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Chapter 16 – The Woman Who Chose Silence

last update publish date: 2026-05-20 00:52:12

The kitchen of my childhood always smelled of vanilla and disinfectant. The smell of denial. The smell of a woman who scrubbed the floor until her knuckles bled so she wouldn’t have to hear what was happening upstairs.

Margaret is sitting in her usual chair—the one that faced away from the window, the one that allowed her to look at her husband during dinner without having to face her daughter. Some domestic arrangements reveal more about a family than any confession ever c

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  • Love At Sea   Chapter 32 – The Merchandise

    The door opened again just after two in the morning.I hadn’t slept. How could I? Every muscle in my body throbbed with a deep, constant pain. The gunshot wound in my abdomen burned as if someone had shoved a live coal inside me. My wrists and ankles were raw, the rough ropes having cut into the skin in several places. The smell of sweat, dried semen, and humiliation clung to my skin and the cheap sheet beneath me.This time there were two men.The first was short and fat, with a prominent belly that stretched the buttons of his poorly buttoned dress shirt. He had a thin, unkempt mustache and small, shiny eyes filled with sick excitement. The second was taller and thin, with tattoos crawling up his neck to his jaw and a cold, calculating gaze, as if he were evaluating merchandise at an auction.Both reeked of cheap alcohol, old cigarettes, and rancid sweat.

  • Love At Sea   Chapter 31 – The First Night in the New Hell

    The door opened again hours later.I didn’t know how much time had passed. The room had no windows, only the weak light from the bulb on the ceiling. My body ached. The gunshot wound throbbed beneath the makeshift bandage, and the ropes had left my wrists and ankles raw. I was exhausted, thirsty, and filled with a rage so deep it almost suffocated me.Margaret entered first. Behind her, a man.He was tall, bald, with a prominent belly and small, greedy eyes. He smelled of cheap cigarettes and old sweat. He wore a poorly buttoned dress shirt and jeans. He looked at me on the bed as if I were a piece of meat at the butcher’s shop.“Is this her?” he asked, his voice thick.Margaret nodded, closing the door behind them.“Yes. As promised. Young, beautiful, and well-trained. Her father… took care of that per

  • Love At Sea   Chapter 30 – The New Prison

    The first thing I felt was the smell of mold and cheap disinfectant.Then came the pain — a throbbing burn in my abdomen, just below the ribs, where the bullet had entered. I tried to move, but my wrists were tied above my head with rough ropes to the headboard of a narrow bed. My legs were also spread and tied at the ankles. I was completely naked. Once again.My heart raced.No. Not again.I opened my eyes slowly, fighting the dizziness. The room was small and dirty, with peeling walls painted a yellowish beige. A single light bulb hung from the ceiling, casting a weak, sickly glow. This wasn’t my parents’ house. It wasn’t anywhere I recognized.I was in another hell.I tried to pull on the ropes. The pain from the gunshot wound exploded like fire, making me groan through my teeth. The bandage was clean and well-d

  • Love At Sea   Chapter 29 – The Final Betrayal

    The silence in the house after my father’s death was deafening.I was upstairs in the bedroom, finishing packing the small backpack I would take with me. A few clothes, the money I had managed to gather, a new phone, and the almost empty bottle of poisoned lotion — kept as proof of what I had done. My movements were mechanical, precise. There was no rush, but there was also no room for hesitation. Every second I spent in that house was one more second I didn’t want to live.I looked at myself in the cracked mirror one last time. The artificial blonde still felt strange, but it was necessary. The black-haired woman who had entered this hell weeks ago was dead. The one who would leave would be someone new. Someone who had killed her own demon.I went down the stairs slowly, the backpack slung over my shoulder. The house was submerged in a heavy silence, broken only by the distant ticking of the living room clock. Margaret was in the kitchen, with her back to me, washing the dishes with

  • Love At Sea   Chapter 28 – The Body That Remains

    The silence after his death is heavier than I imagined.I stand beside the bed for several minutes, staring at the motionless body. His chest no longer rises. His eyes are half-open, fixed on the ceiling, lifeless. His mouth is slightly agape, as if he had tried to say something in the final second. The smell of death is already beginning to spread — sweet, sickening, final.Margaret remains on the floor, curled up against the wall, sobbing quietly. Her shoulders tremble, but no loud sound escapes. She learned long ago how to cry in silence.I take a deep breath. Once. Twice. The air enters clean for the first time in weeks.“He’s dead,” I say out loud, testing the words. They sound strange, almost unreal.Margaret slowly lifts her head. Her face is destroyed, swollen, wet.“What are we going to do?” she whispers, her voice hoarse from crying so much. “The police… the doctor… people will ask questions.”I turn to her. My gaze is calm, almost serene.“We’ll do what normal people do whe

  • Love At Sea   Chapter 27 – The Last Breath

    The twenty-fourth day dawns gray and heavy.The air inside the room feels thick, almost suffocating, heavy with the scent of impending death. My father hasn’t properly woken up since the early hours. His breathing is now a wet, irregular rattle, as if his lungs are filled with water. His chest rises and falls in short spasms, fighting for every millimeter of air.I’m sitting in the armchair beside the bed, legs crossed, watching him with a calmness that frightens me. I feel no joy. No hatred. Only a cold, empty vastness, as if every feeling had been drained from me during these days.Margaret is curled up in the corner of the room, knees against her chest, rocking slightly back and forth. Her eyes are red and swollen, with no tears left. She looks like an empty shell of the woman who once pretended to be my mother.“He’s going to die today,” I murmur, without taking my eyes off his face.Margaret doesn’t respond. She just rocks harder.My father lets out a low, hoarse groan. His eyes

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