HE LEFT ME FOR MY STEPSISTER, I MOVED ON TO THE NEXT のすべてのチャプター: チャプター 181 - チャプター 190

Chapter 181They didn’t let me eat much. A crust of bread, a bowl of watery soup if I was lucky. My body was thinning, my skin pale beneath the dim bulbs, but it was my mind that frightened me most. The slow unravelling of sanity, the way I started hearing things.At night, the castle spoke.I would lie on the thin mattress, staring at the cracked ceiling, and hear faint sounds through the walls.... muffled sobs, a whisper of chains, the scraping of metal. At first, I thought it was just rats. But sometimes… sometimes it sounded too human. A soft cry that caught in the throat, a voice praying in broken whispers.I began to wonder if I wasn’t alone.But I wasn’t sure if that thought comforted me or terrified me more.The guards never spoke of anyone else. But once, when I was sent to scrub the floor outside the west wing, I saw a door slightly ajar at the far end of the corridor. The guard snapped at me before I could even glance that way. “Eyes down,” he barked, shoving me back toward

Chapter 183I have been going through this ill treatment for the past days. The walls were beginning to whisper again.Sometimes I thought they were mocking me, repeating the things I didn’t dare to say out loud. You’re never getting out… You’ll die here… they will all forget you...And maybe I would have believed them if not for that faint sound I had heard some days ago.... the fragile voice through the wall that called me “real.”Today, though, I felt hollow. Like a shell that used to belong to someone else. My hands trembled as I scrubbed the bowl they’d given me, my eyes raw from lack of sleep. Every motion hurt, my wrists, my ribs, even my breath.When the guards left after their morning shift, slamming the bolt behind them, I finally allowed the tears I’d been holding to fall.They came hard, like something had broken inside.I sank to the cold floor and hugged my knees, pressing my face against them, and sobbed until the sound of my own crying became unbearable. My body shook

Chapter 185 “I used to sing in a church choir. Now my voice doesn’t come out right anymore. They like to make me sing when they’re drunk.” She went quiet, and something inside me broke. That was seven women. Seven names. Seven shattered lives. I wiped my face with my sleeve and whispered, “You’re not forgotten. Not one of you.” And then I heard it, a faint, almost musical whisper. A child’s voice. “I’m Ella,” she said shyly. “I’m nine. My mommy was one of the women here. They took her away last month. She never came back.” A smaller voice followed, trembling, “I’m Sophie. I’m six. I miss my brother.” And the last one, a tiny murmur that almost sounded like an echo: “I’m Mira. They took me on my fifth birthday. My mom took me to the mall to get me some toys when her phone rang and she went to take the call then two men appeared from nowhere covered my mouth and that’s how I ended up here. I wonder if my mom is doing alright????? She started sobbing uncontrollably. Something in

Chapter 187Morning crawls by like a wounded dove. Every clang of the guards’ boots on the old stone floor feels like a reminder that I’m not free….. that I may never be. The castle smells of rust, damp wood, and burnt meat from the kitchen below. I’ve learned to breathe quietly here, to walk like a ghost.Today, my body feels heavier than usual. The chores are endless, scrubbing the soot-caked pans, sweeping the corridors under the eyes of the guards. They don’t speak much, just grunt, point, and glare. One of them, the tallest, always watches me when I bend to clean the floor. His shadow follows me even into the corner of my vision.I keep my head down. Every movement, every step is mechanical. But inside, I’m screaming. I’m breaking. I’m holding on by thin threads of memory. Lucian’s voice, Matthew’s laughter, the light that used to pour through the window of my room back in Ravenswood.When I return to my cell at dusk, my hands sting from soap and cold water. The small bowl of wat

Chapter 189I whisper, “Then I’ll make it sound like something else. I’ll knock something over, pretend I tripped. They’ll think I’m clumsy. They already do.”For a long moment, nobody speaks.Then one of the girls, Sophie, says in her tiny voice, “Miss Elena, will we really see the stars again?”Something breaks inside me.I lean my forehead against the cold stone. “Yes, sweetheart. You’ll see them again. I promise.”There’s another pause, filled with the sound of small sniffles and trembling breaths. Then, unexpectedly, Anna’s voice returns, firmer this time. “If we’re doing this, we’ll need to be quiet. I’ll work the locks. Clara, you lead us. You remember the halls better than anyone. And Elena…”“Yes?”“You lead the children.”Her tone softens. “You seem to be the only one they listen to since they got to know you exist.”I nod even though they can’t see me. “I will.”Sophie murmurs, “When do we move?”“Tomorrow night,” I whisper. “After the guards eat. After they fall asleep.”L