Rhys still hesitated. "What if she wakes up..."
His mother walked in too and smacked him hard on the back.
"Sell the car, and you'll have millions in hand. Like you'd struggle to find a wife after that? We could get you an eighteen-year-old, no problem!"
"Besides, she fell out with her own parents for your sake. You apologize, play the poor pitiful one, and she'll forgive you on the spot. A girl who throws herself at you and even foots the bills, and you're scared she'll slip away?"
"And if she really does divorce you over eight million, that just proves she's a money-grubbing woman who never cared about you for a second."
He thought back to all the years we'd dated, when I never took a cent from him and was always slipping him money instead.
Rhys's eyes hardened.
"Right. There's no way she'd divorce me over a measly eight million."
Cold spread through my whole body, but I couldn't lift my hand with even a shred of strength.
Tracey couldn't pry my fingers open, so she gritted her teeth and just forced it.
A sharp crack. The finger snapped clean.
The pain drove cold sweat out of me, and I couldn't even manage a scream.
"Your own fault for clenching your hand so tight. It's just an ordinary sprain."
Brenda dabbed some muscle rub on it carelessly. "Don't go saying we mistreated you."
I have a respiratory condition, and the sharp sting of the muscle rub hit my nose. In an instant my breathing went shallow, and I could barely get air.
Rhys panicked. "Mom! What's wrong with my wife? Call 911, get her to a hospital!"
He'd just pulled out his phone when his mother snatched it away.
"What are you calling 911 for? An ambulance rolls out and that's eighty bucks gone. She's just asleep and can't cough it up. I'll pat her back and she'll be fine."
With that, Brenda shoved me over roughly and slapped my back a dozen times, hard.
The pain sent me into shock, and I blacked out, while she spread her hands.
"See? She's out cold, isn't she, not coughing anymore. Hurry up, let's go, the buyer's waiting."
The three of them turned and left, never once noticing how white my face had gone.
When I came to again, I was lying in a hospital bed.
Mom, Dad, and my brother all stood watch beside me, their eyes full of pain for me.
My brother's hands clenched into fists. "I will never let those animals off!"
Mom and Dad were still shaken. "If you hadn't sent your brother your location ahead of time, we might never have seen you again."
Mom kept wiping at her tears. It broke my heart, and I wanted to wipe them away for her, but I couldn't even lift my arm.
I could only force the words out. "I'm sorry, Mom, Dad. I was wrong. I should have listened to you."
My father reached out and laid his hand on my head with tenderness. "Good girl, it's all right. Now that you're awake, leave it to us to handle. All right?"
I thought of all the people my father had cornered into despair when he set a trap, and I slowly nodded.
"Okay."
Hurt this badly, even the deepest feelings get worn down to nothing.
I'm not a masochist.
Once I'd answered, my parents pulled out a tablet.
"The truth is, we had everything arranged a long time ago. We just didn't want to upset you."
On the screen, Rhys, his mother, and Tracey had met the buyer at a café.
The moment I saw the buyer sitting across from them, my eyes went wide in disbelief.
"Isn't that my brother's good buddy?"
Brenda poured him tea, eager to please. "Then it's settled, full price, eight million. My son's car is a limited edition. You couldn't get one even paying over asking."
When the man agreed without hesitation, Tracey suddenly raised the price. "I can see you rich boys just want a bargain. I just looked it up, an eight-million limited model like this could be marked up to at least ten million!"
She really had the nerve to ask.
I drew in a deep breath and waited for the cops to storm in and break up this illegal deal.
But even after the contract was signed, with Rhys and Tracey Fox cheering and throwing their arms around each other, even as Brenda counted the zeros at the end of her bank balance in a giddy daze, nothing happened.
Yet watching my brother fight a losing battle against the corners of his mouth, I knew they were finished.
The next second, Brenda screamed: "The money! My money's been frozen!"
Before Rhys could even look, the police walked in, an arrest warrant in hand.
"You're suspected of assault and the misappropriation of someone else's substantial assets. Come with us, now."
