When I opened my eyes again, he was actually there with me in the countryside.

Cecily stood over me, watching me alone.

"Donald is so good to you. He was worried you'd suffer out here, so he came all the way to check on your new living arrangements."

"You should start getting used to it now. After all, being a farm girl isn't about sitting around doing nothing. You'll have to work the fields."

She finished speaking and walked out.

She hooked her arm through Donald's and introduced him to her parents.

"This is my boyfriend. The one inside is his little sister. She was spoiled rotten at home, so we brought her here for you to toughen up."

"However you'd raise any other girl around here, that's how you raise her."

The last part, she said in the local dialect.

Translated, it meant: treat her like a pig, a dog, an animal. Whatever you want.

She walked back over to me, flashing a bright smile, still speaking in dialect.

"Right, whore?"

She thought I couldn't understand. She even had the kindness to explain it to me.

"Sheila, I was complimenting you just now."

"Aren't you happy?"

My face stayed blank. I looked at that smug face of hers, picked up the porcelain ashtray caked with her father's cigarette ash from the bed, and threw it right in her face.

Then I gave it right back to her.

"Whore."

"I'm complimenting you too."

Cecily's face turned a mottled gray.

She shrieked and clawed at her skin, growing more frantic by the second, until she was so furious she burst into tears.

Donald rushed over, grabbed her hands, and pulled out a wet wipe to clean her face.

The look he gave me was pure rage.

"Cecily had a miscarriage. Her health is already fragile."

"How could you do this to her?!"

Cecily's parents panicked too. Her father snatched up a pair of coal tongs from the floor and swung them at me.

"You little tramp, laying a hand on my daughter!"

"I'll—"

I grabbed the pillow and hurled it at him.

"Yeah, I touched her. Go ahead and kill me if you've got the guts."

"She knew he was taken and went after him anyway. She seduced my man, then dumped me in this godforsaken middle of nowhere. Back in the old days, I could've had her drowned for what she did."

"If you don't like it, call the cops. Let them haul every last one of you in."

The neighbors who'd crowded in to watch the commotion heard every word. The way they looked at Cecily's family shifted entirely.

"I thought this girl married some rich man. Turns out she's the other woman."

"And she dragged the real wife all the way out here? How can someone be that heartless?"

"Wait, that can't be right. I heard she was dating him for real, that they were about to get their marriage license."

Cecily couldn't take the whispers and the pointed stares. She snatched the wet wipe from Donald's hand and flung it at them.

She turned on the crowd, spitting venom.

"You're listening to her bullshit! I'm the one who's Donald's woman. If you don't believe me, ask him!"

"Donald, say something! You promised me!"

Donald had already slipped back into character. He reached over and stroked her hair, stepping in to smooth things over.

"Everyone, please stop with the rumors. Cecily and I are the real couple."

"This woman tried to crawl into my bed. I brought her here to teach her a small lesson, but clearly she hasn't learned a thing."

His expression twisted with disgust.

"Now she's trying to slander Cecily."

"I remember Cecily telling me your village has a way of dealing with women like this..."

My heart lurched.

A terrible feeling crept over me.

"It's about time she learned her lesson."

I backed away slowly until my spine hit the wall. The door had been locked from the outside.

Several stocky women burst in, gripping fresh switches braided from willow branches.

They brought them down on me without hesitation.

"Homewreckers are all possessed by fox spirits."

"Willow switches drive out evil spirits. We're just helping you get cleansed."

The switches had been soaked in salt water. The first lash sent brine searing straight into my wounds.

I screamed. Donald started toward the room, but someone pulled him back.

"Donald, the ladies know what they're doing. They won't really hurt her."

"If you go in there, she'll know she can use your worry to manipulate you."

Donald's expression shifted, darkened, shifted again. In the end, he didn't come in.

Sixty-six lashes.

The twin agony of my heart condition and the shredded flesh stole even my ability to scream. By the end, I couldn't make a sound.

Something warm was trickling down between my legs.

The women in the room saw the blood and panicked instantly.

"She... she's not pregnant, is she?"

Donald heard the commotion and walked in.

When he saw the blood pooling between my legs, real alarm flashed across his face.

"It was supposed to be a simple lesson. Why is she bleeding?"

The women couldn't get a single word out. One by one, their eyes turned to Cecily.

Cecily was rattled too, but she recovered fast. She grabbed Donald's arm and lowered her voice.

"It's obviously just her period."

"You know Sheila's cycle better than anyone. Isn't it right around now?"

Half the worry drained from Donald's face.

"That's probably it."

Cecily smiled. When her gaze slid to me, a flicker of contempt settled behind her eyes.

"Sheila's trying to fake a miscarriage so you'll feel sorry for her and take her home."

"You've told me yourself, Donald. Sheila is clever."

"She knows she's not getting out of here anytime soon, so she's using her own body to guilt-trip you."

I felt the life inside me fading, slipping away degree by degree. A bitter, hollow laugh escaped my throat.

In my last life, I hadn't been able to keep this baby either. Only it hadn't ended like this. Back then, they'd forced me into the fields to do manual labor until my body gave out and the child was gone.

This time, it was beaten out of me.

Donald had already swallowed every word Cecily fed him. He turned on me, lip curling. "Sheila Simmons, you really don't know when to quit, do you?"

"Even now, you're scheming to make me take you away."

"Watching me worry. Is that fun for you?"

Cecily put on her best sympathetic expression, shaking her head at me with practiced disapproval.

"Sheila, using Donald's concern like that is really too much."

"You should apologize to him."

I placed my hand gently over my lower belly. The warmth beneath my palm was fading.

I bit through my lip. Tasted iron and salt. Then I lunged, driving my head straight into Cecily's stomach.

She went sprawling, arms and legs flailing, clutching her abdomen and wailing.

"My stomach! My stomach hurts so bad!"

"Donald, I'm not going to lose the ability to be a mother, am I?"

Donald backhanded me across the face.

"You'd better pray nothing happens to Cecily."

He turned to Leopold and Beverly Harris, who were hovering in the doorway, and raised his voice.

"I'm taking Cecily to the hospital to get checked out. She stays with you."

"Just handle things the way Cecily told you."

He scooped Cecily into his arms and left.

The engine roared to life outside. Once the car pulled away, Leopold and Beverly Harris ushered the other women out of the room.

Beverly Harris stepped forward and slapped me twice across the face.

"So what if you're that CEO's wife? He wants my daughter now."

"Once you're dead, my girl becomes the new Mrs. Henson."

"Of course, we won't make it look too obvious. Imagine the story: a spoiled little rich wife threw a tantrum, stumbled into the pig pen, and got torn apart by the hogs."

Leopold grabbed a fistful of my hair and dragged me toward the door.

My legs scraped across the gravel. Stones sliced skin. Blood trailed behind me the entire way.

Leopold looked at the red smear on the ground and grinned.

"Once I starve those animals for a few days, they'll smell the blood on you. And then, sweetheart, you'll be their next meal."

I'd been thrown into the pig pen.

The stench hit me like a wall. The animals snorted, noses twitching, and lumbered toward me. I shoved at them, but their hooves caught me several times. The two of them stood there, watching my misery with satisfaction, before finally walking away.

Only after I was absolutely certain they were gone did I force myself to stay conscious and pull out my phone.

I called my parents.

"Mom, Dad. Save me."