ログイン~MARIE~I haven't seen a fierce woman like Barbara. She’s more money hungry than I am. I’ve known her since she was a little girl and I can’t believe she’s grown up to become this cruel. Jade is surrounded by snakes. She’s lucky to have escaped. I wish luck had never shone on her. I want that money more than I want her to breathe. By the time I drag my exhausted, humiliated body back to the house we’ve called home for the past couple of years, the worst had already happened. The front lawn is chaotic. Three heavy-duty moving trucks are backed up to the entrance, and uniform-clad workers are ruthlessly hauling out our dining sets, armchairs, and racks of clothes, tossing them carelessly into the cargo holds.“What is the meaning of this?!” I scream, running up to the foreman, who is checking items off a digital clipboard. “Our grace period isn't up until midnight! You can't touch our things!”The foreman doesn't even look up. “Rental agreement was terminated legally at 8:00 AM today,
~BARBARA~Zayn is the devil.Zayn is the devil.I keep repeating it like a mantra as we’re blindfolded, taken from the basement, and loaded in the back of a vehicle. Deep in the dense, freezing wilderness, the van doors fly open. Under the cover of a pitch-black, midnight rain, Zayn’s men drag us out. The blindfolds are cut from our hollow eyes.“Where... where are we?” Daniel coughs, collapsing into the mud, clutching his filthy plaster cast. “Please... don't leave us here…”A hefty man stands over him, his flashlight beam cutting through the downpour, pinning Daniel to the earth. “You're alive. That's more than you earned. If any of you ever touch the boss’s wife again, the boss will find you before the ink on a police report can even dry. If you try to report to the cops, you'll be charged with kidnapping, murder of a couple men, and the attempted murder of Jade Hemsworth.”“We won't,” Natasha says. “We won't say anything! We swear to God! Just leave us alone!”I slowly lift my hea
He doesn't respond or take his eyes away from me. He doesn't move either. He just stands five feet away, his chest heaving slightly under his unbuttoned overcoat, his raw knuckles glistening faintly in the dim light. He looks like he’s completely off guard, caught in the middle of a heinous crime. He takes a step toward me. “You shouldn't be down here.” “What have you done to them?” I gesture toward the glass cage, my hands trembling. “Look at them. Look at Daniel. Look at Barbara. Are you—are you starving them to death? Is that what you plan to do?” Zayn’s expression hardens instantly. He doesn't look at the cage like I asked him to. His eyes stay locked onto mine. “I'm doing exactly what needs to be done. They forfeited their right to humanity the moment they laid their hands on you.” “This isn’t justice!” I cry, taking a step toward him, my hands clenching the fabric of his robe draped over my small frame. “This is torture, Zayn! If they stay down here another day, their organs
JADEI don't know how many days have passed since Zayn rescued me. I don’t remember. I’ve been unable to sleep and I figure that Zayn is lacing my system with pills to help me rest. When I’m awake, I relive the horror of almost dying again by the hands of the very people who murdered me in my past life.Dragged right back into that rusted cage. I can still feel the chains cutting into the raw flesh of my wrists, pinning me down while Daniel stands over me with a look of longing and an expression that resembles guilt. But when I’m fast asleep and I’m not worrying about what I’ve been through, I dream of him—my fake husband, the only man who’s been haunting my sleep and consciousness. I think I’m in love. I’m in love with Zayn Hemsworth.I stir in bed. The sheets feel too soft, the room too quiet. I wake up and find the space beside me is empty. Zayn isn't in the room. I pull the duvet away and sit up right at the edge of the bed. I feel cold. I pull his heavy robe over my shoulders,
“You’ve always known how to land a good punch,” Damon says.I step around the desk, towering over him like the shadow of death itself. I reach down, grabbing him by his shirt and hauling him to his feet with one hand. I wrap my hand around his neck and slam his back against the wooden desk. My grip is so tight his airway is completely restricted, his face turning a mottled purple beneath the blood. “Give me one reason why I shouldn’t paint this room with your brains right now.”Damon doesn't look afraid. That is his sickness. He spits blood onto the front of my shirt, a wet, rattling laugh bubbling up from his throat.“There he is, the real Zayn Hemsworth. Look at you... acting like a savage over a girl. You always were weak, Zayn.”I tighten my grip, my fingers burying into his throat until his windpipe groans under the pressure. “I froze your offshore accounts. By tomorrow morning, you won't even have enough money to buy a meal, let alone a helicopter out of this country.”“You do
I don’t speak. I simply watch the way Daniel’s chest heaves, savoring the gasp of his failing lungs. He might die of infection if not starvation and dehydration—yet all he cares about is his mother. What a good son he is. Barbara's bloodshot eyes stare wildly around, settling on the CCTV at the corner of the ceiling. “Psycho! Just send us to the police! We’ll confess! We’ll sign whatever you want! Just put us in a cell instead of keeping us here... give us water... please...” I lean into the microphone. “The police, Barbara? Now why would I outsource a personal matter to the state?” Daniel weeps, his hands pressing against the glass he can’t see through. “Zayn, I beg you! I didn't let Damon have her! I hesitated! I told her I loved her! Jade knows... Jade knows I didn't want to hurt her! I care about her.” “You put your filthy hands on my wife. You made her cry, Daniel. You made her believe, even for a second, that help wasn't coming.” “We’re sorry!” Natasha shrieks from the
“Jade—” “No,” I say, shifting back as Daniel stretches his hand to reach out to me. “What happens to me?”He slides to the very edge of the mattress, dragging his split plaster cast with a low hiss of agonizing pain. He reaches out again, his trembling hand hovering over mine, desperately wishing
JADEI don’t know why my mind chooses this exact moment to remind me of the time I could taste freedom like honey and breathe it in like air. It was sweet, I can’t even lie. Freedom is something you don't know how much you cherish until it’s stripped from you.And love… genuine love is one of the g
~DANIEL~ Pain is the only thing keeping me conscious. Every time the rusted springs of the mattress shift, an intense agony shoots up my broken leg, radiating from the fractured tibia that is currently held together by nothing but sheer will and a messy layer of gauze beneath my split plaster cast
~ZAYN~The meeting with my grandmother took longer than I expected. Immediately after, I call Jade, but her cellphone is switched off. It’s never off. So I check the tracking application on my phone, but it doesn’t blink. It sits entirely still like a solitary blue dot glowing against the digital m







