Chapter 7

Owen's voice was shaking with fury. "I can't believe you've become so crazy and so cruel."

"I didn't do it." Aurora protested, holding up her red, swollen arm. "She stabbed me with the needle."

Owen shot her a cold, disgusted look, not a shred of concern in his eyes. "Lily's only three. How much strength could she possibly have?"

He didn't believe her for a second. In his mind, Aurora must have hurt Lily out of spite for him.

His words were like ice-tipped knives, stabbing straight into Aurora's heart and leaving her feeling like she'd been thrown into an icy abyss.

She opened her mouth to defend herself, but her throat was so tight she couldn't get a word out.

Seeing Owen, the man who'd once promised her so much tenderness, now questioning her character, Aurora felt all the strength drain from her body. Even breathing hurt.

Evelyn instantly latched onto Owen's arm, sniffling. "Owen, please don't blame Aurora. She got jealous and lost it for a second. It's my fault. I should've watched Lily better."

But that poured gasoline on the fire.

Owen glanced at the little girl in his arms, her face blotchy from crying, then snatched Aurora before she could slip away, growling, "You hurt Lily. Don't think about leaving."

"I didn't do it." Aurora protested.

Without giving Aurora a chance to resist, Owen dragged her straight to a cramped storage room tucked away in the corner of the house.

The room had no windows, with only a thick wooden door, and was piled high with old junk.

Dust hit Aurora's face, making her cough uncontrollably.

Owen shoved her inside, his voice icy. "You're not coming out until you admit you were wrong and promise not to cause any more trouble."

The heavy wooden door slammed shut, followed by the sound of the lock turning.

Darkness instantly enveloped Aurora, with only a thin sliver of light slipping in from under the door.

Aurora slumped to the floor, her heart filled with utter despair.

She didn't have time to buy a burial plot for her mother's keepsakes anymore.

Regret weighed heavily on Aurora's heart. She was starting to nod off against the wall when a harsh, chemical stench suddenly snapped her wide awake.

At first, she thought she was imagining it.

But after a few seconds, it hit her that someone had let the gas leak in here.

A terrifying realization hit Aurora, and she scrambled for the door, using the wall to steady herself.

But her whole body felt like lead, and the pain in her injured arm was so bad she could barely move it.

Still, the urge to survive overpowered everything else.

Aurora pounded on the door with all her strength, shouting as loud as she could, "Open the door. Help. There's a gas leak."

But all she got in return was silence.

The smell of gas was filling the room, and Aurora started to feel dizzy and short of breath.

'No,' Aurora thought. 'I can't die here for nothing. I'm not dying in Owen and Evelyn's house.'

Aurora held her breath and looked up, spotting a louvered vent high up on the wall of the storage room.

She summoned every bit of strength she had, dragged an old wooden table over to the wall, and climbed up, wobbling as she went.

Standing on the table, she could reach the ceiling.

She quickly realized the wall wasn't solid. It was a thin partition someone had thrown up later.

On the other side, it was probably the hallway's exterior wall.

With nothing to work with, Aurora could only dig at the flimsy wall with her fingernails, ram it with her shoulder, and smash her head against it, desperate to break through.

It wasn't long before her nails were cracked and bleeding, her shoulder bruised and swollen, and her forehead split open from the blows.

After many tries, the partition finally started to give, and a narrow gap opened up.

But the gap was way too tight. There was no way she could squeeze herself through.

Aurora looked down through the gap and realized she was on the third floor, with nothing but hard concrete down there.

There was no time to hesitate.

One spark and everything would go up in flames.

Aurora gritted her teeth, summoned every bit of strength she had left, and slammed herself at the gap.

She smashed a big hole in the partition, and her whole body tumbled out through it, carried by her momentum.