Chapter 4

The jar that had once held everything was empty. Grayish-white powder was scattered across the floor.

"Where are Mom's ashes?"

The question came out as a half-crazed whisper. I ran outside barefoot like a woman possessed.

Right then, Jessica posted her location on social media. When I got there, she was feeding the fish.

"Where is it? Where are my things?"

She blinked, a playful look on her face that didn't match her age at all.

"Oh, you mean that little jar? The dog back home got sick, and some folk remedy said if you mix it into the feed, the dog gets better."

Samuel was the only one who knew the safe's combination. He'd let her do this.

Tears crashed down. My whole body shook uncontrollably.

On the day of my mother's burial, I'd stood sobbing in front of the grave, clutching the urn so tight no one could pry it from my hands.

Because I knew the moment they lowered it in, I'd lose her forever.

Samuel, eyes glistening, had pressed the small ceramic urn into my arms. "Sweetheart, your mother will be with you for the rest of your life."

Now, even that last piece of her was gone.

I snapped. A scream ripped out of me as I threw myself at her, my hands locking around her throat. The next second, someone wrenched me off.

Samuel stared at me with bloodshot eyes, his voice so cold it didn't sound human.

"Olivia, you didn't used to be like this. You really wanna push her until she's dead? Apologize. Now!"

I let out a bleak, hollow laugh.

He'd forgotten that he was the one who changed first. The man who used to ache at the slightest furrow of my brow.

Now he was willing to destroy me for another woman.

He watched me hold my ground, chin up, without a trace of remorse.

He grabbed the back of my neck and forced my face against the car's dashboard screen. On the feed, a group of men were dumping sewage on my mother's grave.

I screamed and clawed at the screen until my fingernails split and my hands were nothing but blood.

Samuel's face crumpled. He forced me into his arms. "Olivia..."

Jessica, phone still in hand, dropped to her knees in front of me, her face white as a sheet.

"Mrs. Bennett, please, give me back my baby. Selling a child that small to the slums... those animals will destroy him!"

I couldn't hear a word she was saying. All I could see on the screen was my mother's headstone collapsing.

In that moment, my heart shattered with it. I slapped Jessica as hard as I could.

My laughter was desperate and unhinged.

"After what you did to my mother, what gives either of you the right to live?"

The next second, a palm cracked across my face.

He shielded the trembling Jessica, fury blazing in his eyes.

"You actually went low enough to go after a child? You disgust me!"

My chest ached. I hadn't seen him this frantic since the day the kidnappers took me.

He threw his phone at my head. I stared at the fabricated evidence and forged contracts on the screen and laughed until blood spilled from my lips.

Ignoring my struggles, he had me dragged to a slum on the outskirts of the city.

The unhinged man grabbed the filthy beggars by their collars.

"Where's the baby? I'm asking you, where is the baby!"

The people in there didn't play by any rules. Their eyes glowed with hunger as they stared at Jessica.

"Mrs. Bennett dropped her off. That means she's ours now."

Jessica wept, her voice choking.

"Samuel, they won't let anyone go. Once you're in the slums, the only way out is a life for a life. If Mrs. Bennett won't get the baby back, then I'll save my child myself!"

She charged in recklessly, but Samuel pulled her into his chest and kissed her tears away again and again.

"Don't cry. The baby's gonna be fine..."

Then he turned to look at me, and all I saw was bone-deep cold and despair.

"I spoiled you into becoming this. I should be grateful our dead child never had to call you its mother! Trade her for the baby!"

I stared at him, hollow. My heart felt like it had been carved out of my chest.

I couldn't think. I couldn't speak. I even forgot how to cry.

They dragged me inside without hesitation. My clothes disintegrated in seconds, but nothing I did could match the brute strength of those animals as they kicked and beat me.

I fought with everything I had. But the moment I locked eyes with that cold, unfeeling gaze standing just outside the door, I forgot even how to cry.

Perhaps finding it too filthy to watch, Samuel covered Jessica's tearful eyes, scooped her up, and walked away without looking back.

I coughed up a mouthful of blood and wept tears of crimson, every sob ripping itself from somewhere deep inside.

"Samuel, I hate you so much... Why did I ever fall in love with you?"

Back at the mansion, Jessica put on a show of concern. "Leaving Mrs. Bennett there all alone... she'll be okay, won't she?"

Samuel's entire body went rigid.

"Those people were all hired by her. Nobody would dare touch her."

After Jessica fell asleep, Samuel watched the nanny prepare formula and felt an inexplicable jolt in his chest. He grabbed the servant by the arm, his throat tightening.

"Who is that for?"

"The baby just knocked over his bottle. He's been spitting up a lot these past few days..."

Samuel stopped breathing. He tore back to the slum like a man possessed. All that remained in the pool of blood was a single shoe.

The next second, something warm dripped from the ceiling. He looked up in panic, eyes wide, his face draining of all color.