After my baby bump started showing, Maxwell Farley's secretary put me on a weight-loss program.

It required me to run sixty miles a day while a pack of Tibetan Mastiffs chased and snapped at my heels.

I ran until I nearly lost the baby's heartbeat, then begged her to call the dogs off.

She just reclined in her rocking chair, smiling sweetly. “Mrs. Farley, you've gotten fat as a pig since the pregnancy. It's honestly an eyesore. I'm doing this for your own good.”

Out of options, I grabbed a flowerpot and smashed it over the lunging dog's head just to stay alive.

Afterward, I demanded that Maxwell give me an explanation.

Instead, I got an interrogation.

“Doris Mason, how can you be so vicious? Do you have any idea Joy Winfield faints at the sight of blood? Because of your little stunt killing that dog, she nearly ended up in the ICU!”

I was so furious I laughed. “She got what she deserved. Too bad the ICU didn't keep her.”

Maxwell stared at me, gave an unreadable smile, and said nothing more.

But that night, I was yanked out of bed and thrown into a pitch-black room.

The snarling of Tibetan Mastiffs and the clank of iron chains filled my ears.

Maxwell's lazy voice drifted in from outside. “Joy isn't someone you get to bully. She has people backing her. Understand?”

I tried to recall every kind thing he'd ever done for me, but the cold still crept through my chest.

After a long silence, I spoke. “Maxwell, I have people backing me too.”

And if I called on them, by tomorrow he and Joy would learn what it meant to wish they were dead.

——

“Feeling wronged, Mrs. Farley?”

His voice was still careless. He assumed the person I meant to rely on was him.

I said nothing. I took out my phone and finally dialed a number I hadn't called in a very long time.

“……Hey. I'm being hurt.”

The moment the words left my mouth, I heard a scoff from outside the room.

“Since when do you have a brother? First I'm hearing of it.”

I didn't answer. Over the snarling and the chains, I gave the address. “Serene Gardens.”

“Nice act.” Maxwell's tone was amused. “I'm shaking, Mrs. Farley.”

While he was still mocking me, a coy voice floated closer from down the hall.

“Maxwell.”

“You have three seconds.”

“If you don't punish her right now.”

“We're done.”

“You really think I came here to listen to you two flirt.”

Maxwell wrapped his arm around Joy's slender waist and strolled to the small window. He gestured casually at the Mastiffs chained around the dark room.

“My girl's upset.”

“She's hard to calm down, so you'll just have to suffer, Mrs. Farley.”

He raised a hand. The dog handler walked into the room and removed the muzzles from every Mastiff.

The window slammed shut. The room plunged into total darkness.

The Mastiffs roared from every direction, chains scraping across the floor in a shrill metallic shriek.

No matter how hard I tried to stay calm, every hair on my body stood on end and each breath came harder than the last.

I couldn't stop shaking. My voice came out raw. “Maxwell, do you have any idea what sixty miles means for a pregnant woman? Those are Tibetan Mastiffs! If I hadn't fought back, your child would already be dead inside me!”

The sound of my voice only excited the dogs more. They lunged and snarled louder.

In the grip of that terror, a violent cramp tore through my lower abdomen.

The baby kicked frantically. I pressed both hands over my stomach and had no choice but to call out for help.

“Maxwell, let me out! The baby's going to get hurt! We waited five years for this child. You wanted him more than anything!”

Silence outside. A few seconds passed.

Then I heard him say, “When she calms down.”

Those three words cut into me like a blade. I felt the blood come.

Years ago, when I was helping Maxwell build his business, the lack of rest cost me a pregnancy. After that, I couldn't conceive again for a long time.

To have a child. Hormone injections, egg retrievals, needles, pills.

Every time he watched me suffer through it, Maxwell looked like the pain was killing him too, like he wanted to tear someone apart just to make it stop.

The day the test came back positive, his eyes went red in an instant.

After that, he treated me like I was made of glass. Pampered me like I was the most precious thing in his world.

And now, just a few months later, there was someone else by his side. He'd even locked me in a pitch-black room chained with Tibetan Mastiffs, all because Joy claimed the sight of blood made her faint.

Every organ in my body throbbed with pain. I clenched my teeth and was about to speak when Joy's voice cut through the air, cool and dripping with mockery.

“Oh, just let her out already. I can see how much it pains Mr. Farley. No matter what, I'm just a secretary. Just a disposable mistress. How could I ever compare to the noble Mrs. Farley and her precious baby? I almost ended up in the ICU, but that's what I deserve, right? All my fault!”

Every word oozed passive-aggressive venom.

Maxwell didn't hear the poison. He found it charming, laughing at her. “Why are you getting jealous over nothing?”

“Who said I was letting her out?”

My heart sank further with every word.

I stood there listening to Maxwell flirt as if I didn't exist, as if the safety of his own child meant nothing at all.

I was the one who'd been mauled by the mastiffs. I was the one who'd been chased until I bled, who'd nearly been rushed to the hospital.

Yet I was the one locked up. I was the one being punished.

I bit down hard on the inside of my cheek, trying to force words out, when Maxwell's soft laugh reached me again.

“You little handful.”

“Why do you get so worked up?” His tone was impossibly tender, like he was whispering sweet nothings. “I know you feel wronged. Go on, loosen one of the mastiff's chains by about four inches. Give her a little scare. Let the noble Mrs. Farley apologize to you. After all, she's so pampered she can't even finish a sixty-mile run. What a waste of our Joy's thoughtful little fitness plan.”

