After three years of being locked in the mental hospital by Kendrick, I finally learned to give in. He arrived with his pregnant mistress to take me home. I quietly took her bag and politely opened the car door.

“From now on, you’ll take care of Fiona. She and the baby are your family.”

I nodded without protest. After causing my parents’ deaths, he gave me two new “relatives.” Once we got home, I started waking up at five every morning to study pregnancy meal plans.

At eight, I woke Fiona to take her to prenatal yoga. At ten, I made snacks and tea while she and her friends praised me for being an obedient, useful “dog.”

Day after day, this continued until Fiona gave birth. When we took the family photo, Kendrick looked at the three of them close together, his voice shaking.

“Thalia, why didn’t you insist on being in the photo with us?”

Why would I insist? In the mental hospital, all I learned was how to obey and how to slowly drive a sane person mad.

——

When Kendrick said that, I quietly wrung out the handkerchief in my hand. “Sir, I don’t like taking photos.”

He frowned and stared at me, as if trying to see if I was lying. I quietly wiped the dust off the family photo and adjusted the frame bit by bit until it sat perfectly straight.

Fiona stood on the stairs with a proud look in her eyes. She ran into Kendrick’s arms, tiptoeing to kiss him. “You’re back. I put the baby to sleep on my own today and it actually worked.”

Kendrick looked at me instinctively. I nodded with a sincere smile. “Madam is amazing. She put the baby to sleep so easily.”

Kendrick frowned even more. But I didn’t have time to guess what he meant; Fiona’s nourishing soup was still cooking on the stove.

I rushed into the kitchen, put on oven mitts and carefully brought out the soup. Fiona sat at the table, her smooth legs brushing against Kendrick.

Kendrick smiled at her, but the moment he saw me, it disappeared. I gently poured the tonic soup into Fiona’s bowl and let it cool for her.

Fiona smiled softly at me. “Thalia, sit and eat with us.”

Kendrick pulled out a chair and nodded gently. “Taking care of the baby must be tiring. You should rest.”

I lowered my eyes and smiled as I refused. “It’s an honor to help Madam with the baby. It’s not tiring at all.”

Fiona smiled happily and held onto Kendrick’s arm. “Thalia takes such good care of us. Make sure to give her extra pay.”

I stood quietly by the table, remembering how the last time Fiona saw Kendrick holding my hand, she purposely said the tonic soup was too salty.

She punished me by making me kneel in the yard under the burning sun until nightfall. My knees were raw and my skin was peeling. I knew it was her warning. Kendrick was someone I must never try to approach or tempt.

After the meal, Fiona pushed the leftover soup toward me. I didn’t get what she meant and threw the scraps into the trash like I always did.

Fiona suddenly yelled, “Thalia, if you don’t want it, just say so. I know you’re weak, so I saved the ginseng from the soup for you. It’s top-grade ginseng. How could you throw it away?”

Holding the baby, Kendrick looked over with a slight frown. Panicking, I bent down, grabbed the dirty ginseng from the trash and shoved it into my mouth. “Thank you for the gift, Madam.”

Kendrick hurried over, eyes full of worry. Ignoring the baby in his arms, he held his hand to my mouth. “Spit it out, now.”

My stomach churned, but I forced down the urge to vomit, swallowed it and gave Fiona a grateful smile.

Kendrick’s eyes tightened in shock. I used to have severe germaphobia. I would never eat anything someone else had touched.

So when I found out Kendrick was cheating, I immediately asked for a divorce. But he refused. Soon after, he staged a car accident that killed my parents and seized the company.

My parents were buried in a rush and the very next day, Kendrick brought Fiona home. Overwhelmed with hatred, I grabbed a knife, wanting to kill them both.

After I accidentally scratched Fiona, Kendrick bribed a doctor to label me mentally ill. He sent me to a psychiatric hospital to punish and break me.

Meanwhile, he and Fiona enjoyed the huge wealth and connections my parents had spent their whole lives building.

My hands shook as I took the crying baby. “Don’t cry… it’s okay…” I soothed gently and soon the exhausted child fell asleep in my arms.

Kendrick looked at me, as if wanting to say something. I avoided his eyes and carried the baby back to the nursery.

A bit of light slipped through the door crack. Fiona laughed, swirling her wine glass and tossed me a bottle of strong bleach. “Eating from the trash is filthy. Thalia, clean up; otherwise I won’t dare let you serve me.”

I picked the disinfectant up from the floor and bowed in thanks. “Thank you, Madam.”

Fiona didn’t leave. She just smiled at me. Understanding what she wanted, I nodded, went to the nanny’s room and poured the disinfectant into the bathtub.

I took off my clothes without hesitation and scrubbed myself hard with a steel wool pad. My skin started bleeding, turning the bathwater red.

