A flash of hatred twisted through Rebecca's eyes.

"Fine. She's the Henson heiress, after all."

When they moved to take me away, Kathy and Ivan blocked the path, refusing to let us leave.

"Miss Fletcher, you're really taking her?" Ivan stepped forward, his expression sour. "But you said she was supposed to be my—"

Rebecca silenced him with a single razor-sharp glare.

He shut his mouth.

"Haven't I paid you enough?"

Rebecca pulled out a check and held it up between two fingers.

"There's five hundred thousand dollars on this. Consider it compensation for playing house with Miss Henson."

"For backwater villagers like you, this should be more than enough to last the rest of your miserable lives."

Ivan and Kathy's eyes lit up like slot machines hitting jackpot.

"Yes, yes, of course. Miss Fletcher is always so generous."

Ivan's gaze crawled over my body, greedy and slow. He muttered under his breath, "What a waste, though. A wife like that..."

Kathy jabbed him hard in the ribs.

"Don't push your luck. With this kind of money, you can buy whatever wife you want."

"Besides, you already used her up. She can't even give you a son. Worthless. Let her go."

I kept my head down, letting their words burrow into my ears.

My face was numb. Expressionless.

Rebecca had brought servants with her. They cleaned me up, combed my hair, and dressed me.

When I stepped out in a white sundress, Rebecca looked me over and burst out laughing.

"Marina, you used to look stunning in white. I had no idea it would look so... wrong on you now."

"I'm so sorry, sweetie. I really didn't expect your skin to be this dark."

Her eyes brimmed with barely concealed glee.

Jacob stood beside her, frowning at me with open distaste. "Trying to look like something you're not."

He draped his arm around Rebecca, who wore a similar dress, and let out a mocking laugh.

"Standing next to each other, one of you looks like an heiress and the other looks like the help. And the heiress is obviously Rebecca."

Rebecca giggled, playfully swatting his chest.

"Don't say that. Marina and I are best friends. She's the real heiress."

She tilted her head, her voice dripping sweetness. "If it weren't for Marina, how would I have ever met you?"

She was right about that.

If I hadn't introduced Rebecca to my fiancé, the two of them would never have ended up together.

Looking back, the signs had been there all along. Every time Jacob and I went out on a date, Rebecca would text me, begging to hang out. Without fail.

Gradually, our dates for two became outings for three.

Then, somewhere along the way, I was the one cut out. It became just the two of them, shopping together, grabbing coffee.

The first time I caught them, I was livid. "Jacob, I don't want you seeing Rebecca alone behind my back."

He acted like it was nothing.

"Marina." He rubbed my shoulders, his voice patient, placating. "Rebecca's your best friend, isn't she? I treat her like a friend too. That's the only reason we grabbed coffee."

"I'm just trying to get along with her so you don't feel stuck in the middle."

"If it bothers you, I won't see her again."

After that, he stopped meeting Rebecca openly.

And because I wanted to preserve our friendship, I decided to set Rebecca up with a suitable boyfriend. The young man I had in mind was an assistant at my father's company. Fresh out of college, he'd already been promoted three times. A rising star.

I never expected what happened next. The moment I explained what I had in mind, Rebecca burst into tears and screamed at me.

"Marina, do you really think I'm only good enough for some blue-collar nobody?"

Jacob had frowned too, his voice sharp with reproach.

"Marina, what you did was completely out of line. You overstepped."

In the end, I was the one who went to Rebecca to apologize.

I told her I'd meant well but made a mess of things. Rebecca smiled and said she knew I hadn't meant any harm.

I thought the whole thing was behind us. I never imagined they'd been scheming all along, biding their time for a far more devastating retaliation.

Seeing me silent now, Jacob grabbed my arm and yanked. "Marina. I'm talking to you. Are you even listening?"

I was pulled out of my thoughts. I lifted my head to look at him. "What did you say?"

But Jacob didn't answer. Instead, his brow creased.

"What's that smell? It reeks."

Suddenly, disgust twisted his features. He clamped a hand over his nose and took a large step back, putting distance between us.

"Rebecca, do you smell something weird?"

Rebecca sniffed the air a few times, then nodded.

"Yeah. It smells like... urine."

They both turned to stare at me, their eyes raking over my body with open scrutiny.

Every muscle in me went rigid. I stood frozen, not daring to move.

But the warm liquid kept coming.

Trickling down from between my legs.

Rebecca's eyes went comically wide. She pointed at my pants.

"Jacob, look! She wet herself!" A shriek of laughter tore out of her. "Oh my God, Marina actually wet herself!"

"Marina, I get that you're excited to be home, but this is a bit much, don't you think?"

Jacob backed away even farther, revulsion stamped across his face.

"Marina, you're really... unbelievable."

"Where's your breeding? Where's the poised, elegant Henson heiress? Three years in the countryside and this is what you've become?" His lip curled. "It's disgusting."

Disgusting.

I lowered my head, numb, and stared at the dark stain spreading across my skirt.

I'd lost control again.

Five miscarriages in three years had left my body irreparably broken. The medical care in Hollow Creek Village was nonexistent. There were a few unlicensed country doctors, sure, but Kathy and Ivan would never have spent a cent on me.

