Chapter 3
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Frederick's friend tried reasoning with him: "Look at her—she's broken. What more do you want?"
Frederick stroked Lily's pregnant belly and smiled. "I want to watch her destroy herself."
He entered my room holding the pill bottle, flanked by two burly men.
I'd already slipped a pill into my mouth, ready to bite down.
But he moved faster, gripping my jaw and forcing his fingers into my mouth to retrieve it.
"You're completely insane!" I screamed at him.
"Thank you," he smiled. "I'll take that as a compliment."
He nodded to the men, who pinned me down and dragged me upstairs to the attic.
In the attic, they shackled my ankle with an iron chain.
Frederick crouched beside me, attaching a black electronic device to my other ankle.
"Deliver my children safely, and I'll give you the ancestral house. Your father might even get early release. But if you try anything…"
He pulled out his phone, opened an app, and pressed a glowing red button.
Electric current ripped through my body. My muscles seized as I screamed in agony.
"Just a reminder," he said calmly. "Even your heartbeat belongs to me now."
Worse still was the massive screen on the wall playing videos of him and Lily together—intimate moments throughout the villa—on endless loop at maximum volume, a constant assault on my sanity.
I was chained in the attic like a dog.
Each day, I was allowed just one hour outside. Lily would waddle out with her swollen belly, playing the role of lady of the manor, taking me for "walks" in the garden.
She'd deliberately eat my favorite fruits in front of me, tossing the pits at my feet when finished.
"Did you know, Sophie?" she'd taunt. "Frederick says once you've delivered, he'll sell you to organ harvesters. Your corneas, heart, kidneys—they'll fetch good prices. At least you'll be useful for something."
I stared at her with dead eyes.
Lily hated that look most of all—she thought I was silently judging her.
She tried to trip me, but I collapsed first, clutching my stomach and crying out in pain.
"Ah! My stomach! The babies!"
Lily panicked. The "golden child" in her womb was her only leverage, her ticket to security. Nothing could happen to it.
When Frederick rushed over, he found me curled on the ground while Lily stood frozen nearby.
He kicked Lily in the stomach so hard she flew backward.
"If anything happens to my children, your entire family will pay with their lives!" He scooped me up and rushed toward the hospital.
Cradled in his arms, I glanced back at Lily lying in a pool of blood. Through his panicked expression, I allowed myself the faintest smile.
This is just the beginning, Frederick.
Everything you've done to me and my father—I'll make your entire family pay for it.
