“You will learn obedience one way or another, Ophelia.”
My chest starts heaving, my hands begin to sweat. I think I’m having a panic attack. ”Y-you wouldn’t s-send me there,” I stutter.
“Try me.”
The room tilts sideways and all I want is Hayden.
“I’m your daughter,” I whisper.
“No.” His eyes go cold. “You’re a liability,” he states, and the words shatter something inside me completely.
He sighs heavily like I’m exhausting him.
“I’m too busy to deal with this childish nonsense anymore.” He then steps toward the door before pausing. “If HaydenMarks’ name crosses your lips again…” His voice lowers dangerously. “I’ll make sure you spend enough time at the Brimstone House to forget him completely.”
Fear and rage collide inside me, but I stay quiet. Because my father still doesn’t know Hayden’s alive and he absolutely cannot find out.
The second he leaves, I collapse onto the floor shaking.Brimstone House. God.I’ve heard girls cry over that place in locker rooms and bathrooms. Stories whispered through tears about rich men, punishments, and women who never came back the same.
My father wouldn’t… would he?
A sob lodges painfully in my throat. I don’t know anymore. I can’t go there.
I won’t.
About an hour passes and I’m still curled on my bed staring blankly at nothing when footsteps echo down the hallway outside my room. Two sets. My stomach drops instantly, then my father’s voice. “She’s inside.”
Ice floods every vein in my body as a woman laughs softly outside my bedroom door. Not warm. Not kind. Predatory.
“Well,” she drawls smoothly. “Let’s see what little Cynthia produced.”
OH MY GOD. NO!
Panic blows through me as the doorknob rattles once then again harder.
“Ophelia,” my father says calmly through the door. “Open it.”
I can’t breathe.
This isn’t happening.
“No!”
The woman laughs again. “Feisty. We’ll break that quickly.”
Terror slams into me so violently instinct takes over before logic can catch up. I run.
The second the bedroom door starts unlocking from the outside, I shove open my window and climb out onto the balcony barefoot.
Cold air whips against my skin while my pulse pounds so hard I feel dizzy.
“OPHELIA!” my father roars behind me.
Too late. I jump.
The landing nearly snaps my ankle but adrenaline keeps me moving. I sprint across the massive lawn of the estate while voices shout behind me.
I don’t stop running.
