Chapter 3

After I passed out that day, I had a long nightmare.

In the dream, whenever Hannah saw Anthony and Emily walking by, she would suddenly scratch her own arm.

Then she would throw herself into their arms and cry. "Chloe hit me again..."

Whenever she saw William coming, she would rush down the stairs without hesitation.

She would cry as she pointed at me. "Chloe pushed me."

Every time my family showed even the slightest hesitation, Hannah would choke back her tears and say, "If Chloe still can't accept me, then I'm willing to leave this family."

But the Chloe in my dream was still the old me. I couldn't stand being treated unfairly.

Every time Hannah blamed me for something I didn't do, I would scream and cry as I tried to defend myself.

After it happened so many times, I started to look like the crazy one.

Until the final time, Hannah wanted to frame me, so she locked herself in her room and started a fire.

After she was rescued, she insisted that I had started it.

I was so angry that I rushed at her and started fighting with her.

That was when my family finally lost all patience with me.

They had reached their limit and refused to listen to anything I said. Instead, they sent me away with a group of human traffickers.

After those people filled their heads with lies about "teaching me discipline," my family quickly believed them.

They even signed a contract allowing those people to "discipline" me for five years.

I woke from the nightmare to see a psychologist sitting beside my bed.

To everyone's surprise, I cooperated completely with the doctor Anthony and Emily had hired.

When she saw that I was awake, she gently asked, "Chloe, can you tell me why you never fight back when someone hurts you? Why do you hurt yourself instead?"

I blinked.

Then I answered naturally, "Because you have to be obedient enough so you won't get beaten."

I had already learned the price of disobedience.

The beatings, the torn clothes, the dark basement where I could barely see the sunlight...

The doctor stared at me. She opened her mouth but didn't know what to say.

After a while, she tried to guide me gently. "But Chloe, you're home now. There are people here who love you. No one is going to hurt you or bully you anymore."

I tilted my head in confusion. "No one is bullying me? Hannah poured water over my head and shoved pills into my mouth. That doesn't count? William forced me to donate blood. Does that not count either?"

I paused. "Or what about Dad and Mom..."

I leaned a little closer to her and asked quietly, "They saw everything Hannah did. One second, they were holding me and crying. But the next, they were afraid I was pretending. So they let Hannah keep hurting me. They even thought there was something wrong with me and called you here."

I looked straight at her. "Doctor, does that not count as bullying either?"

I continued staring at her. "If I'm not obedient, I'll die. I used to have several friends who were just like me. But they're all gone now. They weren't obedient enough. So they were beaten to death."

The doctor's hand froze in midair. Her face slowly turned pale.

After the session, she repeated every word I had said to Anthony and Emily.

In the end, she gave her diagnosis. I was suffering from severe post-traumatic stress disorder, along with extreme submissive behavior and emotional detachment.

After the psychologist left, Anthony and Emily locked themselves inside the study for the entire day.

They didn't come out until William finally kicked the door open.