Before I turned 25, my life had been perfect.
I was the most cherished daughter of the Van Doren family.
I lived in the finest penthouse in Manhattan, and my life was carefree.
My fiancé, Caleb Hawthorne, was the most envied man in our social circle.
Back then, everyone would say,
"Evelyn Van Doren is the diamond of New York, the most dazzling presence in all of high society."
Until the eve of my wedding, when I was kidnapped.
They demanded a sky-high ransom from my family.
It was fifty million dollars.
But I wasn't worried at all.
My parents loved me more than life itself, and Caleb had sworn he would marry no one but me.
They would surely save me, even if it meant bankrupting themselves.
At first, the kidnappers were reasonably polite to me.
Until the seventh day, when a cruel dose of reality shattered my naive fantasy.
A kidnapper grabbed me by the hair and kicked me to the ground.
"Didn't your family say they couldn't afford the ransom? Then what the hell is this?"
I looked up.
On the television, Caleb's triumphant face stared back at me.
He was standing with Sabrina, ringing the opening bell for his new company at the New York Stock Exchange.
The ticker behind him proudly displayed a bold line of text:
"Congratulations to Mr. Hawthorne on another great success, injecting fifty million dollars into his new project."
Fifty million.
Not a dollar more, not a dollar less.
The kidnappers let me make one last call to Caleb.
When the call connected, it was Sabrina's voice on the other end.
"Oh, Evelyn. Caleb can't talk right now."
"Oh, Caleb, stop it. The celebration party is about to start. You've wrinkled my dress, how am I supposed to meet the investors now?"
The line went dead, and the suggestive laughter and clinking champagne glasses in the background fell silent.
It was Caleb's silent way of telling me.
Between love and career, he had chosen career.
Between me and Sabrina, he had chosen Sabrina.
I stood there in stunned disbelief.
I didn't notice that the way the kidnappers were looking at me had changed.
On the eighth day, the ransom didn't arrive.
Caleb didn't respond, didn't compromise.
On the ninth day, the ransom still hadn't arrived.
The kidnappers broke my finger as a warning.
The kidnappers filmed a video of me being violated, threatening to ruin my reputation.
Caleb still didn't respond, only releasing a statement in the afternoon in the company's name.
"The Hawthorne Group will never compromise with criminals."
On the tenth day, my parents announced they were moving to Europe.
I had become a completely abandoned pawn, having lost my final value.
The kidnappers were furious.
In their fury, they used every means possible to torture and humiliate me.
At that time, both the kidnappers and I still clung to a final sliver of hope.
The hope that someone would come to save me.
But no one did.
During my captivity, Caleb and Sabrina's relationship flourished in the public eye.
News reports about them were endless.
They attended various events together, held grand victory celebrations.
Clinking glasses, laughing and talking, they were on top of the world.
Every financial news channel was reporting on him.
Caleb's latest investment was a massive success, and he was poised to become Wall Street's youngest tech tycoon.
Before him lay a golden road to success.
Behind me, however, was a pack of demons.
They vented all their fury and resentment on me.
Whips, daggers, branding irons, and steel needles.
Trapping me in a living hell where I could neither live nor die.
On the fifteenth day, I finally found a chance to escape.
The details of my escape are a blur of hardship and danger.
I only remember that I kept running, running without stopping.
Running until my feet were numb, until my wounds split open, until I had only a single breath left.
Just as I was on the verge of collapse, about to give up in despair, the sound of classical music gave me a direction.
