The road leading to the rural countryside was very bumpy. I got nauseous very soon.

The people who called themselves my biological parents were discussing how to make use of me while I stared blankly out of the window.

After whispering to each other for a while, Caroline Wavers, my so-called biological mother, turned to me and cleared her throat. "Sophie, you know we're not as rich as your previous parents," she said, feigning concern. "Life in the countryside isn't great. You may find it hard to adapt. Did the Nilsons make any arrangements for you?"

I looked at her expressionlessly.

She became a little anxious when she saw that I didn't understand her hints. She pointed at our surroundings. "This is all we have here. Aren't they worried that you wouldn't be able to cope?"

Still, I didn't answer.

Suddenly, the man who called himself my biological father, Andrew Nielson, slapped me so unexpectedly that I didn't have time to react. My head jerked to the side.

He looked at me angrily with unconcealed calculation and scheming. "You little brat. Your mother is talking to you. How dare you ignore her?"

I covered my face with my hand, still keeping quiet. I bit my tongue to stop myself from crying.

"Alright, alright," Caroline comforted him half-heartedly and pulled him behind her. She turned back to me and took my hand. "Don't get upset with your father. He's just a straightforward guy. Are you hurt?"

I bit my lip, still not saying anything. My eyes were dull and lifeless.

Caroline did not care either. She kept talking about her hardships, how hard it was to live in the countryside, and how poor they were.

When I continued keeping my silence, her patience began to wear thin. Her true intentions surfaced. "Gordon Nilson and his wife didn't give you any money? Didn't he buy you a house or something in the city, or take care of your tuition fees for the next few years? I heard that you were going to graduate school."

My eyes brightened at that.

Andrew said coldly, "It's already enough of a waste to send a woman to school. What's this about graduate school? We don't have the money."

My first words to him were in defiance. "I don't need your money. I have my own money."

I immediately regretted it as soon as the words were out of my mouth.

Andrew and the woman looked at me ravenously, eager to drain me of everything I had.

Andrew opened his mouth eagerly, but Caroline put a hand on his and smiled at me. "I'm glad that they've been treating you well all these years. How much money did they give you? Let me see."

I shook my head. "They didn't give me any money."

"That's impossible!" Andrew shouted angrily. "They gave us 200 thousand dollars just for sending Suzanne back!"

He reached out to snatch my bag from me. When I refused to let him have it, he pushed me to the ground.

Stones scraped across my skin, cutting up my arm.

No one cared.

Andrew rummaged through my bag eagerly, only to find it empty.

"You are useless!" he cursed. "You didn't even bring any expensive jewelry?"

I didn't even have any jewelry.

Mom said that I had been using her real daughter's things for many years, so I had no right to take anything. She even wanted to take the clothes I had on my back.

However, before I left, I saw her order the housekeepers to throw out everything in my room. Then, she filled Suzanne's room with more expensive things.

She said that her daughter deserved everything good, not leftovers from someone else.

"I found it!"

Andrew's eyes brightened as he pulled a bank card out of my bag along with a small, dirty doll.

I lunged at him. "Give that back!"

Thinking that I was trying to take the bank card, Caroline pushed me away.

I kept lunging at them until I finally managed to snatch the dirty doll from under her feet.

The doll bore some resemblance to me. Xavier Gubbens had sewn it himself for me as my 18th birthday present.

After a vicious beating, Andrew and Caroline locked me up because I refused to tell them the password to my bank card.

They refused to treat my wounds or let me have anything to eat or drink.

I had another nosebleed.

It took a while for me to stop the bleeding. I slumped onto the ground.

There was no bed or windows in the tiny little room. The only light I had seeped through the crack under the door.

I held my doll tightly and curled up right beside my only ray of light.

Although I used to be the well-cared-for daughter of the Nilson family, I wasn't actually a spoiled woman. In fact, I was quiet and reserved, known in our circle as a well-behaved lady.

Xavier often said that I was boring to be around, as I provided no excitement.

Everyone in Hesselton knew that Sophia Nilson was Xavier Gubbens' fiancée, a girl he'd picked out himself when he was a child.

No one believed that the bold and outspoken Xavier would like someone as quiet as me.

When I was 16, a man from a wealthy family who had held a grudge against the Nilson family tricked me to a bar and tried to get me drunk so that they could take incriminating photos of me.

I fought hard against them, threatening that Xavier would come after them.

When they heard Xavier's name, they looked at each other hesitantly.

Eventually, the leader of the group waved his hand and told them to continue stripping me. He said, "You're just his fiancée in name. We all know that he's tired of you."

Just then, Xavier kicked open the door, storming in all by himself.

That night, he beat up everyone in the room except me, sending all of them to the hospital.

A couple of days later, the heads of their families came to my door to apologize to me. It was only then that I found out that the Gubbens family had dealt with them too.

Xavier made it clear that I was his fiancée, and that no one was allowed to bully me.

Since then, no one dared to mess with me again.

I grew up under Mom and Xavier's protection.

That was why I didn't understand how I ended up in this situation.

