03

Marlin cared too much about appearances. He wouldn't refuse to sign, not after demanding a divorce in front of that many people.

Sure enough, the moment I came downstairs, the signed divorce agreement was lying on the coffee table.

And the second he'd finished signing, he sent everyone away.

Everyone except his little assistant.

In front of the long barrels of the cameras, I signed the confidentiality agreement.

Fern held the signed papers, unable to hide the excitement in her eyes.

Marlin sat at the far end of the sofa, saying nothing the whole time.

After all the years I'd lived in this house, when it came time to leave, my things didn't even fill a single canvas bag.

I picked them up and was about to push the front door open when Marlin's voice sounded in my head again.

【Wife, you don't actually think you can slip out of my hands, do you?】

The next second, a suffocating wave swept over me like a tornado.

Marlin's inner voice still circled in my ears.

【Wife, didn't you say you'd love me for the rest of your life?】

【Why are you running away so fast now?】

【Wife, I'm a coward, but I love you. You can't leave me.】

When I opened my eyes again, I was back in the room I'd shared with Marlin.

Just as I'd expected, my wrist was cuffed to the headboard again.

Fern walked in carrying a bowl of porridge.

“Summer, you're awake. Hurry up and drink this.”

I glanced at her and ignored her.

The next second, she grabbed my chin and shoved the bowl straight against my mouth.

Scalding porridge ran down inside my collar. Pain sent cold sweat pouring off me, and I flung her off.

Fern straightened her clothes and put on that infuriating smile of hers.

“Summer, this is all Marlin's idea. There's no reason to make things hard for me.”

“Marlin said if you won't cooperate, I'm free to use force to make you behave.”

I choked down my fury and forced the words out through my teeth. “Get out. Tell Marlin to come see me.”

Fern heard that and pulled a ring of keys from her pocket.

“Marlin's away on business. He won't be back all week.”

“I'll take very good care of you, Summer.”

I stared at that ring of keys, blank for a moment.

The tasseled charm on it was one Marlin and I had made with our own hands.

The night we finished it, he sat at the head of the bed staring at those keys, grinning like a fool for who knows how long.

【My wife and I made this together. No one else is allowed to touch it.】

【I really want to fire every housekeeper we have, so it's just me and my wife in this house.】

【No one is allowed to covet my wife.】

But now he'd not only let countless strangers into our home.

He'd handed our house keys to someone else.

Seeing my reaction, Fern waggled the keys the way you'd tease a dog.

“Surprised? I said I liked these keys, and Marlin just gave them to me.”

“Not that I really needed them, since every keypad lock in this house has my fingerprint programmed in.”

“This charm, though, is hideous.”

With that, she pulled off the charm and tossed it out the window without a second thought.

The little glass pendant on it struck the glass and shattered into pieces.

Just like Marlin and me.

I stopped looking at her, turned onto my side, and closed my eyes.

Fern leaned in close to my ear and spoke like a snake flicking its tongue.

“Summer, your mother is in the hospital suffering a fate worse than death. How do you still have the heart to sleep?”

04

The second I heard it, I grabbed her by the collar.

"What did you say?"

"What happened to my mother?"

Fern spread her hands, all innocence.

Then she pulled up the record of my mother's attending physician calling half an hour ago.

"There've been three critical-condition notices already. Wow, Summer, you really do love your mom, huh."

Once I was sure the information was real, I didn't even put on shoes before I ran downstairs.

But when I reached the front door, it wouldn't open, no matter what I did.

Fern came up behind me, unhurried.

"Summer, it's not that I don't want you to see your mother one last time."

"It's Marlin's order. Until he comes back, you don't set one foot outside this house."

I ignored her. All I knew was that my mother couldn't wait any longer.

My phone had been taken from me long ago, God knew where, so I had to find another way.

Marlin had designed the inside of this house himself.

In an emergency, the doors locked automatically and could only be opened from the outside by rescue crews.

Which meant all I needed was for someone to open the door from outside.

The thought hit me and I started pounding on the door, screaming.

"Is anyone there? Help me!"

In the kitchen, Fern took a calm sip of tea. "Save your breath, Summer."

I glared at her, vicious. "You're not afraid I'll tell Marlin?"

Fern laughed like she'd heard the funniest joke in the world.

"Summer, you don't still think you're Mrs. Delgado, do you?"

"Tell Marlin? So he can humiliate you all over again?"

"Relax. From now on, I'll be the one taking over the Mrs. Delgado role."

"And you'll be down on the ground like a stray dog, begging me to give you and your mother a way to live."

I heard my own trembling voice ask her why she was doing this.

When she first came to Ashford she was a stranger here, couldn't even afford to eat.

I was the one who introduced her to Marlin, who got her that first job.

"Doesn't your conscience hurt?"

Her face changed the instant she heard it.

"Why should my conscience hurt?"

"We're both women. Why do you get to enjoy the best life there is from the day you're born, marry Marlin?"

"And me? I have to pay for my brother's schooling, buy him a car and a house so he can get a wife!"

"I've lived that life for twenty years, and you can't handle two days of it?!"

My whole body started twitching, small tremors I couldn't stop.

I had hands, I had feet, and I was trapped inside this small building.

I couldn't even manage to see my mother one last time.

Right then, the front door opened.

It was the cleaning lady who came every three days.

She gave me a small nod.

I watched for my moment and ran.

But before I could get across the garden, security closed in from every direction and pinned me.

They tied me up like a bag of trash and dumped me in front of Fern.

"Summer, Marlin left instructions."

"If you won't behave, I have to punish you."

With that, she picked up the stun baton by her foot, pressed it to my chest, and hit the switch without mercy.

The cleaning lady frowned and took out her phone, meaning to check with Mr. Delgado.

Fern smiled, gentle.

"Ma'am, Miss Pruitt has already divorced Mr. Delgado. She has no say in this house."

"Mr. Delgado is away on business, and I'm here on his orders to keep an eye on Miss Pruitt."

"Ma'am, please don't make this hard for me, all right?"

The shocks had left me barely conscious.

I could only just move my fingers, begging her to call my uncle.

But after weighing it over and over, she put the phone away.

As if nothing had happened, she started cleaning.

I knocked my head lightly against the floor, over and over, to hold on to the last of my clarity.

"Summer, look at this. Maybe it'll cheer you up."

Then Fern played a piece of surveillance footage on her phone.

My mother, tubes running out of her everywhere, foam at her mouth, straining to make a sound to get a doctor's attention.

But not one person noticed her.

She kept lifting her head, fighting to live, letting out low choking cries.

And in the end she died with no way out.

I broke, sobbing, and shot to my feet, ready to take Fern down with me.

But before I could even touch her, the guards on both sides had me again.

This time Fern aimed the stun baton at my stomach.

A hard current tore straight through me, head to toe.

In the last of my consciousness, I felt something warm and wet running down the inside of my thigh.

My unborn child, in the space of a moment, was gone.

And Marlin was standing in the garden, holding a box of blueberry mousse cake.