Peyton had kept it together for the first couple of hours, but quickly there after she'd lost track of time. The stint in which she'd been locked in darkness seemed nothing but an eternity. In reality it had been just under twenty four hours. Her morning sickness was in full flow and she was exhausted and dehydrated and the black basement was doing nothing to calm her nerves. It had given her an awful lot of time to just think, she wasn't grateful for that because her thoughts were consumed with Lucas and more devastatingly, whether or not Ian was delivering the tape he'd spent forever doing to him. She couldn't bare the thought of him watching that and she despised herself a little bit more with each passing second. Her logic told her it wasn't her fault but all the rationality in the world would never be able to convince her that she could of done more, that she could have prevented this.
The bright light was blinding. She pressed her palms into her eyes and her face crumpled when he spoke.
'I'm sorry I was so long, things took a little longer than expected'
His footsteps against the concrete floor were like a sledge hammer to her ear.
'However if you hadn't have disrespected me by ruining your room last time I went out, you wouldn't have had to be locked down here. Hopefully next time I'll be able to trust you, hm?'
She eased her fingers away from her sensitive eyes, slowly adjusting to the light.
Ian had a glass of water that she promptly took, furiously gulping down the liquid.
'You've been sick' He stated. 'Are you not feeling well?'
'Not great, but I assume generally most people wouldn't if they'd been locked in darkness for twenty four hours, maybe it's just me' She muttered.
'As I said darling, I hope that next time I won't have to do that' He pulled her weak form up to standing. 'Do you need to use the bathroom?'
She gave a curt nod of the head. Her bladder felt as if it were going to explode, being pregnant and unable to relieve yourself for twenty four hours was not fun.
'Ok and then I have a present for you, to make up for being gone so long' He kissed her forehead and a noise of disgust escaped her lips. When he released her outside the bathroom door she eagerly slid inside, a safe haven for a few moments at least.
'That's enough' Brooke screamed, her face burning with anger.
'Miss Davis you're not permitted to be in here'
She quite frankly didn't care what she was or wasn't permitted to do.
They'd refused to release Erin to her, she'd been kept with social services for the past two days. Of course Brooke hadn't left and it was becoming unbearable to watch them trying to pry words from the child's mouth. She'd watched through two way mirrors as her four year old god-daughter sat in a small room, surrounded by thousands of toys that never wanted to be played with.
When she didn't verbally answer their questions, a female and male doll were put before her, intentionally representing Peyton and Lucas.
She was then asked to show them how her Mummy and Daddy got on.
Brooke had snickered, shaking her head in disbelief, she didn't expect Erin to respond, she hadn't so far but she'd smiled stupidly when the little girl had made the two dolls kiss, hug and hold hands.
She'd not smiled when they began in a not so subtle way, asking if Daddy ever hurt Mummy.
Enough was enough.
Erin Penelope Scott was damaged enough. In less than a hour her whole world had been turned upside down and what she needed right now was love and stability. Brooke understood that Social services needed to review the best place for her to be but this was not beneficial to the little girl in the slightest and if her thoughts weren't enough to make her take action, Erin's tears were plenty.
The overly sweet woman who was taken aback by Brooke's abrupt entrance, looked at her expectantly, waiting for her to leave.
On seeing her aunt Brooke, a wonderfully familiar face, Erin was quick to her feet but the psychiatrist grabbed her little arm. 'You can go see Brooke when we're done here' She said, her voice kind yet stern.
'No, she's coming with me now'
'Miss Davis I'm afraid I'll have to call security if-'
'You let go of her right now or so help you god I'll give you something to call security for' She threatened.
As soon as her hand was free, Erin raced into Brooke's arms, clinging onto her so tightly, so desperately that Brooke new she should have done this sooner.
'Miss Davis we're just trying to help'
'You're not. If you have a problem with this, you can talk to my lawyer' Brooke snapped dismissively, rubbing the sobbing infants back. 'It's alright baby, I'm taking you home now. You're safe'
'Where were you?' Peyton asked gruffly.
'Hm?' Ian was sat on the plush leather in his study. Peyton was keen to turn the room upside down, she was sure some information, something in helping her escape would be stored in his important files but when he wasn't inside, she'd found the door to always be firmly locked. Although infuriating, the fact that he kept it secured only spouted her suspicions.
'Where've you been for the last twenty four hours?' She scowled.
'Just sorting out some unfinished business'
'I have a present for you' He held his hand up, gesturing for her to come join him.
A present.
The horribly alert look in his eyes told her this was most certainly a present she wasn't going to like. He seemed alive with excitement and that wasn't a good thing. He was hankering for her to see and as soon as she was seated he thrust the slightly crumpled paper into her unprepared hands.
She looked at the newspaper.
Her husband on the front cover. It took her a moment to scan what was written, to fully comprehend it's meaning.
He watched with a sick anticipating smile, waiting impatiently for it to all click.
It did, all too quickly. Her world fell apart, everything that was keeping her together, everything that was stopping her from losing her sanity was no more. The knowledge that her husband and daughter were together and would be forever was all a thing of the past.
'Isn't it wonderful? Every thing's working out accordingly' He remarked happily.
'You said you wouldn't hurt her' She whispered, eyes glued to the page that was now shaking in her unstable hand. 'You said you wouldn't hurt her' Her scream pierced through the house.
