Chapter 3

Chapter 3

The hunger and the isolation finally broke my body. I collapsed again, but this time, the darkness felt different.

I could hear the doctor's voice drifting in from a great distance. He sounded panicked for the first time.

"Mr. Sterling, her vitals are crashing. If we don't get her to a real hospital immediately, she isn't going to make it."

Silas's voice was as cold as a winter grave. "She's tougher than she looks. She probably just wants attention. Let her stay hungry until she learns her lesson."

"Sir, you don't understand. Her heart rate is..."

"I said what I said! Stop making excuses for her manipulative behavior!" Silas roared, cutting the doctor off.

My mind began to drift. I saw flashes of us when we first started dating, back when I thought he was my soulmate.

"Why?" I whispered in the silence of my mind. "We were so happy... wasn't that real?"

Suddenly, the world exploded into noise. "Code Blue! We're losing her! Get the defibrillator, now!"

I felt a massive jolt through my chest. Then another. It felt like my soul was being slammed back into a broken cage.

"She's back! Vitals are stabilizing! We have a pulse!" a voice shouted.

So, I didn't die. I almost felt disappointed. The peace of the darkness had been so much better than the reality of my life.

I was still paralyzed from the medications, unable to move a finger. Silas didn't know one very important thing about me.

I wasn't just a coder. I was a survivalist.

He had made a fatal mistake by keeping me in the house I had lived in for years. I knew every dead zone and every back door in the security system.

In my final moments of consciousness, I had used a micro-transmitter I'd hidden months ago to send an SOS to my brother.

He had arrived just in time. My family had finally come for me.

When I opened my eyes, I saw my parents and my brother, Liam, sitting by my hospital bed. They were all crying.

"You stupid girl," Liam sobbed, clutching my hand. "Why didn't you tell us? We would have burned his whole world down if we knew he was hurting you."

I squeezed his hand slightly, my heart aching for them. My father's face was set in a mask of cold, hard fury.

"Selene, don't worry about the money or the contracts. We never wanted you with that bastard anyway," my father said firmly.

"We are going to take everything from the Sterlings. Him, that Lockwood woman, everyone who touched you... they're going to pay."

I couldn't speak yet, but my eyes burned with unshed tears. I wanted to tell them so much, but I needed to save my strength.

I had survived. And now, I was going to make sure Silas Sterling and Raina Lockwood found out exactly what hell looked like.