The floor creaked.

Footsteps were coming closer.

A shiver glided down her spine and she pressed Tabitha a little tighter against her chest. She was sleeping – finally she was sleeping. It felt like she hadn't stopped crying the past 24 hours, as if she knew their attempt to escape had failed. Their last chance to leave this horrible place.

Someone had surprised her by entering the house, holding them at gunpoint. After he had grabbed the phone out of her hands, he had locked her up in the room where Kip had been held captive during the past months. What had happened to her friend, she didn't know. He was probably dead.

Ever since, she sat hunched up on the ground. Her stomach was growling, her throat burning, although she would feel too sick to eat something. She had tried to breast feed Tabitha, but stress had ruined the ability to feed her daughter before and usually she made a bottle. However, nobody had paid attention to Tabitha's cries now and in the end the exhaustion had became too much for her.

"Sorry," she whispered again to the little creature that she loved so much, her dry lips trembling as she pressed them against Tabitha's temple. "I wish I could do more for you. That I'd been a better mommy." Her chest stung. "And that we could go to daddy."

She couldn't imagine how Juice must feel now. Perhaps it had been better if she had never called him, if she had never sent him that picture of Tabitha. Now she had only brought up his pain, tearing his heart to pieces again. She was creating wounds that would never ever heal.

Dana's thoughts silenced as the door handle went down. For a moment she thought that somebody would finally bring them some food or water, but even before the door was opened, she knew this wasn't the man who had locked her up in this room.

It was Maddox.

Skittishly, she looked up to him. The sight of him paralyzed her, her limbs suddenly feeling so heavy that she could barely hold Tabitha.

He closed the door behind him, and it felt like he was extracting all oxygen from the room. Even before he said a word, tears were stinging in her eyes, the lump in her throat so big she could barely breathe.

He knelt down in front of her, his sweet scent making her retch. Immediately the first tears rolled down her cheeks. Oh, as long as he didn't hurt her little girl...

"Haven't I been good to you? Haven't I given you everything you asked for?" His voice was soft, but the cold glance in his eyes showed her how he really felt. Whatever she would say – there was no way to soft his heart. Not anymore.

"You have," she whispered nevertheless, her eyes aimed at the ground. "But I... I just wanted to go back to my old life. To my friends. To J-" She swallowed the rest of his name, knowing she would detonate a bomb otherwise.

"To Juan Carlos?" His voice sounded menacing, like the prelude to an infernal thunderstorm. Grabbing her chin, he lifted her face. "You are never going back to that Juan Carlos of yours. You're mine, you hear me? Everything went so well between us, was that all an act? All this time, you were just looking for a way to abandon me? Again?"

Dana said nothing. She was feeling ice and ice cold.

"I tried to be a good partner for you. I have been very tolerant, but clearly that wasn't enough for you. It's never enough for you. I assume you do need someone dominating you, enforcing obedience. Is that what you want from me? You want to be punished?"

Dana's lower lip started to tremble. "N-no... I don't want a punishment. I'm sorry - I was confused, I..."

"Enough!" he barked. "I'm sick of your lies. Do you love me, Dana?"

Dana clenched her jaws. "You know who I love."

His dark glance held hers. "Yes, I do. And I'm going to make sure that he will hate you. And you will hate him. Your love is a joke, a shred of what I could have given to you."

Stretching out his hand, he caressed Tabitha's head. Dana tried to pull the girl away from him, hissing that he should stay the fuck away from her. Before she could do anything, he gripped the little skull, his long fingers covering her head easily.

"Don't touch her!" Dana yelled.

His grasp only tightened and Tabitha started to cry when he squeezed his fingers.

Dana screamed, kicked, slammed with her fists – but he punched her in the face and tore the baby from her arms.

"It's time for the little Tabitha to go to her daddy." A maniacal fire was burning in his dark eyes. "In a trash bag."

With all his strength, he squeezed his fingers. Dana jumped up and launched herself on him, screaming, hitting him wherever she could. Roughly he hurled her to the side. Right through her own cries and that of her baby's, she heard a snap.

Wildly, she looked up, looking through the blonde strands of hair hanging in front of her face. The cries were dying away. The head of her little girl was deformed, pressed together like she was made of clay.

"NOOO!" Dana screamed. "No no no!"

With a thud, the small body dropped on the ground, right in front of her. Motionless. Dead.

Dana didn't notice anything anymore. Weeping, she lifted her girl and pressed her to her chest. She could only sob, rocking her in her arms as if that could make her heart beat again.

But that would never happen again.

No matter how loud she screamed, how hard she cried. Nothing could ever make her daughter to open her eyes again. She would never grow up, she would never be part of the family Juice and she had both longed for. A family that would never exist.