Chapter 3

My attempt to leave had clearly triggered their paranoia. Lucas’s parents stayed, and the four of them watched me like prison guards.

Under the excuse of 'family rules,' they confiscated my phone, cutting off all my contact with the outside world.

Lucas and Chloe’s interactions grew more unhinged by the day, flaunting their intimacy right in front of my face.

I became an unpaid maid in that house, forced awake at 5:00 AM and forbidden from sleeping before midnight.

Martha declared she needed to "break my stubborn spirit." She removed the mattress from the guest room, forcing me to sleep directly on the bare hardwood floor without even a blanket.

Except for Chloe’s underwear, which Lucas personally hand-washed every single day, Martha made me hand-wash everyone else’s clothes—banning the use of the washing machine.

Every surface had to be spotless. Martha would run her finger along the tables to check for dust.

At mealtimes, they sat while I stood, and I was only allowed to eat their scraps.

The only silver lining was that she never let me touch Leo.

More than once, I watched Martha chew up food with her own mouth and spit it into Leo’s mouth like a bird feeding a chick.

I watched with cold detachment, silently glancing at the framed photo of Lucas and Chloe on the mantel.

Worn down by physical exhaustion and freezing nights, my body finally gave out. I collapsed with a burning fever. Yet they refused to take me to urgent care.

Martha ordered Robert to grab several heavy winter duvets and piled them all on top of me. "Sweat it out. A fever won't kill you."

The crushing weight suffocated me. When I tried to push the blankets off, Robert and Martha held down the sides with their full weight.

"Fevers... are contagious," I gasped out weakly. "You... really want Leo... catching this?"

Martha’s hands faltered.

Her precious golden grandson was her absolute lifeline.

She couldn’t risk a single scratch on him.

My days of apparent obedience had lowered their guard.

Just like that, I finally got out the door—and managed to snatch my phone back on the way.

After all, none of them were willing to spend a single dime of their own money on my medical bills.

The moment I was around the corner, I called my parents. By the time I stumbled into the hospital emergency room, I blacked out.

When I woke up and told my parents everything that had happened over the past week, my dad slammed his fist on the bedside table, shaking with rage!

"No wonder! Every time we called to check on you, they made up a dozen excuses!"

"Those sick, abusive degenerates dared to lay a hand on my daughter?!"

"That’s it. I’m going over there right now to break his neck!" Dad roared.

Mom clutched my hand, tears streaming down her face.

Knowing how completely unhinged that family was, I held my dad back.

"I’m calling the police," I said, my voice steady and cold.

Just as we were getting ready to process my discharge, Mia—a mutual friend of Lucas and mine—burst into the room, waving her phone around.

"Elena! What are you doing here?! Lucas and his family are going out of their minds! They were literally about to file a missing persons report!"

Right behind her, Lucas came barging into the room, screaming at me with theatrical panic:

"Do you have any idea how sick Chloe and Mom got from worrying about you?!"

"And look at you! Playing hooky in a hospital bed! Get your ass home right now!"

He lunged forward to grab my wrist. Mia chimed in, "Seriously, Elena, just go home. You’re a married woman now. How could you hide out in a hospital just to dodge some basic housework?"