Trudy's expression was perfectly calm as she signed. Zachary's brow furrowed. Something about that composure unsettled him, left a sour taste he couldn't name.
Serena took the signed divorce papers, a flash of triumph in her eyes.
She looped her arm through Zachary's, her voice honeyed and soft.
"Zach, since the divorce is finalized, why not have Miss Wren move out tonight?"
Zachary was about to refuse, but then he looked up and saw Trudy's face, utterly indifferent, as if none of this mattered to her at all. A sudden, nameless anger flared in his chest.
"Fine," he said coldly. "Handle it however you want."
Serena's lips curled. She immediately directed the servants to pack up all of Trudy's belongings.
Trudy felt nothing. She didn't want to stay in this house a second longer.
A clean exit was exactly what she wanted.
But when the servants finished packing her luggage, they didn't bring it to her. They hauled everything into the storage room instead.
Serena gasped, pressing a hand to her mouth. "Oh my, what are you all doing?"
"This is Miss Wren's luggage! How could you toss it in with all that junk?"
She turned to Trudy with an apologetic smile. "I'm so sorry. I had them do a deep clean of the house, and some trash got piled in there temporarily. They must have assumed your things were part of it..."
"Miss Wren, would you mind grabbing your bags yourself?"
Trudy's jaw tightened. She had always dreaded places like storage rooms, dark and cramped.
But there were things she had to take with her.
Her IDs. And the protective charm Matron Grace had given her.
She walked to the storage room doorway and spotted her documents and clothes tossed in the far corner.
She crouched down, gathered her IDs, and was about to leave.
The door slammed shut behind her.
The light vanished. She spun toward the window, but wooden boards had been nailed across it. Only thin slivers of light bled through the cracks.
Her heart hammered. Her breathing went shallow and fast.
She threw herself at the door, pounding on it with both fists. "Let me out!"
She beat the wood until her hands were swollen and raw. No one answered.
The force of her pounding shook her phone loose from her pocket.
She grabbed it like a lifeline and clutched it with both hands.
She called the only emergency contact saved in her phone.
The line rang for a full minute before anyone picked up.
Her voice broke, echoing off the walls of the storage room. "Zachary, help me..."
"I'm locked in the storage room. My stomach hurts so bad..."
She whimpered, her back sliding down the door until she hit the floor. A dragging pain tore through her lower abdomen, and cold sweat soaked through her clothes.
What answered her was a breathy, feminine moan.
"Zach... I'm pregnant. Be gentle."
Then the slick, unmistakable sounds of bodies together.
The line went dead.
The phone slipped from her fingers and cracked against the floor. Every trace of color drained from Trudy's face.
She pulled the corner of her mouth into something that might have been a smile. A bitter, broken thing. Laughing at her own stupidity.
She had actually hoped Zachary would come save her. She had actually still held on to a shred of hope for that man.
She reached down and picked the phone back up, tried to call her father. The screen lit for two seconds and went black. Dead.
She watched the last pinpoint of light on the screen dissolve into darkness, and the anguish and panic inside her clawed at each other, shredding her from the inside.
She lost control. She beat the door with her fists, raked her nails down the wood, scratching and tearing until her fingers screamed. Toward the end, she wanted nothing more than to crack her skull against it and make everything stop.
Then the pain in her abdomen surged, sharper, worse, and the metallic smell of blood hit her nose.
She forced herself still. She choked down the terror, made herself sit quietly, terrified of disturbing the tiny life inside her.
Trudy had once believed her child would be born into a world where both its parents were waiting with open arms.
Reality had struck her across the face.
She knew this baby had come at the worst possible time. If Zachary found out, he wouldn't welcome it.
But she wanted to keep this child.
Not because of Zachary.
Trudy had grown up in an orphanage. The one thing she had dreamed of her entire life was having someone connected to her by blood.
She had found her birth parents now, it was true.
But this small life growing inside her was something she could not let go of either.
She sat slumped on the floor with her eyes closed, the terror of the dark, suffocating space and the dragging pain in her abdomen twisting together, tormenting her without a single moment's reprieve.
Then a sound outside the door.
"Who's in there?"
"Trudy? Is that you?"
Light sparked in her eyes. She opened her mouth, but her voice came out wrecked, barely recognizable.
"It's me. Get me... out."
Outside, Zachary's brow creased. His hand was reaching for the door handle when Serena called out to him.
"Zach, Miss Wren should've left with her things ages ago. It's probably just a stray cat in there."
She buried her face against his chest. "Zach, I'm allergic to cat hair. Let's go, please. There's a window in there. The cat will find its way out."
A cat's meow drifted from behind the door.
He relaxed.
He wrapped his arm around Serena and walked away. "I'll have the servants clear out the strays tomorrow."
Trudy bit down on her lip so hard it bled. Tears fell, hitting the floor one after another.
She screamed with everything she had. "Zachary, it's me!"
"It's not a cat. Help me. Save our baby..."
Zachary stopped. "That does sound like Trudy. I can hear her voice."
Something vicious flickered behind Serena's eyes. She softened her tone. "Zach, even if it is Miss Wren, one night in the storage room won't hurt her."
"I have a surprise for you tonight. Don't you want to see it?"
Zachary's throat bobbed. "Fine."
The last spark of hope in Trudy's eyes went out. She listened, helpless, as Zachary carried Serena farther and farther away.
Then everything blurred. Consciousness slipped, and the darkness swallowed her whole.
