Chapter 3 The Demon From My Past

The broken bottle left a bloody line across my neck, but Lewis couldn't bring himself to kill me. Instead, he clamped his hand around my throat and dragged me toward the door.

The familiar feeling of suffocation yanked my memory back to the past, back to that desperate rural village where everything reeked of oppression and suffocation.

My mother had been trafficked and sold to that place. When she gave birth to me, an infection left her permanently unable to have children. Unfortunately, I was a girl, so my father and grandmother were unhappy.

They threw my mother and me into the pigsty and raised us like pigs, coming by every day to inspect us like we were mere beasts of slaughter.

"She's getting older. We can sell her to the village idiot in a few years and use the money to buy a new wife for the family."

The village idiot they were referring to had already tortured three girls to their demise.

My mother had been tortured to the brink of madness, but she still instinctively shielded me and begged them not to hurt me.

Whenever that happened, my father would smash her with a manure fork to vent his anger.

"You're useless! I paid a fortune for you, but you won't even breed right for me. Why the hell should I let this little bitch go? Look at her, she's growing up to be a real beauty. She'll fetch a good price. With her, I can buy a wife even more capable than you."

When my mother heard his words, she trembled with terror and whispered in my ear repeatedly, telling me to run.

…

However, they would drag me back to the pigsty every time I escaped. I was bitten by dogs and had my legs broken.

The cruelty they dished out was ten times worse than Lewis'.

The most terrifying thing of all was that every time my father had beaten me, he would say, "You can keep running, but I'll find you no matter where you go. You are mine forever, just like your mother. Not even death could change that."

Those words became my everlasting nightmare.

…

"Bitch, why are you still standing here? Do you actually want to die here?"

Lewis' furious voice jerked me out of the memory. Then, my eyes fell on the creep that was lying in a pool of blood. At that moment, I put on a look of reluctance, which made Lewis' face darken even more.

"You really did fall for him. In that case, I'll kill him first and then deal with you properly."

After that, he let go of me, snatched up another beer bottle, and charged.

The crowd was terrified by his frenzy, so no one dared to stop him. The creep wet his pants and scrambled under a table to dodge Lewis' attacks until the police arrived. His quick thinking saved his life that day.

Lewis was sentenced to several months for assault. He was still threatening me even as they arrested him, ordering me to wait for him at home or else.

This time, I obeyed and stayed home.

I didn't even set foot outside. It wasn't because I was scared, but because I was certain Lewis would certainly kill someone to keep me if I tried anything funny.

…

Two days before his release, I got a call from an unknown number.

The voice on the other end was one I knew so well that my very soul shuddered. "Amelia, I've finally found you. I heard that you got married. How disobedient of you. And here I was, waiting for you for years."