Chapter 3

The living room was quiet instantly. My parents were stunned to see what I was doing.

Antonio reacted first. He took off his jacket to wrap me with a grave expression.

“Grace! What’s the matter with you? This is your home! Stop this madness! No one will hit you! Will you stop acting? You’re the bully. You’ve been picking on Claire all the time.”

As if I didn’t hear him, I struggled like crazy to get out of his jacket. Kneeling helpless and devastated, I tried repeatedly to unbutton my top.

“Please, I can unbutton it. Don’t hit me, OK? Please…”

I recalled the day I fell in despair. A man had an idea to excite himself. He wrapped his jacket around me and sewed it.

Then, he made me get out of it fast. If I was slow, he’d punish me with a whip with pricks, a burning cigarette butt, or a blackened scorching knife.

I went hungry every day and was deprived of my sleep. I was too weak to tear apart the jacket. Then, I tried to use my teeth. By the time I finally stripped myself, I was covered with streaks of blood.

New wounds were caused from time to time, and my body never healed.

In the end, my parents had to call the Kaufman family’s domestic physician Troy Fletcher to sedate me.

“Miss Parrish is not mentally well. It looks like she was deeply traumatized. I suggest she see a therapist.”

Troy paused. A sympathetic look appeared in his eyes. “She’s in a bad condition. She needs to be hospitalized as soon as possible.”

My mom’s expression changed slightly. She looked a little worried. But when she saw that Claire was about to cry, the tinge of care for me vanished from her face.

Antonio stared at me grimly.

He remarked disdainfully, “Grace is mentally ill? How is it possible?”

“What could’ve caused that? She hired people to make trouble for Claire and hit her openly. She’s the last one in the world to be traumatized!

“Grace, drop your act already. I only asked you to be a waitress. You got traumatized by that? You put on such an act? Where’s your pride?

“Or is this your new trick? Pretending to be ill to get sympathy? You think we’ll forget what you did? You owe Claire, and you must pay!”

I stared at the ceiling with a blank expression. My pupils dilated. However Antonio insulted me, and I didn’t respond.

Then, Claire walked to me with malice in her eyes.

“Grace, what’s on your neck?” She pulled at my collar to reveal the hickeys.

“Do you have a lover? What about Antonio? You two are getting married. How could you do this to him?”

I shivered a little and curled up. Tears gushed out of my eyes.

Taken aback, Antonio stared at my neck.

After a while, suppressing his anger, he dragged me out of bed and carried me downstairs. He didn’t speak until he put me in the car.

“Grace, who’s he? How could you date someone else? How could you sleep with another man? You did this to me just because I punished you? Are you heartless?

“Tell me! Who is he? Are you acting crazy to elope with him? What am I to you? A joke?”

I couldn’t take it anymore. Covering my ears, I screamed and flinched to stay away from Antonio.

Tearful, I dropped to my knees and begged for mercy hysterically.

“Please, please spare me. It hurts too much. I’ll be good. I won’t charge you. Just don’t hit me, OK? I’ll do anything. You can make a video of it as you like.

“Don’t hit me. Please…”