Chapter 5

That second spoonful of scalding, oily broth was shoved down my throat, triggering a violent rejection from my battered body.

"Blegh—!"

My torso bent in an uncontrollable arch as I violently vomited up everything that had just been forced into me.

The agonizing throbbing at my surgical wound suddenly turned into a blinding, searing tear—as if someone had taken both hands and ripped my flesh wide open.

I could clearly feel a rush of warm, sticky liquid pouring uncontrollably between my thighs.

"Disgusting."

Derek took a step back in sheer revulsion, avoiding the mess on the sheets.

He still held the empty bowl, his gaze dripping with mockery.

"How long are you going to keep up this pathetic act? You think playing sick is going to fool me?"

I gasped for air, chest heaving, my face completely drained of color. Cold sweat drenched my hair.

Pure survival instinct drove me to use the very last ounce of strength I had left. With trembling fingers, I reached toward the emergency call button on the nightstand.

Just push it. The doctors would come.

However, the second my fingertip grazed the plastic button, a heavy hand slammed down, pinning my wrist.

Derek violently shoved my hand aside with enough force to snap the bone.

"Cut the crap!"

"Putting on a whole theatrical scene just to avoid drinking soup? And now you want to call the doctors to back up your little tantrum?"

He loomed over me, disgust and irritation etched across every line of his face.

"Let me tell you something: until you finish every drop of the soup Hailey made and apologize to her, this isn't over!"

A wave of suffocating despair pulled me under.

My vision grew dark around the edges, and a deafening high-pitched whine filled my ears.

"Evelyn, just stop fighting it," Hailey murmured, holding Leo's hand as she watched from the side.

"Just drink it and say you're sorry. Derek won't be mad anymore."

"Look at you, getting the sheets all filthy. It's so gross."

Little Leo clapped his hands, jumping up and down with laughter.

"The bad lady threw up! The bad lady is gonna die!"

This wasn't the human world. This was hell.

I could feel the warmth rapidly draining from my limbs. My eyelids felt like lead.

Was I really going to die here?

Murdered by the very man I had loved for three years?

Killed over a bowl of soup, because of an absurd lie made up for another woman and her child?

I couldn't accept this.

I had survived the delivery table. I had already decided to start my life over.

Julian...

The man who promised to take me away... I might not be able to wait for him after all.

Just as Derek raised the bowl to force-feed me a third time—

*BAM—!*

A deafening explosion echoed through the room.

The locked, heavy wooden door was violently kicked off its frame by a massive, brutal force.

The door slammed against the concrete wall with a bone-rattling crash.

In that fraction of a second, the air inside the room froze solid.

Derek flinched in terror, dropping the bowl. It shattered into a hundred jagged pieces on the floor.

Hailey shrieked, instinctively pulling her child behind her.

Standing in the doorway was a tall, imposing figure, his silhouette dark against the light.

It was Julian. He had come back.