
    “That doesn’t make it right. He stole my life.”
    Ms. Lettie rubbed at a spot on the back of her neck, then stood. “I don’t know what you want from me.”
    “The truth,” Amelia cried.
    Ms. Lettie turned to leave, but Amelia shouted, “What happened to my baby? Was he okay?”
    Ms. Lettie hesitated a little too long.
    “Tell me, dammit. You owe me that.”
    “After the birth, I left the room. Then Blackwood came out and said the infant didn’t make it, that he’d bury him beside his own daughter’s grave.”

    Zack looked out the window again, straining to see in the dark. Shouts. Angry voices and grunts.
    Then a shovel hitting stone.
    His hand shook as he lifted it to the freezing glass. Ice crystals were woven in a pattern like a spiderweb.
    He hadn’t seen the boy after the guard had picked him up.
    But he knew his name.
    Devon.
    A noise sounded. A shovel. They were digging again. Making a big hole out in the woods. Flashlights shined across the dirt. Rocks and dirt crunched. An animal howled.
    Terror clogged his throat. They were digging Devon’s grave.
    That’s what happened when you tried to run.
     

Chapter Five

    A melia stumbled from the prison, anguish eating at her.
    Learning she’d had a child and that the baby had died was almost too much to bear.
    Snow flurries dotted the air, her shoes crunching the icy particles as she pulled her coat around her and rushed to her car.
    Freezing, she flipped on the defroster and heater, giving them a minute to warm up as she tried to absorb the shock. A prison bus left, hauling a group away just as she pulled from the parking lot.
    The desolate wilderness of the mountains passed by in a