In the dim room, my brother lay curled on the floor, his face swollen past recognition, blood smeared at the corners of his mouth, one leg twisted at an impossible angle, like a snapped branch.
Sonia tucked the phone away, her voice light and careless. "Isabella, you make my life miserable, I make his miserable. A place like prison, accidents happen all the time, don't they? Like... breaking your neck by accident. Or dying by accident?"
My nails dug into my palms until the pain went numb.
"What do you want?"
Sonia smiled.
She slipped the ring off her finger and tossed it into the rose bushes behind her.
"Three minutes. Find the ring, and I'll let your brother go."
She glanced at her watch, her smile deepening. "Time starts now."
I didn't hesitate. I stepped into the roses.
Sharp thorns sank into my skin, beads of blood welling up.
I knelt on the ground, parting the dense tangle of branches with my hands, searching inch by inch.
The thorns slashed my cheeks, the pain leaving me trembling all over.
I combed through every corner, my fingers torn bloody and raw, and still I couldn't find that ring.
"Time's up."
Sonia's voice came from above me.
I lifted my head. She was standing at the edge of the bushes, smiling, waving the ring at me.
She'd never thrown it at all.
She looked down at me, her smile sweet, her words like knives. "You really are stupid and worthless. No wonder your whole family ended up like this. Your baby's dead, your brother's in prison, and you couldn't even hold on to your own husband. Your family's luck really is all rotten together."
My nails dug into the dirt, and the rage I'd held down for so long finally erupted.
I stood up and slapped Sonia across the face without a second's hesitation.
Her head snapped to the side, her whole body staggering back two steps, nearly falling into the bushes behind her.
Her girlfriends came clucking and fussing to hold her up.
Sonia clutched her rapidly reddening cheek, frozen for a few seconds, her eyes full of disbelief.
"You dared to hit me?"
I looked at her coldly. "Alvin's a dog. If you want to pick him up and keep him, that's your business. But say one more word about my family, and it won't just be your face I hit."
Sonia shook with fury.
She opened her mouth as if to say something, but then her gaze went past my shoulder, caught on something, and the tears instantly spilled down like a broken string of pearls.
"Alvin, she hit me... I only wanted to talk to her, and she suddenly just..."
Behind me came Alvin's footsteps, steady and urgent.
He didn't even bother to ask what had happened. He simply pronounced me guilty.
"Isabella!"
"Do you have any idea what occasion this is?"
"It's Sonia's recovery banquet, and you hit her in front of all these people?"
"Apologize."
I met his heavy gaze and felt only exhaustion.
Condemned again without a hearing.
Made to apologize again.
I understood. Even if I laid the evidence right in front of Alvin, he would still stand at Sonia's side.
So I said nothing at all, resisting in silence.
Alvin's patience ran out fast.
He waved his hand, and two bodyguards stepped forward, pinning down my shoulders, hauling me to the edge of the pool.
A large hand pressed against the back of my head and shoved my face into the water.
Water poured into my nose, my mouth. I thrashed with everything I had, but they held me down hard.
Just before I blacked out, they let go, and I dragged my head up, coughing, unable to catch my breath.
"Apologize." Alvin said.
I gasped for air in great heaving breaths, looking at Sonia trembling in his arms, and still I refused to speak.
They forced my head under again.
Longer this time, long enough that my lungs felt like they'd burst, the world going dark at the edges.
Seeing that I still wouldn't give in, Alvin didn't let them stop.
Again and again.
The suffocation only ended when I lost consciousness completely.
When I woke again, I was lying in a bed.
Alvin sat at the edge of it, looking worn out.
His eyes landed on the cuts the thorns had left across my body, and his brows knit faintly.
"These wounds. What happened?"
I leaned against the headboard, my throat so raw I could barely make a sound.
"If I said Sonia did it, would you believe me?"
Alvin didn't answer.
He was silent for a long time before he finally spoke. "Sonia's due soon."
"Once she's had the baby, I'll give you an explanation."
I tugged at the corner of my mouth and said nothing more.
There was no need.
I took the agreement from the drawer beside me and handed it to Alvin.
"The company accounts you asked me to put in order earlier."
"I haven't had the chance to get you to sign them all this time."
At that, Alvin's expression relaxed, and he took the agreement.
He'd never liked poring over dense clauses.
He picked up the pen and signed his name on the last page.
The strokes were careless, exactly like his attitude toward this marriage.
He pushed the agreement back, his gaze settling on my face for a moment. "Once you've rested up, I'll have the company promote you to vice president."
I picked up the agreement, my fingertips trembling slightly, though nothing of it showed on my face.
"Fine."
A thin sheet of paper. Seven years of feeling, three years of swallowing it down, all ended in one stroke.
Alvin stood. "I'm going to check on Sonia. Get some rest."
I said nothing, watching him leave.
I gathered all the evidence and sent it to the lawyers, telling them they could begin.
Alvin, Sonia, I wouldn't let either of them off.
At three in the afternoon, while Alvin went with Sonia for her prenatal checkup, the car Ferris had sent pulled up at the back gate of the villa.
I took nothing with me and got in.
The man Ferris had sent spoke. "Ms. Gilbert, Mr. Delgado has already had your brother moved somewhere safe. Everything after this is waiting for you to handle."
I watched the villa shrink in the rearview mirror and nodded.
"Good."
