Chapter 1
“Tania, have you lost your mind?”
Lionel Ferguson’s voice was sharp, his expression darker than ever.
He was the eldest son and the golden child, the one I used to measure myself against.
“What the hell was that for?” he snapped. “Why’d you hit Betty?”
I pointed to the security camera above us. “You’re all accusing Christie of stealing the designs, right? So why don’t we check the footage and find out?”
Silence filled the room in an instant.
Betty Ferguson was the first to panic. “It’s just a misunderstanding! I swear I never thought Christie took them!”
Lionel tried to sweep it under the rug, his voice stiff with authority. “Enough. We’re not making a scene over something so trivial. No one brings this up again. Got it?”
Then he turned to Christie, all condescension and control. “You should be thanking Betty. Without her, you wouldn’t be back in this house.”
Christie stood her ground, though her voice trembled. “Shouldn’t she be thanking me? She stole twenty years of my life.
“She’s living a life that was supposed to be mine.”
Lionel wasn’t used to being challenged.
He saw Christie’s defiance as insolence.
Even though she was right, Lionel still believed she was unreasonable. Thus, he became furious.
“You’re out of line. Typical backwater mentality. Tonight, no dinner. You’ll stay in the basement until you’ve reflected properly.”
Christie went pale. She stumbled back in terror.
“No, please! I’m sorry! I’ll apologize to Betty! Just don’t send me there!”
She dropped to her knees, trembling, forehead to the floor.
I looked at her, feeling heartbroken.
It hit me then: whatever had happened in that basement, it had broken her.
And now, she would beg for mercy even at the mention of the basement.
Just then, I thought of the stories I had once read.
This felt like one of those “break the heroine until she’s obedient” torture arcs.
In the end, the heroine, who had once tried her best to resist and seek freedom, turned into something without a soul.
I hated Lionel in that moment, but I hated the old me even more.
If I’d opened my eyes sooner, maybe I could’ve saved her from all those nightmares.
“Punishment fits the crime,” Lionel said coldly. “This isn’t something a few tears can fix. Guards!”
At his command, the Ferguson family’s bodyguards lined up, well-trained and ruthless.
“Take Christie to the basement. No one lets her out without my say-so.”
Lionel was always domineering and tough, and his words were law.