Chapter 3

3

The blizzard continued for days, paralyzing the entire city.

To stay alive long enough to escape, I chose to play along for a while.

When the door finally opened, the harsh LED light blinded me.

Fletcher gave me a hard shove from behind.

I stumbled and fell at Brielle's feet.

"You said you were going to apologize. Do it!" Fletcher barked.

I looked at the two of them, suppressing the urge to tear them apart.

"I'm sorry, Brielle. I shouldn't have said those things."

Brielle looked like she was savoring every second of my humiliation.

The smugness on her face was almost leaking out.

Then, she shifted back into her "virtuous" persona and grabbed my hand affectionately.

"Nova, we're family. There's no need for all this talk of serving each other."

She gave a shy smile and shoved a pile of laundry into my hands.

"I'm pregnant, so I can't do chores. And Fletcher is just a guy; he can't get things clean. I'll have to trouble you with these."

I looked at the pile of dirty underwear and then at Fletcher, who acted like this was perfectly normal.

My heart, which I thought was already dead, gave a sharp twitch of pain.

Tears began to stream down my face, catching them both off guard.

"Brielle, it's not that I don't want to. It's just that my mother called me yesterday."

"She told me I have a cursed womb. That I'm a bringer of death to children."

In the modern world, it was nonsense.

But Brielle was superstitious to a fault.

The fact that I had lost my baby after just five minutes in the cold seemed to prove my point.

She panicked, snatching the clothes back and recoiling like I was a leper.

Fletcher's face went through a kaleidoscope of emotions before he stepped toward me, sounding nervous.

"Your mom called? Why didn't you tell me? Did she say anything else?"

I looked at his pathetic, fawning face and felt only disgust.

"Nothing much. She just said we should take care of ourselves."

Fletcher let out a sigh of relief.

With the threat of my mother's influence hanging over him, he behaved himself for a while.

He even started taking care of me during my recovery.

Looking at this man who was screaming at me two days ago and was now acting like a servant, I couldn't understand what I ever saw in him.

Thankfully, it was almost over.