Chapter 2

2

I survived, only to be placed under house arrest. They were planning to send me back to St. Jude's.

The excuse was that I failed to protect the Sterling heir. I laughed bitterly. Why was I always the one blamed for the death of their "heirs"?

In a year of marriage, I had become Caden's slave. I provided milk at dawn and scrubbed floors at midnight.

I had to bow ninety degrees just to apologize for existing. How could an heir ever come from the womb of a slave?

Melanie sauntered in, her silk dress swaying. She pointed at the food container on my nightstand.

"You're still the lady of the house! How can you eat sour porridge and moldy bread?"

The kitchen maid stood tall, showing no respect. "The mistress slept around and got pregnant with a bastard. God saw to it that the brat died."

"Why should a whore get a luxury recovery?" she added.

I struggled to sit up. "Where did you get that dress? That's my mother's dress!"

Melanie flicked her handkerchief and laughed. "Don't just stand there. Feed her."

The maid pinned me down and pried my mouth open. Melanie poured the foul, green-molded sludge down my throat.

The stench was unbearable. I fought back, and the bowl shattered on the floor. Caden walked in at that exact moment.

He saw the mess and Melanie trembling in the corner. Before I could even spit out the rot, Melanie threw her arms around him.

"Caden, help me! I just wanted to help Kacy eat, but she tried to cut me with the glass!"

Caden patted her back and glared at me. "Kacy, are you insane? I made you the wife of the Sterling CEO. What more do you want?"

I crawled off the bed and collapsed onto the shards of porcelain. I grabbed the hem of his pants, begging.

"My mother's dress... it's the only thing left from the fire. Please, give it back!"

Caden's eyes flickered with a brief moment of hesitation. Then he looked at my legs and sneered.

"A few days ago it was your stomach, now you're faking a limp for sympathy? Did you learn nothing at the reformatory?"

He didn't know that the first rule I learned there was to open my legs for any man. When I resisted, they put a dog collar on me.

The head mistress loved taking me for walks in the rock garden. My hands and knees were always a bloody mess.

The wounds would fester and fill with maggots. My silence only made Caden angrier.

He kicked me in the face and started smashing the expensive vases in the room. "If you love crawling on glass so much, keep doing it!"

Melanie started unbuttoning the dress, sobbing. "Don't be mad, Caden. I'll give the dress back to her right now."

She let the fabric slip, exposing her shoulders. Caden's throat tightened. He wrapped his coat around her and picked her up.

"Look at her. She looks like a ghost. She doesn't need a dress; she needs a shroud."

Melanie giggled and tapped his shoulder. "Oh, Caden, you're so mean. You'll hurt Kacy's feelings."

"Who cares if she lives or dies?" he snapped.

I knew Melanie was ambitious, but she was just the daughter of a maid. She hated me because we were both dependents, yet I was the "lady."

But back then, I only wanted to protect Caden. When my parents died, I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and memory loss.

I was terrified by day and rebellious by night. Caden was the one who stayed by my side.

"Kacy, we're family now. I'll protect you forever," he had said.

The moonlight that night was just like the moonlight tonight. But back then, it lit up my life. Tonight, it only lit up the blood on the floor.