I pressed my lips together until they went white, enduring their shrill, exaggerated laughter.

"Enough. Enough..."

The words fell from my mouth, barely audible.

They were the reason I was like this. Every last bit of it was their doing.

And yet they doubled over laughing, unable to stop, feeding off each other's cruelty.

My fists clenched at my sides. Then I raised my head, slowly, and the numbness in my face hardened into something else entirely.

My gaze swept the room, cataloging everything within reach, until it landed on a porcelain vase on the side table.

The next second, the vase shattered over Rebecca's skull.

"Still funny?"

Rebecca swayed, stunned. Her hand went to her head. When she pulled it away and saw the blood coating her fingers, a piercing scream ripped from her throat.

"She's trying to kill me! Marina's trying to kill me!"

Her eyes rolled back, and she crumpled to the floor.

Jacob stood frozen, the color draining from his face. It took him a long moment to react. When he finally did, he rounded on me with a guttural snarl.

"You psycho!"

He looked at the blood streaming from Rebecca's head, his face chalk-white. He scooped her up and bolted for the door.

"It's okay, Rebecca, I'm taking you to the hospital right now..."

He was so frantic he nearly forgot to turn back. At the threshold, he whipped around, his voice shaking with rage. "This isn't over. I'll deal with you later."

I watched his retreating figure, unblinking.

"That's right. I've lost my mind."

"And now it's this madwoman's turn to come for you. Every last thing you owe me."

The vase had split Rebecca's scalp wide open. The wound was deep. I heard later it took over a dozen stitches to close.

Jacob's face was stone-cold. He'd sent over a dozen bodyguards to drag me to the hospital, and they shoved me to a stop right outside Rebecca's room.

The moment he saw me, his palm cracked across my face. Then he forced me to my knees.

"Apologize to Rebecca."

"Marina, what the hell happened to you?" His voice dripped with disgust. "You used to be so sweet, so considerate. When did you become this vicious? Lashing out and hurting people at the drop of a hat?"

"If your father could see what you've turned into, it would kill him."

The slap had split something inside my mouth. I tasted blood.

Jacob raised his hand to hit me again, but I caught his wrist. My grip was ice-cold, and I held on tight.

I looked up at him, my face completely blank.

"I'm only going to ask you this once."

"You knew. You knew I was tricked and sent to Hollow Creek Village. Didn't you?"

His body went rigid. The color drained from his face, and he looked away.

"That was just a game. I'm talking about what you did to Rebecca. Stop changing the subject!"

"Oh." My voice was flat. "So you were in on it."

He didn't need to say another word. That single sentence told me everything.

The question had been a formality. Deep down, I'd already known.

Three years.

For three years, I believed I'd been kidnapped and dumped in that godforsaken wasteland. I tried everything to reach Jacob, my fiancé, to beg him to save me.

I had his tracking device on me the entire time. The one he'd made specifically for me.

On those nights when Ivan and Kathy had beaten me until my body was a canvas of bruises, when I lay bleeding and wide-eyed in the dark, unable to sleep through the pain, I would run my fingers over the tracker embedded in the belt. Over and over, tracing its edges like a prayer. And I'd remember the way Jacob had looked at me, his face so gentle, so full of warmth, when he said:

"As long as you wear this, no matter where you are in the world, I'll find you."

So I never took it off. Not once. Not even when Ivan and Kathy saw how expensive the belt looked and tried to rip it off me to sell. I took the beating. I took every blow they gave me. But I never let go.

Now I flung that belt at Jacob's feet. The tracker was still inside.

"Your gift. I'm returning it."

Jacob glanced down. His breath caught.

"Why is there... so much blood on this?"

Of course there was. All of it mine. Every stain from every time they'd tried to tear it away and I'd refused to let go. My fingers had bled. My waist had bled. The leather was stiff with it.

But the blood on that belt was nothing compared to what I'd shed over three years.

I said nothing.

My silence seemed to enrage him more than any words could have. His jaw tightened, and his eyes went hard.

"Marina, don't tell me you were playing the spoiled princess in that village too. Using this belt like a whip to hit people."

"I knew it. You're arrogant and out of control. Three years in the countryside, and you didn't learn a damn thing!"

He snatched the belt up and drew his arm back to lash it across me.

I didn't flinch. Didn't move. I just closed my eyes.

And in that moment, the belt never fell.

Instead, my legs buckled. The world went black, and I collapsed.

"Marina, cut the act. Stop pretending to faint."

"Get up."

But when he crouched down and brushed the hair from my face, when he saw how hollow and gray my skin was, the anger vanished. Panic flooded in.

"Marina. Marina, wake up. What's wrong with you?"

His face twisted. He scooped me up, stumbling toward the hallway, shouting at the top of his lungs.

"Doctor! Someone collapsed!"

"Now!"

When I opened my eyes again, I heard voices arguing in the corridor outside.

"Doctor, what happened? She was fine a minute ago. Why did she faint?"

The doctor in the white coat finished his examination and let out a long, heavy sigh.

"She was in the early stages of pregnancy. She just miscarried." He fixed Jacob with a hard look. "No matter what your quarrel was about, you should have considered the condition of a pregnant woman."

The color drained from Jacob's face.

"Pregnant? Miscarriage? What the hell are you talking about?"