The disinfectant burned into my skin and the pain was so sharp I bit my lip to keep from making a sound. It felt like countless bees stinging me, tiny needles pricking all over my body.

When the pain was almost too much and I was close to passing out, Fiona finally spoke. “Once you’re clean, get dressed. I’m taking you somewhere.”

I didn’t have time to treat my bleeding skin. I quickly put on some clothes and followed Fiona.

Kendrick stood by the stairs, frowning as he smoked. When he saw me, he quickly put out his cigarette. “Don’t eat from the trash again. Thalia, if you behave, no one will punish you.”

Before we married, Kendrick was just a low-level employee who used smoking to cope with stress. When he was courting me, I told him clearly that I hated the smell of smoke.

Kendrick quit smoking in just two weeks and spent the money he saved on cigarettes to buy me bouquet after bouquet of roses.

Even after we married, the bedroom was always filled with fresh flowers. He even planted a flower garden in the yard himself. “If you like them, I’ll grow them all for you.”

Fiona stood in the living room, shaking her keys with a trace of impatience. “Thalia, it’s time to go.”

I nodded politely to Kendrick, signaling for him to step aside. His frown deepened and he grabbed my wrist. “Thalia, you didn’t used to be like this.”

Before? Did he mean the version of me who cared for him, handed him the company and became a full-time housewife?

I used to greet him at the door after work, cook for him and make three different meals every day.

At night, I would still laugh and cuddle with him, acting sweet and playful. But those days were long gone.

Fiona walked upstairs in her high heels. Before Kendrick could reach for me, she grabbed his arm.

“Kendrick, why don’t you come with us?”

He nodded and I gave up the passenger seat without hesitation. As the scenery passed by, my heart sank. Wasn’t this road leading to the cemetery?

Before the car fully stopped, I quickly opened the door and jumped out. The crowded tombstones were gone, replaced by fields of crops.

A worker was watering the fields in the distance. I stumbled over, my throat dry and sore. “Hello, wasn’t this a cemetery? Why does it look like this now? What happened to the people buried here?”

The man frowned, then relaxed and pointed to a small hill. “This was a cemetery, but the Anderson family checked the land and found it suitable for growing ginseng, so they planted it.”

A girl weeding nearby looked up, eyes full of envy. “Yes, I heard Mr. Anderson spent a fortune on this land because Mrs. Anderson was unwell.”

Nearby, Kendrick looked away, guilty. Fiona smiled and said kindly, “Don’t worry, Thalia. I had your parents’ ashes moved to the mountaintop so you wouldn’t find them.”

My mind went blank and my legs felt heavy. I ran up the mountain without looking back, but then a heavy rain started pouring.

The rain stung my skin and I fell to my knees in the mud, exhausted. The mountainside was full of broken stone tablets with names I couldn’t read.

From the corner of my eye, I saw the name “Simonds” and scrambled through the sharp rubble. Pain shot through my fingers, reopening all my wounds.

The pain spread through my whole body. I cried until my voice was hoarse and my vision blurred. “I’m sorry… I’m so sorry, Mom and Dad…”

It was all my fault; I misjudged people. The rain grew heavier and thick fog rolled up from the mountains.

Kendrick’s worried voice called from behind. “Thalia, where are you?”

Fiona reached me before him, her eyes full of barely hidden anger. Her sharp nails dug into my wound as she grabbed my neck and shook me violently.

“Thalia, why did you come back? If you were dead, I’d be the real Mrs. Anderson and Kendrick would love only me.”

I could barely breathe as Fiona dragged me to the slope’s edge helplessly. Kendrick grew larger in my view as he got closer.

Fiona leaned close and whispered teasingly, “Thalia, guess who he’ll pick this time?”

Before I could react, Fiona grabbed me and rolled down the slope, holding me tight and using me as a cushion when we landed.

A sharp pain shot through my shoulder. I looked down and saw a branch, as thick as my wrist, stuck in my shoulder. Blood filled my mouth with a metallic taste.

In my blurred vision, I saw Kendrick gently lift Fiona into his arms, wiping the dust off her like she was a child.

Just like during the earthquake, he chose Fiona without hesitation. I was left in the rubble, my legs crushed under a boulder, nearly losing them and becoming crippled.

Tears mixed with the rain as my voice cracked and grew hoarse. “It hurts… it hurts so much…”

Kendrick finally noticed me. He took a step forward, but Fiona fainted in his arms, her little finger hooked on his, brow creased in pain.

“Kendrick, my calf hurts so much…” Clear tears fell onto the back of his hand.

Kendrick quickly looked away and lifted Fiona up. “Thalia, hold on a bit longer. I’ll call an ambulance for you.”