Cynthia was also somehow exposed to the smoke, or perhaps frightened. She curled up on the ground. Her small face was red as she breathed rapidly, as if she was about to suffocate.

"Cynthia!" My father's expression changed drastically as he immediately dropped what he was doing and rushed toward her.

All my brothers also gathered around Cynthia. Jacob knelt on the ground, anxiously checking her condition. Axel and Sean helped him with solemn expressions.

My father suddenly turned his head around. The eyes that had once been full of affection for me now only held overwhelming anger and icy disappointment as they stared at me. "Estelle!"

His voice seemed to be squeezed out from between his teeth, filled with incredulous rage. "It was you who started the fire, wasn't it? Do you hate Cynthia so much that you want to burn her to death in such a vicious way at her birthday party?"

His yelling made me tremble. My throat, which had been choked by smoke, was dry and painful. I could only shake my head desperately. "No... Dad... It wasn't me... I didn't... "

However, my defense was so weak that it sounded more like a sigh.

"Who else could it be but you?" Sean looked up at me, his eyes filled with disgust. "The fire started in the storage room! You were locked up, so you deliberately started it to get attention, didn't you?"

"I didn't..." Tears blurred my vision.

They all surrounded Cynthia. Not a single person believed me.

"Dad, brothers... It really wasn't me... It really wasn't me..." I repeated it in vain.

Cynthia grow more and more distressed, my father's eyes turned completely cold, devoid of any former affection. He solemnly ordered the bodyguards beside him, "Lock her in that abandoned shipping container in the back. No one is to let her out without my order!"

I recognized that shipping container. It sat in the distant corner of the yard, turning into an oven during summer.

Two bodyguards approached with blank expressions and lifted me up to take me away.

As I was tossed into the container, blazing heat immediately surrounded me. The metal box had baked in the sun all day, making it unbearably hot inside.

The door slammed shut, plunging me into darkness and silence.

Darkness, heat, and thirst.

I leaned against the scorching metal wall, feeling my wounds ache even more. This felt worse than a sauna, but surely no one would open the door this time.

I seemed to hear my mother calling me from far away. "Estelle... come to me..."

I forced a smile and used my last bit of strength to gently reply, "Mom... I'm coming..."

A few days later, Cynthia finally pulled through. My father and brothers breathed a sigh of relief.

Just then, Axel suddenly recalled something and asked with a frown, "By the way, where's Estelle? Still locked in the shipping container?"

My father paused, a hint of unease flickering in his face before being quickly replaced by annoyance. "Go check on her. She should have learned her lesson by now!"

Sean grabbed the keys and headed over to the shipping container in the yard, where it had been baking in the sun for days. As he unlocked it and swung open the heavy door, a nauseating smell of decay mingled with intense heat attacked his senses.