Chapter 198: Chapter 199: I Want To See Them!
And they had dumped her here like garbage.
"I want to see them," Victoria said quietly. "My hands. I want to see what he did to me."
"Miss Ashford, I don’t think...."
"I WANT TO SEE THEM!" Her scream echoed through the room, making the nurse jump.
Dr. Mitchell nodded slowly. "Alright. But I’m warning you, they’re still heavily bandaged. You won’t see much detail. And what you do see....it’s going to be difficult."
He carefully lowered the support holding her right hand, then began unwrapping the bandages with methodical precision. Layer after layer of gauze came away, and Victoria held her breath, terrified of what she would see.
When the final layer came off, she wished she’d listened to the doctor’s advice not to look.
Her hand....her beautiful, elegant hand that had worn thousands of dollars in jewelry, that had been manicured weekly at the most exclusive salons, that had been photographed countless times for society magazines....was destroyed.
The skin was mottled with bruises....deep purple and black and sickening yellow. The fingers sat at odd angles despite the surgical pins visible under the skin. The knuckles were swollen to twice their normal size. There were surgical incisions held together with staples, the wounds red and angry and grotesque.
But worst of all was the overall shape. Her hand didn’t look like a hand anymore. It looked like something broken and twisted and fundamentally wrong. Like modern art created by someone who hated beauty.
"The other one looks similar," Dr. Mitchell said quietly. "Perhaps slightly worse, as the left hand sustained more direct trauma."
Victoria stared at her ruined hand, and something inside her shattered completely.
She’d been beautiful. That had been her power, her weapon, her identity. Beautiful face, beautiful body, beautiful hands that men had kissed and admired. She’d moved through the world knowing that her appearance was her greatest asset, her most effective tool.
And now? Now she had hands that looked like they’d been put through a meat grinder. Hands that would never look normal again, never be beautiful again, never be photographed for society pages or adorned with expensive jewelry.
Hands that would be a permanent, visible reminder of her humiliation every single time she looked at them. Every time anyone looked at them.
A sound came from Victoria’s throat.....something between a sob and a scream and a howl of pure rage. The nurse rushed forward as Victoria’s monitors went haywire, but Victoria barely noticed.
All she could see was her destroyed hand. All she could think about was Damien’s cold face as he’d ordered Marcus to break her. All she could feel was the memory of Aria’s horrified expression as she’d witnessed what Damien was truly capable of.
Aria had seen. Had been forced to watch. Had looked at Victoria’s broken hands and realized for the first time that the man she loved was a monster.
"Give her something," Dr. Mitchell ordered the nurse. "Sedative. Now."
Victoria felt a pinch in her IV line, felt a wave of artificial calm trying to wash over her, but she fought it. Fought against the medication, fought against the darkness trying to pull her back under.
"Miss Ashford, you need to rest...."
"No." Victoria’s voice was low, dangerous, almost inhuman. "I need my phone. I need to call my father."
"You need to rest. You can make calls tomorrow...."
"I NEED MY PHONE NOW!" The scream took the last of her energy, and Victoria sagged back against the pillows, gasping.
Dr. Mitchell looked at the nurse, clearly debating whether to override her demand. Finally, he sighed. "Get her phone. Let her make one call, then increase the sedative. She needs to sleep."
The nurse retrieved a phone from the bedside table....not Victoria’s personal phone, but a hospital phone they’d apparently provided. She held it up to Victoria’s ear since her bandaged hands couldn’t grip anything.
"One call," Dr. Mitchell said firmly. "Then you rest."
Victoria nodded weakly. "Father. I need to call my father."
The nurse dialed the number Victoria recited with difficulty, then held the phone to her ear.
It rang three times before Harold’s voice came through, tight with stress and exhaustion. "Victoria? Is that you?"
"Daddy." The word came out as a broken sob. "Daddy, I’m awake."
"Thank God." Harold’s relief was palpable. "I’ve been calling the hospital twice a day for updates. They said you were stable but unconscious. How are you feeling?"
"Like my hands were destroyed." Victoria’s voice cracked. "Which they were. Daddy, they’re ruined. The doctor says they’ll never heal properly. Says I’ll have chronic pain and limited mobility and scarring for the rest of my life."
"I know, sweetheart. I’m so sorry. If I could have stopped it...if I could have done anything...."
"Why am I in Australia?" Victoria interrupted. "Why did you send me here?"
Harold’s voice became grim. "Because Damien Blackwood gave me an ultimatum. After Marcus dumped you at the hospital in New York...after they’d kept you in that warehouse for God knows how long....Damien texted me personally. Told me that if you weren’t out of the country within twenty-four hours, he would finish what he started. He would kill you, Victoria. And he meant it."
Victoria closed her eyes, feeling tears stream down her face. "So you sent me away."
"I had no choice! Your mother wanted to call the police, wanted to press charges, but I explained to her what would happen. Damien Blackwood is untouchable. He has power, connections, resources we can’t match. If we’d tried to fight him legally, we would have lost. And he would have made sure you paid the price for that attempt."
"So he just gets away with it," Victoria said bitterly. "Gets away with torturing me, starving me, having my hands destroyed...."
"For now," Harold interrupted, his voice hard. "For now, he gets away with it. But Victoria, there’s something else you need to know. Something that happened while you were unconscious."
"What?"
Harold took a deep breath. "My company....Ashford Industries....has been destroyed. Someone hacked our systems, stole confidential files, and released them all online. Every secret, every crime, every questionable decision I’ve made in twenty years of running that company...all of it exposed to the public."
Victoria’s breath caught. "What? How?"
