“You stupid...stupid girl!”
A sharp slap echoed within The Hotel Revelion. A shriek tore from Chloe as she was sent flying across the spacious hotel suite. Lily, relentless in her fury, pursued the initial assault with a barrage of brutal strikes. “Just how much trouble—must you cause—before you’re satisfied?!” Her voice raw with rage, she punctuated every utterance with a kick, before finishing with a brutal stomp onto Chloe’s crumpled form.
Chloe lay sprawled on the floor. She whimpered in pain, rendered powerless in the face of her sister’s wrath. It felt like an eternity since she’d last been subjected to such violence. The idyllic days she’d spent in the capital seemed to have eroded her resilience; every punch, every kick landed with devastating force, crushing her body, fracturing her mind.
Is this...a dream? Chloe wondered, her teeth gritted against the onslaught of pain. The situation unfolding seemed absurd, the agony wracking her body all too surreal. Lily’s presence was simply unfathomable. She had left Shadaf so far behind—had she not escaped it once and for all? Had she not journeyed for weeks and weeks to reach the safety of the capital? How could this have happened... How?
A fragment of Chloe’s spirit clung desperately to the idea that this horror was a mere illusion. But the ceaseless waves of pain and the heart-rending despair refuted her wishful thinking with ruthless indifference. Her body throbbed in agony; her cheeks flushed as if they were ablaze. Each blow from Lily seemed to chip away at her hold on consciousness.
“How dare you, you cursed brat!” Lily roared, her leg winding up for another kick, tracing an arc aimed directly at Chloe’s face.
Chloe could barely manage a stifled scream as it connected, sending her tumbling across the room. She fought to lift herself from the floor, her arms trembling from exertion. Heat surged up her nostrils, then trickled back down.
Drip... Drip...
Dark crimson blossoms appeared in her field of view, staining the floor beneath her. The scene was a haunting echo of what her mother had done to her on that fateful day. How long had it been since then?
Chloe braced for the next blow, but it never came. Summoning what strength she had left, she slowly raised her head. Her vision blurry and unfocused, she found Lily standing before her, chest heaving, eyes aflame, sweat beading her brow.
Chloe was a picture of disarray. Her meticulously combed locks had been pulled and yanked into a tangled, bushy mess. Her nose bled freely, her cheeks swelled from the onslaught, and her once pristine dress tarnished with countless grimy shoe prints.
“I must admit it was clever of you to flee all the way to the capital. Never would I have imagined finding you here,” Lily taunted. “As curious as I am to learn what you’ve been up to these past two months, that’ll have to wait—I must bring you back before Mother, after all.”
At the mention of their mother, Chloe winced.
“Oh, and believe me when I say,” Lily added with a cruel drawl, “that she has missed you, so very much.”
She reached out to grab Chloe’s arm. “Get up. We’re leaving.”
“No,” Chloe replied, a tremor of defiance in her voice, as she shrugged off Lily’s grip.
“...What?” Lily stammered, seemingly unable to believe what she’d just heard.
In that moment, Chloe realized something profound. She hadn’t once groveled, hadn’t once uttered an apology to her sister. Before, she would’ve prostrated herself in submission, apologized on the heels of every blow, but today, the urge to yield would not come. If she submitted to Lily, if she allowed herself to be dragged back to the hellish confines of Shadaf, she knew escape might never again be within her reach.
A surge of emotions swelled within her—emotions once alien to her, emotions that she had once suppressed. Gone was the cursed child, the supposed harbinger of all misery. Gone was the powerless puppet to be tossed around, kicked and beaten, the battered doll without a voice. That was her past, not her present, and it certainly wasn’t going to be her future.
Her time in the capital had sown the seeds of change. With Lloyd, she had nurtured the sprouts of self-worth, discovered her individuality, and learned that she was her own person—a creature deserving of happiness, respect, and love just like any other. Her indignation crescendoed into a furious, white-hot rage. I...I don’t deserve this—to be treated like this.
“What did you say?” Lily snapped, her gaze sharp as a blade.
“I’m not going back.”
“Excuse me?”
“I said I’m not going back!” Chloe’s yell echoed across the suite. For the first time in her life, she chose to defy her sister.
Momentarily stunned by her younger sister’s sudden act of rebellion, Lily stood frozen. But her eyes soon narrowed, her mouth curling into a snarl of rage. “You dare defy me? You’ve grown bold, haven’t you?” Lily raised her hand; the two henchmen standing by the door approached. “Restrain her. We depart for Shadaf at once.”
“Yes, milady.”
“Understood.”
The brutes encroached on Chloe, their hands ready to seize her.
“No—no! Get away from me!” Chloe fought back, squirming and writhing in a full-bodied attempt to evade their grip, but the disparity in strength was too great.
“Yes—yes! Say goodbye to your fleeting dalliance with freedom, Chloe!” Lily’s maniacal cackle filled the room. “How does it feel? To make it all this way, only to be dragged back! To taste liberty, only to have it ripped away! It stings, doesn’t it—doesn’t it?! Well, too bad; you’ll get your just deserts!”
As Lily watched Chloe’s futile efforts to resist, a malignant grin crept up her face. “Don’t be so bitter, child. You have no one to blame for the cruel lottery of your birth but fate itself. Once we’re home, I promise you will never see the light of day again! You’ll be made to suffer until the mere thought of defiance sends shivers down your spine!”
“I’ll...never...go back!” Chloe yelled. “Let go of me!”
“Ow! The bitch bit me!”
“Stop resisting, you little...!”
Despite their overwhelming strength, Chloe continued her struggle. I’m not going back there! I am not going back to that hell!
She twisted and writhed in their vicelike grip, every fiber of her being rebelling.
Not when I haven’t told him...
The image of the man she loved drifted into her mind’s eye.
Not when I haven’t told him I love him!
In a desperate plea, Chloe shouted at the top of her lungs, “Lloyd...help—!”
“Chloe!”
With a flurry of footsteps, the suite door burst open, and a third party entered the fray.
“Lloyd!”