Chapter 3

I scrape the ninety-second tally mark into the concrete floor under my bed. Then, someone comes in.

The second I see those spotless custom leather shoes, my body reacts before my brain even catches up.

Thud.

My back slams hard against the wall. My limbs twitch uncontrollably. It is the ultimate humiliating trauma response, drilled into me over the last three months by high-pressure hoses and stun guns.

Liam stands in the light from the doorway, looking down at me.

He wears a mask of perfectly crafted concern, but his eyes scan me like I am a defective piece of merchandise.

"Chloe, you look so thin." He takes a step toward me.

As he gets closer, a sharp, stabbing pain erupts in my damaged hippocampus.

Fragments of our three-year relationship flash like crazy. The pathetic, love-starved version of me screams in my subconscious. He finally came to save me. He still loves me.

This intense biological craving violently crashes into my cold, hard logic, tearing at my synapses.

I bite down hard on my tongue. The pain forces my ridiculous trembling to stop.

"Drop the act, Liam." I look up at him. "Your expensive cologne doesn't hide the fact that you're pure garbage."

His smile stiffens for a second. But he quickly pulls himself together, takes a document out of his pocket, and holds it out to me.

"It's an addendum to your medical records." He crouches down. "Just sign it. Admit the brain damage was caused by a preexisting mental condition, and I'll get you out of this hellhole right now."

I let out a cold laugh, scanning the wall of text on the paper.

"Fix things between us? Bring me back into the fold?" I call his bluff right to his face. "You just want to use this NDA to wipe away the fact that you and that shady clinic cooked fake FDA data. Isn't that right?"

His mask slips completely. His eyes go dark.

"You really don't know what's good for you, do you?" He shoots up to his feet, his voice rising in panic and rage.

A mess of footsteps echoes down the hallway, answering his outburst.

"I told you. There is zero point in reasoning with an ungrateful bitch like her."

My mother's sharp voice pierces my ears. She steps into the cell in her high heels. My deadpan father follows right behind her, with Mia clinging to his arm, looking like she is enjoying a front-row seat to a show.

The whole gang is here. What a spectacular family witch hunt.

"If she won't play ball and fix the records, then let her go fully insane." My father looks at me like I am a bag of biohazard waste.

Two massive orderlies step out of the shadows. They grab me from both sides, pinning my shoulders down.

"Get off me!" I trash against their grip.

Smack.

A heavy slap whips my head to the side.

One of the orderlies forces my jaw open. He shoves a vial of some unknown chemical into my mouth and forces the liquid down my throat.

I choke and gag.

The second the liquid hits my esophagus, it feels like swallowing burning glass. Tears stream out of my eyes entirely against my will.

"Can't handle it?" Mia lets out a soft laugh and walks up to me. She digs the heel of her shoe straight into the back of my hand, grinding it down. "You look exactly like a feral dog begging for scraps, sis."

My father gives them a look. The orderly grabs a fistful of my hair, yanks me up to my feet, and shoves me hard.

Bam.

The back of my head smashes into the rough concrete wall.

My vision starts to bleed red. In those last few seconds, I lock my eyes dead on Liam at the back of the group.

He does not try to stop them. He does not look away.

He just calmly adjusts his shirt cuffs. When he meets my gaze, he gives a slight shrug and mouths a single sentence to me.

You left me no choice, Chloe. My hands are tied.

His hands are tied.

Every little bit of subconscious hope that trauma kept forcing out of me, every phantom pain left over from three years of devotion, it all shatters the moment I see him standing there, watching me bleed.

My body slides down the wall. I slump into a cold puddle of my own blood.

All the pain starts to fade.

In its place comes a dead, absolute clarity.

A raspy, broken laugh slips out of my throat.

I am laughing at the old me. The girl who gave her whole heart to these pieces of garbage. Laughing at the total hypocrisy of this elite social ladder.

So this is what it feels like to have the last shred of your humanity ripped away.

I lie on the floor, staring up through the blood at a room full of well-dressed predators. My brain boots up like a freshly wiped supercomputer, coldly burning every single face and every single move into my memory for the payback to come.

Liam. Mia. My dearest parents.

The rules of the game just changed.

Are you ready to meet the monster you created?