Joy pressed the latch on the chain restraint. The moment she released it, I felt the rush of air as a mastiff lunged.

My heart seized. That was far more than four inches.

Before I could react, a searing pain ripped through my calf.

I stumbled back, but a chunk of flesh had already been torn free. The scream that left me was animal, involuntary.

Cold sweat soaked through my dress in seconds. My legs shook so violently I could barely stay upright.

I was terrified that if I collapsed, my stomach would be exposed, and then the mastiffs would tear into it, rip into the baby……

For the child, I clutched my cramping belly and forced my head down. “I was wrong, Maxwell. I'll apologize to her. It's all my fault. Please, let me out……”

But the instant I opened my mouth, a mastiff lunged again, its snarling roar drowning out my plea.

One second of pure terror, and then the pain in my leg split the world in two.

In the pitch dark, I screamed and tried to wrench myself free.

But the mastiff that had locked onto me refused to let go. With every thrash, the flesh separated further from bone, and blood poured from the open wound in a hot, steady rush.

The agony buckled my knees. I staggered backward and stumbled straight into the jaws of the mastiff behind me.

Teeth sank into me from every direction.

In that moment, I was certain I was being torn apart alive. The pain of flesh ripping from my body wrenched scream after scream from my throat.

Maxwell must have heard. He frowned slightly and stood, reaching for the small observation window.

He was about to look inside when Joy whined, pouting.

“Don't look!”

“Maxwell, you're feeling sorry for her already? They didn't even really bite her.”

“Go sit back down over there. I'll check on her.”

She pushed Maxwell back into his seat and walked to the window herself, leaning in with a saccharine smile. “Mrs. Farley, I'm very easy to please. Just apologize and I'll ask Maxwell to let you out. Okay?”

The mastiffs were still tearing into me. The pain had nearly dragged me under. My lips parted, trembling, and what came out was barely a breath. “I'm sorry……”

Watching me through the window, drenched in blood, Joy let the corners of her lips curl upward. “What was that? I can't quite hear you~”

She turned to Maxwell with a wounded look. “I didn't ask for anything unreasonable. I almost ended up in the ICU, and Mrs. Farley won't even apologize.”

The sight of Joy's teary, pitiful expression dissolved whatever sliver of hesitation Maxwell had left.

He rubbed the top of her head, his voice dripping with tenderness.

“You little troublemaker. So what do you want to do about it?”

His tone was light, casual, as if he were discussing something that barely mattered. “Hmm, how about we loosen the chains another four inches? Let her get scared enough to cry, so you can blow off some steam. Sound good?”

The moment those words left his mouth, the maids in the house shuffled forward, one after another, pleading on my behalf.

“Sir, a pregnant woman can't handle that kind of fright. Please, spare her just this once. She's seven months along. That's your child too. And those are Tibetan Mastiffs in there. If they actually bite her……”

Maxwell's brow furrowed. He was silent for several seconds.

He seemed to think the screaming from inside the dark room was too raw, too agonized, and was about to agree when Joy let out a quiet, self-deprecating laugh.

“Oh, right……I almost forgot. This is the Farley house. The woman in there is Mrs. Farley. You're the real family. What am I, then……In the end, I'm the only villain here.”

She rubbed her reddened eyes and looked up at Maxwell. “But I just feel so wronged. Two months ago, if she hadn't faked a stomachache and called you home, I wouldn't have lost the baby. We had a child too, you know.”

Joy's voice carried clearly to my ears, and a sharp ringing filled my head.

My entire body went rigid. One phrase kept echoing through my skull: ‘We had a child too’. And then Maxwell's reply, soaked in aching tenderness: “We'll have another.”

No wonder Maxwell didn't care about this baby he'd spent five years waiting for.

No wonder he kept saying Joy deserved to vent.

The fainting, the ICU scare, it was all a pretext. They were pouring the grief of losing their child onto me.

But what had I done wrong?

The word "fine" caught in Maxwell's throat never made it out. He kissed Joy's forehead, his voice gentle.

“You're not an outsider.”

“Go adjust the chains. Vent however you want. I'm here. No one gets to say a word.”

A few of the maids, listening to the shrieks and the carnage coming from the dark room, tried to plead again. Maxwell silenced them with a single cold look.

“This house bears the Farley name. If any of you want to keep begging, you can pack your things and leave.”

He paused, then added, “Have the family doctor wait in the front courtyard.”

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

Joy walked back to the control panel. The instant she released her grip, the Tibetan Mastiffs rushed me in a frenzy, knocking me flat.

She had unlatched every single collar.

The violence of that first surge of bites sent every vein in my body straining against my skin.

I fought to drag myself into a corner, using whatever strength I had left to shield my belly. But my hands, my arms, my legs were already torn beyond recognition.

Teeth kept ripping into me. Every inch I moved cost another strip of flesh wrenched away.

Blood seeped from everywhere at once, and every nerve screamed with a pain that went straight to the bone.

To keep them away from my stomach, I stopped fighting the rest of it, letting them have my body.

By the time I finally curled into a ball, there wasn't a single patch of skin left untouched. I looked like I had been washed in blood.

And my baby, inside me, had gone completely still.

Feeling the life drain out of my child, I screamed until my throat tore. “Maxwell Farley! My baby is dead! You killed him! You all deserve to die! When I get out, I will kill you with my own hands! I will make you suffer the way I'm suffering!”