18
I was picked up off the streets by a man who brought me home and told me to take good care of him.”
From that moment on, I devoted myself to him–fought for him, gave him everything. I became his silent shadow, the decoration on his arm, the most obedient canary in a gilded cage.
Everyone called me “Mrs. Weber” out of habit, assuming I was his woman. I thought so too.“]
Then, five years later, she appeared–radiant, fearless, everything I wasn’t. She was the sun, and I was forgotten.”
I once believed I was special to him, irreplaceable, until the day he looked into my eyes and said:”
“I took you home because your eyes looked like hers.”}
In that moment, my entire world crumbled.
I didn’t fight back. He had me locked in a mental hospital like a piece of broken furniture no longer useful. Five years I stayed there, abandoned, discarded, forgotten.
Then, one day-
“Patient 009, you’re being discharged. Someone’s come to pick you up.“}
I turned slowly, the weight of invisible chains pressing down on me. The attending physician walked in first. Behind him stood a man in a black suit, backlit by the sun. Sharp brows, a straight nose, thin lips–his face was still as cold as I remembered.
-Andrew Weber. The man who imprisoned me for the sake of his first love.
“Long time no see, Geneva,” he said casually, as though nothing had ever happened.}
The doctor handed him my five–year evaluation report. Andrew didn’t even glance at it. He tossed it aside and signed my discharge papers without hesitation.
The doctor tried to speak–his lips trembled–but at a glance from me, he fell silent.}
My anklet chains jingled with every step. The hallway quieted. Even the other unstable patients, once wild and loud, scattered into their rooms at the sight of me.§
Andrew chuckled. “I didn’t know my face could scare away the mentally ill.”
I kept my head down and followed him, silent.}
Andrew was now the ruler of the infamous Weber Family–a powerful underworld syndicate. Ruthless. Unforgiving. Feared.
I was once his canary. Starving and homeless as a child, I had nothing. He found me begging on a rainy street, looked into my eyes, and said they were beautiful. That was all it took.
Later, I learned it wasn’t me he saw in them. It was her.
Still, I followed him through fire and death. I poured every ounce of my life into him. I cared for him, stayed by his side night after night, and lived to serve his needs. People joked I was the future Mrs. Weber. I believed it.
Until he didn’t need me anymore.”
When he’d finally cemented his power, I waited–naively–for a proposal. Instead, she returned. Diane Knight.”
Where I was quiet and gentle, she was bold, seductive. A martial arts prodigy. A dazzling beauty with a flair for butterfly knives. At the banquet that ruined me, everyone adored her. No one noticed me anymore.
She saw me and sneered. Then she whispered something to Andrew.
And just like that, he discarded me like trash.
“I don’t need a nanny,” he said. “Only someone like Diane can win my heart.”
He locked me in a mental hospital that night.
That was the last time I saw the sky.”
Until now.
As the hospital gates opened and I stepped out, he looked me up and down and said with cruel satisfaction, “Seems like they tortured you properly. Do you finally understand you were wrong?“}
I paused. A flicker of memory–my legs broken at that banquet, dragged away as my blood soaked the carpet. The pain that haunts me every time it rains.
I smiled faintly. “Yes. I was wrong.“}
“Good girl,” he said, pleased.}
He took me back to the Weber Family estate.
Familiar faces awaited–once my flatterers, now my executioners. Weber Family associates, gangsters, relatives. Diane’s people too–her friends, her bodyguards.
She sat at the center, delicate now, veiled in gauze. Her vibrant confidence had been replaced by a fragile stillness. Her eyes–once so bright–were blind.
“Geneva still looks so obedient after all these years, Wendell, Andrew’s cousin, laughed.
I looked at him. He had kicked me into a pillar and broken two of my ribs the night I begged for help.
“She’s always been the most sensible,” added Beatriz, Diane’s friend–the same woman who crushed my hand with her stiletto heel as I tried to crawl away.
I scanned them all. These people had turned my body into a bloodstained sacrifice five years ago.
“Geneva’s eyes are really beautiful,” they whispered again, all in unison. And then I understood:
They weren’t admiring me.”
They were hunting me.
That night at the asylum gates, I had begged Andrew for mercy. He had kicked me into the darkness and said, “We’ll never meet again.“} Now, he stood before me again, holding an agreement.}
Organ donation.}
He leaned close and murmured, “Didn’t you always want to be my wife? If I marry you… would you give your eyes to Diane?“}
That was it. They wanted my eyes.”
The same ones he once praised.}
I signed.”
Everyone burst into laughter.
“Sir Andrew, I told you! Say you’ll marry her and she’ll give anything!”
“For the title of Mrs. Weber, she’ll even gouge out her own eyes.“}
“Why bother marrying her at all? Just take the eyes and throw her away.”
Andrew just smiled and walked back to Diane, handing her the agreement. “I won’t let your world go dark.“}
Diane asked, “Will you really marry her?”
He patted her head. “Only on paper. You’re the one I love.“}}
Then he turned to me. His tone softened.
“The Weber Family honors loyalty. Once your eyes are transplanted, I’ll keep my promise and marry you. But don’t dream of anything beyond the name. Understand?“}
I nodded obediently.
“Okay, Mr. Weber. I’ll be good. I’ll wait for the surgery in seven days.“}
But what they didn’t know-
A new patient record was issued for me: Patient 009.}
Not Geneva the obedient canary.
Geneva, the nightmare that kept doctors awake.
In five years, I learned how to wear obedience like a mask. I smiled while I strangled. My kindness kept them close enough to kill.” They once thought I was harmless. That was their first mistake.
Seven days from now, they will remember what happens when the prey bites back.”
12:16 PM
