Chapter 2

Back in the private room, I was completely out of it.

All the laughter and chatter around me felt distant.

I didn't know when it started, but I truly realized we were never in the same world.

Maybe it was because of what the instructor had said in the camp. "She's their adopted daughter. No one would care if she died."

So that was how I went through three months in the dark, all alone.

When the gathering ended, the north wind swept through.

Lucas, waiting by the door for his car, took off his coat and walked over to me. The scent of cedar washed over me.

His scent once made me feel at ease.

But now I watched him warily. I stepped back without thinking.

At that look, Lucas's eyelashes fluttered slightly.

He put the coat around Sophia's shoulders.

He said, "Don't flatter yourself."

I replied softly, "Okay."

I was glad I was no longer the Evelyn of three months ago.

If it weren't so, the happier I'd been to get close to him, the more humiliated I'd feel once the truth came out.

I hid my frozen hands and watched him gentlemanly open the car door for Sophia.

I didn't get into the other driver's car until the black G-wagon drove off.

The car pulled into the Harrington residence.

The room beside Lucas's, which had been mine, was now empty.

The butler said to me, "Your new room is at the end of the hall. It's all been redecorated."

I felt nothing. "Okay."

"Please don't be too sad. After all, you're still Mr. Harrington's family."

My voice was calm. "I'm not sad."

But the butler shook his head and sighed. He didn't believe me.

But they didn't know. Three months of electric shock correction training had made me forget what love was, what liking even meant.

There was a massive full-length mirror in the bedroom's bathroom.

The healthy skin I once had was now covered in dark electric scars.

So now, if I stayed in one position for too long, my limbs would go numb.

But Lucas couldn't see it. He'd think I was faking it so I didn't have to go to the gathering.

After my shower, I lay in bed tossing and turning, unable to sleep. My stomach was burning and aching.

This feeling had actually lasted for a long time.

Or maybe it started that day, the day I refused to take my medicine.

It was some kind of medicine that made me slow and dull, one that made it easier for them to "fix" me.

The cost of resisting was beatings and electric shocks.

But I was stubborn. I'd never give in or beg for mercy.

When the pain was too much, I curled up and waited for it to pass.

Even when the shocks made my heart go numb, I still refused to give in.

Maybe it was the drinking, but my insides hurt. This felt nothing like before.

My insides began to churn with blood. I could taste it scraping up my throat. I went limp on the bed, heaving up blood.

At that moment, I felt like I was dying.

My instinct to live took over. I pushed the door open and stepped out.

All I saw was black. I heard footsteps approaching. I knew it was Lucas.

I begged him softly, "Lucas, my chest hurts. Can you take me to the hospital?"

Lucas's voice was anxious. "The Goodwin family is in trouble. I have to leave right now. Don't make a scene."

I wiped the blood off my mouth, breathed in deeply, and steadied my voice.

"Where's my phone?" I asked.

Lucas took my phone the day I was sent to that camp.

In the dark, he didn't even seem to look at me.

Lucas replied, "I'll give it to you if you behave. Don't post anything dumb, or Sophia might misunderstand."

After that, Lucas's footsteps faded into the distance.

The door opened. By the moonlight, I saw his back. He didn't look back.

I couldn't hold myself up any longer and fell to the ground.