Apocalypse Queen: My Space, My Rules Chapter 121: Ungrateful

The survivors who'd made it this far still had to eat. They loaded themselves onto makeshift rafts, bathtubs, anything that floated, and went out armed with whatever they could find, scrounging for supplies.

What little they managed to turn up, they often had to fight to keep. The strong took from the weak. That was the new order of things.

The dismissed bodyguards and fired security guards had nowhere to go and nothing lined up. Whatever cash and supplies they'd walked away with wouldn't last long. So they did what made sense. They banded together, formed their own crew, and turned back toward Celestine Ridge.

A place like that was too good to give up on. If they weren't welcome through the front door, they'd find another way in.

Harvey had gone behind Viola's back, liquidated some assets, and pulled from his private stash to scrape together Vere's full ransom demand. He brought Roxanna home.

She was in bad shape. Bruises covered her body, her lips were cracked and bleeding, and she'd been running a fever that wouldn't break.

The doctor examined her and delivered the news plainly. Her nephritis had progressed to kidney disease. Without treatment, it could deteriorate into renal failure, and at that point she'd need a transplant.

Harvey had his bandages off by now. The swelling had gone down, but something had gone out of him that hadn't come back.

He heard about Roxanna's condition and panic cut through him. "Then we need to get her treated right away..."

Roxanna opened her eyes. When she registered that the man sitting there was Harvey, she burst into tears and threw herself at him.

"Harvey, what took you so long? Do you have any idea what these past few days were like for me?"

Just thinking about it made her shake. She was hurt, and underneath the hurt was something that had curdled into resentment. He was supposed to protect her. He'd failed at that. As a boyfriend, he'd failed her completely.

Harvey's brow pulled together. Almost without thinking, he shifted back, putting distance between them.

"Your father's the one who sat there hoarding supplies while you got dragged away. If he hadn't been so determined to keep his stash, none of this would have happened."

And if he hadn't had to ransom her, he never would have gone crawling back to Mariella, never would have come home looking the way he did. He'd humiliated himself and gotten destroyed for it, and at the root of all of it was Connor's greed. The bitterness of that sat heavy in his chest.

Her own father hadn't lifted a finger for her. Harvey had spent real money, real resources, to get her back. And instead of any gratitude, she was looking at him like it was his fault.

Roxanna blinked. Wasn't he supposed to feel guilty? He was her boyfriend. He hadn't come for her fast enough.

"Harvey, why are you pulling away? Is it because you think I'm... dirty? I couldn't help what happened. I had no power against someone like Mr. Guerrero. I was completely alone..." She dissolved into sobs.

Vere hadn't just kept her for himself. He'd passed her to several of his business associates, calling it interest on the debt.

He'd smiled at her and said, "Your daddy and your boyfriend lost me a yacht and still haven't paid me back in full. A few extra men seems fair enough."

Roxanna had been sheltered her entire life. Nothing had ever prepared her for any of it. She'd cried until her voice gave out, and those men had only seemed to enjoy it more. They'd kept going until she blacked out from exhaustion.

Remembering it now, she couldn't hold anything back.

In the past, her tears had always worked on Harvey immediately. He'd wipe them away, pull her close, do whatever it took to make her smile again.

This time, he just sat there.

Maybe it was the beating Mariella had given him, and the fact that he still hadn't fully recovered. Maybe something in him had simply shifted, and the feeling he'd had for Roxanna wasn't quite where it used to be.

He could piece together well enough what she'd been through without being told. But instead of tenderness, what rose in him was closer to revulsion. He didn't want her near him.

He'd already paid an enormous sum to bring her back. Connor hadn't done that much. And she wasn't looking at him with any gratitude at all, only blame.

The word ingrate surfaced in his mind and lodged there.

Roxanna cried for a while longer and got nothing from him. She looked up, eyes wet.

"Harvey. Do you think less of me now? Do you not love me anymore?"

Before he could answer, Viola swept in. She'd heard everything. Harvey had gone behind her back and spent a significant sum ransoming Roxanna, and now the girl had kidney disease with a possible slide into renal failure. Viola arrived at the edge of a stroke.

"You're going to bleed this family dry. Was the Graham name not falling fast enough for you? We already gutted a third of what we had left to get you vaccinated, and now you turn around and spend that much more on this sickly jinx? What exactly is she good for? A woman with kidney disease can't even carry a child.

"She's not even worth what Mariella was. At least Mariella was healthy. She worked hard, she didn't complain, and when things got bad, she put herself in front of you. This one?" Viola's voice cut sharp. "She's exactly like her mother. Good for nothing but crying."