"Fine. Since that's how you want it, I'll discipline you on behalf of your dead father today!"

He waved his hand and gave the order. "Go. Raise the temperature another nine degrees. A hundred and fifty-eight. I don't care how stubborn you think you are. You don't apologize, you don't come out."

The moment the words left his mouth, the other maids in the house came running over, begging on my behalf.

"Sir, please spare her this once. She's eight months pregnant. The temperature in there is already so high, it could be fatal for the baby."

Bernard's brow furrowed. He glanced at me through the small window.

A few seconds of silence. He was about to nod when Ivy let out a sharp cry and collapsed to the floor.

Bernard rushed to scoop her into his arms. "Ivy, what's wrong? Tell me where it hurts. I'll take you to the hospital."

Ivy shook her head, eyes brimming with tears. "It's just my own weak body that landed me in the ICU. It had nothing to do with her. Everyone's already pleading for her, so please, just let her go. I'm fine..."

Before she could finish, her whole body curled in on itself, gasping for air in great heaving gulps, as though she were about to go into shock.

The "okay" that had been sitting in Bernard's throat never made it out. His voice turned cold and sharp.

"You do something wrong, you face the consequences. Do as I said."

The maids stole a glance at the horror inside the roasting chamber and tried to plead again, but Bernard's icy glare stopped them dead.

"Ivy had her sunbathe for the baby's sake. Instead of being grateful, she smashed the glass and hurt someone. She still hasn't shown an ounce of remorse. She deserves to suffer. Anyone who begs for her again can pack their bags and get out."

He paused, then added, "Go. Adjust the temperature. And have an ambulance waiting outside."

After that, none of the maids dared say another word.

Mamie Winfield exchanged a look with Ivy, then hurried off to adjust the thermostat.

When she came back, the temperature inside the chamber had climbed to a hundred and fifty-eight degrees.

She had added a full eighteen degrees instead of nine.

The sudden blast of heat hit like a wall. My legs gave out. My whole body shook as I collapsed onto the scalding metal floor.

The instant my feet left their position, one sole lost a sheet of flesh to the iron plate. The other ripped away a layer of dried scab.

When my body hit the surface, the skin that touched the metal sizzled. It swelled red immediately, blood seeping through, as though I were being seared alive.

Pain tore through every inch of me, bone-deep, relentless. Blood oozed from everywhere at once.

To protect the baby, I forced myself past the agony and twisted my body so my back faced down.

Every movement peeled another strip of flesh from whatever part of me pressed against the scorching iron.

By the time I'd gotten into position, there was almost no unburned skin left on my body.

And the baby inside me had gone completely still.

The people outside who had been watching and snickering fell silent as they took in the carnage through the window.

Feeling my child's life slip away, I screamed with everything I had. "Bernard Farley! My baby is dead! You killed him with your own hands! When I get out of here, my brother will slaughter every last one of you! You all deserve to die!"

The color drained from Bernard's face.

In the silence, he walked to the small window, as though he needed to see my condition for himself.

When he saw me drenched in blood, not a single patch of intact skin left, his pupils contracted.

He opened his mouth to order someone to bring the key, but Ivy stepped forward and caught his hand.

"How could you say something like that?" Ivy's voice was soft, wounded. "You know how much your brother put him through. All those years of being undermined and humiliated. Your brother's been dead for ages, and you're still using his name to threaten him. How could you twist the knife like that?"

She turned to Bernard, her voice soft and gentle.

"Bernard, I know how much you suffered back then. Please don't be upset. I'll always be on your side. As for your wife, you should probably let her out. She's saying whatever comes to mind, even threatening to kill us. If this goes on, who knows what she might do. She could turn out just like that brother of hers..."

Ivy's words dragged up every bitter, suffocating memory Bernard had buried, and his fury erupted in an instant. He slammed his fist into the iron wall.

"Raise the temperature another nine degrees. Let's see how long she keeps running her mouth."

The men behind him saw his rage and didn't dare push back. They went and raised the temperature nine degrees without a word.

The heat hit all at once, boring through my body from below. I felt like a slab of meat pressed flat against a griddle.

My organs were cooking. Every inch of me was being boiled alive from the inside out.

I couldn't hold on. I collapsed sideways.

The instant my belly touched the iron plate, blood surged from my lower abdomen.

It ran along the metal and seeped out through the gap beneath the door. Even outside, it was still steaming.