Xavier probably still didn't know about this. He hadn't been able to celebrate my birthday with me because of work. I had even given him the silent treatment because of that.

A glimmer of hope rose in my heart. If he found out… No, he definitely would find out. When he found out about this, he would come and save me.

Before that happened, I had to find a way to save myself.

Weakly, I pulled myself up and used all my strength to knock on the door. "941225, 941225…"

I kept repeating the numbers, hoping to use the money to get some temporary peace.

After taking all the money I had, Caroline and Andrew stopped being angry and let me out.

I immediately tried to call and text Xavier, but he ignored me.

I was forced to stay with the Nielsons.

That was how I was saddled with endless house chores. I had to cook, clean, and do the laundry. I wasn't allowed to eat at the table; I had to wait until they were finished before fighting the dog for the leftovers.

Caroline demanded that I wash all the clothes with just my hands. She would sometimes beat me just for using too much water.

Andrew was a drunkard. The couple quarreled all the time when he was drunk. He would even hit me, blaming me for not bringing more money from the Nilsons.

The scariest part was that the looks he gave me were slowly starting to feel unsettling.

Even their ten-year-old child looked down on me.

The first time I refused to bring water to my little brother, he splashed a whole glass of water on me, saying vicious words in his innocent voice, "Mom said that you're my servant. I can treat you however I like! If you don't listen to me, I'll kill you!"

I was scared. I wanted to escape from this place, but no matter how many times I called Xavier, he did not pick up my calls. Mom had also blacklisted me.

Living in fear, I began to lose weight quickly.

One day, while I was doing the laundry, Andrew suddenly hugged me from behind. He began touching me, saying that I was pretty.

Unable to free myself from his hold, I bit him hard.

He was furious. He picked up a clothing hanger and beat me mercilessly.

That day, I lost a lot of blood. I thought I was going to die.

When I opened my eyes again, I smelled disinfectant.

Caroline sat beside me, looking at me with a strange expression.

For once, she was nice to me. She told me to take care of myself, even bringing me food herself.

The day I returned home from the hospital, I passed by their room and overheard them talking about marrying me off to the town dunce.

"He's dumb, but his family is offering a good sum in exchange for a wife. It's 200 thousand dollars. Let Sophia marry him and have a child with him. Everyone will be happy."

Dazedly, I somehow found my way back to my room.

An urgent thought arose in my mind. I had to escape.

I found an opportunity to grab Caroline's sleeping pills. I crushed them up and added them to the dinner that I had cooked. I even added some to the dog's food bowl.

Late at night, when I heard Andrew's loud snores and Toby's sniffling, I quietly opened the door to the bedroom.

The door creaked loudly. In the past, this would have woken up the dog, who would in turn wake up Andrew and Caroline.

However, this time, the dog did not bark. Andrew's snoring did not falter either.

Holding in my excitement, I crept through the darkness, terrified of making another sound.

I reached the front door without triggering anything.

When I opened the door, the cold night air rushed in.

Caroline stood there, still holding her position with her ears pressed against the door. When she saw me frozen in shock, she laughed. "I saw you eavesdropping on us earlier. Then, I found two of my sleeping pills missing. You're quite clever, aren't you?"

This time, Caroline did not beat me up. She came to an agreement with the town dunce quickly and married me off to him.

On the day of the wedding, I finally saw Xavier.

He stormed into the dunce's house, just like he had done when I was 16.

This time, he did not use violence to solve the problem. He told his assistant to give the dunce's family 300 thousand dollars, then took me away.

I was ecstatic to have escaped from there. I wanted to thank him, but I found myself saying, "Why did you come so late, Xavier? It's been almost a month. I was miserable."

Xavier sat beside me, seemingly focused on replying to his messages on his phone. He looked unusually soft.

I had never seen that expression on him.

I started to feel uneasy and quietly called out his name.

He turned to me. There was a strange disgust and resentment in his eyes that I couldn't comprehend.

Slowly, he put down his phone and smiled coldly at me. "You've been lying to me all this time, Sophia."

I moved away instinctively. "What did I lie to you about?"

He pulled me into his arms roughly and whispered in my ear, "What do you think?"

My ears reddened instantly. We'd never been so intimate before.

"I…"

Before I could finish, he pulled down the collar of my shirt and asked darkly, staring at my shoulder, "What is this?"

They were the bruises I had gotten from being beaten.

Before I could explain, Xavier pushed me away and took out his handkerchief to wipe his hands. "Suzie was right."

There was disgust in his voice. "You really are … shameless."

I didn't know what he was talking about.

Xavier straightened. He was more than six feet tall, so his presence overwhelmed me.

Slowly, he said, "You make me feel sick. You're disgusting."

Tears began to fall at once.

Xavier used to hate the sight of me crying.

He used to say that he only knew how to make people cry, not how to make them stop.

I was the only exception. Every time I cried, he would buy me an expensive present, like a dress or a handbag.

Eventually, I became too embarrassed to cry in front of him.

This time, however, he only scoffed when he saw me crying. "Stop pretending, Sophia. Aren't you tired after putting on such an act for so many years?"