Chapter 2
After Callum left, Evelyn carried Lily on her back through the storm for an entire night before finally reaching the estate.
She collapsed with a high fever and was bedridden for three days.
Callum didn’t visit her once. He was with Estelle.
On the fourth day, Evelyn returned home from the hospital to find Estelle curled up in Callum’s lap, lounging on their couch like she belonged there.
Callum didn’t even glance her way, “Estelle’s afraid of thunderstorms. She’ll be staying here. You’ll move to the guest room.”
Evelyn didn’t argue. Her voice was calm, emotionless.
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“Whatever you want.”
He had no idea what those three days had been like for her,
Her tears had soaked the pillow at night, and they had also stripped away the deep love she had for him.
She didn’t want Callum’s love anymore.
So now, she felt nothing..
Later that evening, Callum turned to her. “Oh, Evelyn, Estelle has a therapy dog. I need you to help take care of it.”
The front door swung open, and a large black Doberman burst into the room.
Evelyn stumbled backward, slamming into the cabinet.
After her father died, she, her mom, and Lily had once fought stray dogs for food. She had feared dogs ever since–and Callum knew it. But he said lazily, “I know you’re scared, but it’s her prescription. She needs this dog. Be good, okay?”
There was a sharp threat in his tone.
Still reeling from Lily’s near–death, Evelyn gave up her pride.
“I’ll take care of it.”
Estelle beamed. “Thanks, Evie! Oh, by the way, his name’s Eve. Isn’t that cute? Same as yours.”
Evelyn froze.
The humiliation burned.
She forced a bitter sinile.
ཚོ། ཏྲྰཾ་བྷ་ཊུ་ ཕོ། ༀ ཏྲྰཾ ྃ ཇ ྃ ཙྭ ཙཾ ཡཾ ིི ཡི ཏྲྰཾ
In the days that followed, she fed and cleaned up after Eve. The dog barked at her constantly and once bit her hand when she tried to feed it.
She went to the hospital alone for a rabies shot and immunoglobulin.
After that, she used a bat to push the food bowl into the kennel from a distance.
One day, she came home from the store and heard crying.
Estelle was sobbing uncontrollably. When she saw Evelyn, she began convulsing, spiraling into a panic attack.
“Where’s the damn doctor?!” Callum shouted, terrified for once.
Estelle pointed a trembling finger at Evelyn. “Y–you… how could you be so cruel? Eve was just a dog…”
Then came the order: “Get her out of my sight.”
“What?” Evelyn barely had time to react before she was dragged out and thrown to the floor.
She lifted a corner of a sack–then screamed.
Eve lay inside. Bloodied. His eyes gouged out.
“No–it wasn’t me!”
Estelle whimpered, “He was beaten to death. And this… this is your bat, Evelyn. Isn’t it?”
The bloodied bat clattered to the floor.
Chapter 2
Callum’s eyes were cold. “You took the bat yesterday, and now the dog’s dead.”
“I–he got out. I took it to protect myself in case something happened. Check the footage!”
But it was too late.
Callum didn’t care about the truth.
He cared only about obedience.
“You’ve disappointed me again, sweetheart.”
Two guards hauled her into the basement.
A bucket of ice water was dumped on her.
She shook violently, teeth chattering. “It wasn’t me…”
“Another.”
The second bucket hit her.
Then a third.
Then a fourth.
Each one slicing into her like a blade.
Her vision blurred. Her heartbeat slowed.
Was she dying?
No–the sound in her ears was the scream of her blood freezing.
She whispered one last word-
“N…no…”
Then her head dropped.
And Evelyn finally broke.
