Chapter 2

I could feel the cold rain prickling against my skin like needles.

I was kicked out of the car by the Scott family as if I were a bag of trash. I rolled down the street and landed before the mansion of the Johnson family.

Rain mixed with my blood and tainted the road beneath me a bright red.

My legs were bent at an odd angle, and I could not move at all.

Every time I breathed, I felt my broken ribs grazing my injured organs. I was in excruciating pain.

I saw bright lights through the rain before the sound of a familiar car engine reached my ears. It pulled over right next to me.

"Ah, Luke, what's that? It's so scary!" I heard Nessa's saccharine voice through the car window. She was pretending to be scared.

The car door was opened, and I heard the sound of leather shoes stepping in the puddles.

"Mr. Johnson, I think it's… Ms. Violet." The bodyguard sounded a little hesitant.

All of them were silent for a while.

Immediately after, I heard my parents coming out of the car.

With all my strength, I pressed my bloodied and muddied hands against the ground as I painfully looked up.

"Save… save me…" My voice was very barely audible.

"Violet? Why is she here?" My father, Ronald Reid, sounded disgusted. "Didn't the Scott family take her away? Why was she dumped here on the street like a beggar?"

"How embarrassing! She's basically a jinx!" My mother, Jessica Reid, was not even willing to spare her umbrella to shield me from the rain. She was too afraid of dirtying her designer coat.

Nessa looked at me and asked timidly, "Shouldn't Violet be in prison? It's the Scott family, after all. Did Violet sleep with him and only got a beating out of it?"

After Nessa said that, everyone's expression changed.

I looked at them. My remaining right eye was bloodshot.

I extended my trembling hand and tried to grab my mother's pants. "Mom… it hurts… My legs are broken, please send me to the hospital…"

"Don't touch me!" Jessica took a step back and looked disgusted. "You're covered in mud, how dirty!"

My hand froze mid-air. The last bit of hope in my heart was extinguished by this cold winter rain.

"Enough." Luke walked toward me holding a black umbrella. He looked down at me aloofly. His voice, too, was filled with disgust. "Violet, I'm really disappointed in you."

My heart throbbed in pain.

Luke looked at me as I struggled to breathe in the muddy water. His voice sounded even colder than the winter rain.

"Since the Scott family already taught you a lesson, you should know your place. Aren't you embarrassed of yourself? Why do you have to lie here in the street for everyone to see?"

Nessa stood below Luke's umbrella and pretended to sob. "Luke, I feel so bad for Violet. Should we get her an ambulance?"

"Nessa, you're too kind," Luke sighed. His voice was filled with sympathy toward her. "Since the Scott family spared her life, she won't die. She's an ungrateful woman. She doesn't deserve to go to the hospital."

He turned to his bodyguard and instructed coldly, "Put her in the trunk of my car and bring her to the basement of the mansion. No one can get her a doctor without my permission."

I was dragged into the trunk of Luke's car and then locked up in the basement. They left me there to die.

That was the decision the man that I had loved for seven years made for me.

I no longer asked for help. I let the bodyguards drag me around like a dead dog. They grabbed my arms and dragged me along the rough road.

My broken legs were rubbing against the road. I groaned in pain before completely passing out.