When I understood that my child was gone, truly gone, the sound that tore out of me was barely human.

People outside cried out. "Someone's going to die in there!"

Bernard had still been seething, but the shout made him turn. The blood pooling under the door drained the color from his face.

He grabbed the nearest person, shaking them. "The key! Go get the key, NOW!"

Ivy rushed forward. "Bernard, I know where it is. I'll get it!"

Before she left, she paused at the small window and looked in at me.

The look on her face was pure, undisguised triumph. A grin so vicious it twisted her features.

After she left, Bernard stood rigid, brow knotted, glancing again and again through the window at me. I was barely breathing.

Minutes passed. When Ivy still hadn't returned, he erupted. "Where is she?! Someone go find out why that key isn't here yet!"

"And the rest of you, cut the power! Get an ambulance here NOW!"

He watched them scatter in every direction. Something flickered behind his eyes. Pain, maybe.

The power had barely been off a minute when Ivy came running back, tears streaming down her face. "Bernard, the key... the key is gone..."

The blood left his face entirely.

He staggered toward her, his voice threaded with ice. "How is the key gone. You'd better not be lying to me."

Ivy dropped to her knees with a thud. "This oven was custom-made. It only came with one key. When the maids were cleaning up, they must have thought it was junk and... thrown it away..."

I watched Bernard through half-closed eyes. The pathetic part was that he believed her. An excuse that flimsy, and he swallowed it whole.

He sent someone to get a replacement key made, then pressed his face close to the window. "Sharon, just hold on a little longer. I'm getting you out. Stay with me."

Watching the concern crease his brow, Ivy spoke up again. "Bernard, you brought all my relatives here today. You told them they'd witness your wife apologizing to me. They're all still waiting..."

"The power's off now anyway. Just think of it as giving everyone closure. All she has to do is say she's sorry. It doesn't even have to be sincere..."

Bernard looked at me. Then at Ivy, small and wronged and obedient. He rapped his knuckles against the little window.

"Sharon, no matter how you look at it, today was your fault. Just apologize. Keep it simple. Then I'll drop the whole thing. Alright?"

When I said nothing, his tone softened. "Be good. Everyone's waiting for you to say sorry. Once you do, I'll let you out. Ivy will take good care of you from now on. And I'll love you properly. I promise."

The searing heat and massive blood loss had already blurred my consciousness to almost nothing.

I dragged myself up from the pool of blood, running on nothing but instinct, and wrote on the iron plate one trembling character at a time in my own blood: "Brother… kill them all…"

Ivy's eyes were full of contempt, but her voice came out in a wounded, tearful quiver.

"Mrs. Farley, I know you've always been overbearing, but all I'm asking for is an apology so I can give my family some closure. Is that really too much?"

"Besides, your brother was mutilated beyond recognition a long time ago. You're the last Fox standing. What's the point of keeping this up? If you won't apologize, even if I wanted to let you out, my family would never agree…"

The moment she finished, the crowd of Winfield relatives outside started piling on.

"Miss Fox, stop dreaming. Everyone knows your entire family was wiped out three years ago. If Mr. Farley hadn't been protecting you, you'd have died a hundred times over. You think you can threaten us? What a joke."

"Mr. Farley, look at her. She's faking it. She nearly got Ivy killed this time. If you don't teach her a real lesson, who knows how she'll bully people next."

"That's right, Mr. Farley. After what she's done, you can't just let her off easy."

Bernard pressed his fingers against his brow in irritation. When he spoke again, a thread of weary patience laced his voice.

"Sharon, your brother is long dead. You're not some Fox family heiress anymore. Without my protection all these years, you wouldn't have survived a single day. I'm your only lifeline now. Just say you're sorry, and I'll let you out right away. Alright?"

The heat inside the box still hadn't faded, but the movement in my belly had stopped completely.

The little life that had been with me for eight months. In the end, I couldn't save him.

Tears blurred my vision. The pain was beyond anything I could bear.

I had no strength left to answer. I just lowered my head and, with absolute finality, wrote two words on the ground in blood: "Never."

Bernard's expression shifted.

"Sharon, think carefully. No one in this world can save you but me!"

The instant the words left his mouth, a gunshot cracked through the air and a bullet grazed his scalp.

A piercing ring tore through the room, and a squad of mercenaries armed with assault rifles stormed in.

A cold, sharp voice came from behind him.

"Who says no one can save her?"