Chapter 2
I stared at the phone, memories flooding back–of that time Isabella was trapped in an elevator.
She had begged me for help, and I had ignored her, walking away without a second glance in my stiletto heels.
That same night, the young master of the Hawthorne family had me locked in a dark room.
For three days and three nights, I was left without food or water, consumed by hunger, cold, and the suffocating terror of the dark.
Nathaniel had my location tracked on his phone. He was the only one who could have found me immediately.
I called him again and again, pleading for help.
But all he said was, “Apologize to Isabella properly, and I’ll come get you right away.”
Of course I refused to back down. I called the police, but somehow–whether through bribes or some underhanded trick–they claimed they couldn’t locate me.
When the officers came to investigate, my father Richard Sinclair, my brother Benjamin Sinclair, and Nathaniel all claimed nothing had happened. I was even blacklisted for filing a false report.
In the end, I endured those three days, pushed to the absolute limit of my endurance.
I was utterly broken. Sobbing, I apologized to Isabella.
It was the first time in ten years I had bowed my head to that venomous mother and
daughter.
And it was the first time in ten years Isabella had crushed me beneath her heel.
She smiled sweetly and said she was glad her “big sister finally understood her mistakes.”
Richard and Benjamin were overjoyed, praising me for finally “behaving” and “growing up,” urging me to “keep it up.”
After I was released, I developed claustrophobia.
I became terrified of the dark, of enclosed spaces–but right now, I felt no fear
at all.
Perhaps fear was just a meaningless emotion that only existed when
one still
clung to life.
I didn’t touch the phone.
I lay in that warehouse for three days, thinking.
T
I thought of my childhood, back when my mother, Catherine Sinclair little princess.
was
still alive when Our
family of four was happy, and I was the most beloved
I remembered Catherine’s illness, the ravages of chemotherapy, how she withered away while Richard grew more and more reluctant to come home.
I remembered her screams of despair, the intimate photos that Victoria Montgomery sent her during her most agonizing moments–photos of her with Richard.
I remembered how Victoria and Isabella had shamelessly shown
Catherine had trembled with r
rage.
up
at
Catherine’s last birthday celebration.
That day, she had just returned from chemotherapy, already in unbearable pain, when her heart suddenly failed. She never woke
That day, Benjamin held me as he wept for hours.
Gently stroking my back, he whispered, “Emily, don’t be afraid. You still have me. I won’t let those monsters hurt you.”
Less than a month after Catherine’s death, Richard eagerly moved his mistress and Isabella into our home.
At first, Benjamin and I stood together against them, united in our hatred.
But when did that change?
Maybe it was when Isabella, with trembling hands, offered him her only piece of candy.
- up.
Or maybe it was when she was bullied at school–how she stubbornly refused to cry in front of others, only to “coincidentally” sit sniffling in Benjamin’s path afterward…
She was always the fragile, pitiful victim, just like her scheming mother.