He flinched a little but shook his head, not understanding. 'And I kept my word darling'
'She has no parents' She exhaled. She'd been a child in a single parent house for the majority of her childhood and she'd not wanted that for her children, but now Erin had neither of them. 'How is that not hurting her?'
'Don't be so dramatic'
'Dramatic?' Her head was aching and she felt sick. 'She's an innocent little girl. God, Where is she?'
'I think social services had to intervene' He told her smugly.
'What?' Her mouth hung open and she shook her head. 'No' She whispered brokenly. She was on her feet quickly, distancing herself from this horrible man. 'How could you? You've just ruined my daughter's childhood'
'Don't call her that'
'What, my daughter?' She scoffed. 'You're deranged if you ever think I'll forget her'
'Well it would be better for you if you'd at least try because you're not going to be seeing her again and it's not healthy to constantly be fretting over someone who'll probably forget you ever existed soon enough'
That was like a stab to the heart.
Her eyes grew larger as she attempted to digest his painful comment.
'Besides' he added cruely. 'Our children will be perfect, you won't have any need to be thinking about her'
'I'll never forget her' Peyton snapped. 'And I'm not having your child' She went to stride past him and he caught her arm.
'Where do you think you're going?'
'The bathroom' She spat. 'Unless you want me to throw up all over you I suggest you move' She growled.
He didn't let go and she did just that.
He cringed as she vomited all over his pants.
'Ergh' He swallowed, taking a large step away.
She exhaled heavily and backed up until she reached a supporting wall before lowering herself to the ground, her eyes closed tightly. She was thankful that so far the nauseousness wasn't as horrendous as it had been with Erin but in her head even though her first pregnancy had, had her feeling an awful lot worst at this stage, it had seemed so much easier, she knew that was for the simple fact that she'd had Lucas pampering over her and making sure he tended to every need.
Ian was mopping at his trousers with a tea towel when he focused on her again.
'Aren't you feeling well?' His concern was sickening to her.
'Evidently not'
'What's the matter?'
'Nothing' She sighed through her nose, eyes still closed.
He abandoned the feeble attempt he was making at cleaning himself up and knelt down beside her, feeling her forehead with the back of his hand.
She winced at his touch.
'You're not warm'
'Maybe it's something to do with the fact that I've been kidnapped and am being held captive by some psycho'
'Funny' He dismissed. 'What do you feel like?'
'I'm fine'
'You're clearly not if you're throwing up- you think it's a bug?'
'I don't know' She shook her head despondently and then her stomach turned again and she swallowed thickly.
'When was your last period?'
His question caught her off guard. 'Excuse me?'
'You heard'
'That's none of your business'
'Tell me'
'I'm not pregnant if that's what you're thinking'
'How can you be so certain?'
'Because I'm on the pill' She fabricated.
'Maybe you were but you haven't been since you've been here'
She shook her head. Over the long days she'd slowly let her guard down. She'd been warped into a false sense of security. Although scared and unhappy and disgusted by the things he demanded of her, she was sure her life wasn't in jeopardy, Ian loved her too much to kill her. But him finding out of the pregnancy was the one thing that could spark his rage that she was yet to see. She knew he wouldn't stand for her to have Lucas' child and the thought terrified her.
'I'm not pregnant' She said with finality.
'There's no harm in doing a test' He decided.
'A pregnancy test isn't something every girl carries around with her Ian'
He rolled his eyes. 'I know that, I have some'
She was unsettled by this. He'd clearly had every intention of getting her pregnant from the very beginning and that thought disturbed her and got her wondering what other plans he had in store for her. She could only be thankful that she was already pregnant.
'Come on, they're in the washroom'
Her heart clenched with fear.
To her great humiliation he'd insisted on staying in the bathroom with her in case she faked the test.
He'd taken it from her hand as soon as she was done and had proceeded to pace back and forth across the tiled floor.
He was making her dizzy.
Despite already knowing the results, she found her nerves growing. But as always when you're awaiting something, time seemed to slow down. She jerked from her stupor when he stopped walking, his mouth open.
'It's, it's positive' He muttered and for a moment she thought he'd figured it out himself, that he must surely of assumed she'd already been pregnant, that Lucas Scott was the man that had made this child with her. He blinked and she was startled to see a tear escape his normally so calm and collected eyes. 'I don't believe it' He said triumphantly. 'A baby'
She didn't dare speak.
'A baby Peyton' He looked at her and she truly despised his joyous expression. He was clearly over the moon. 'I hadn't thought it would happen this soon' He admitted. 'But that doesn't matter' He put the test down and sat beside her on the bath, his hands closing around hers. 'A baby Peyton, our baby' She refused to acknowledge him and she wanted nothing more than to push him away when he lifted her shirt and his fingertips danced lovingly over her unshowing bump but sheer relief stopped her from doing just that. She waited for his hand to disappear before pressing her own palm over her lower stomach, wishing that this baby could stay safely in the womb forever. She didn't want to have to bring up this child with Ian Banks thinking he was it's father. She wanted to scream that it wasn't his, that it would never be his, that she'd rather die than have his baby inside of her. But she couldn't, because she wasn't stupid. She knew that saying those things was like giving her unborn child a death sentence and in a unexplainable kind of way, she wished she had the strength to do just that, so she could save this child, her daughter or son from living this life. Maybe it was selfishness that stopped her, the fear of being totally on her own with Ian Banks or perhaps it was her reluctance to give up, that she was hopeful that she'd be able to get them out of here or Lucas Scott would still save them.