Bruc

error he knew intimately. The heavy door clicked shut, the sound

he walls, I could feel them, pressing in on me, stealing my oxygen, crushing my bones.

oice a pathetic whimper against the

le

ator just a year into our marriage. He had held me for hours afterward, murmuring promises that he would never let

A beautiful,

fying realization that the back door was bolted shut. I' d been trapped then, too, convinced I was going to d

ster. He had locked me in the dark,

other side of the door. My head snapp

sing my ear against the col

eminine chuckle. It was a sound that slither

u

voice was a silken taunt, muffled by the

d suffocating, washed over me

back. I want him back. And you, my dear placeholder, are just a means to an end. Once

d, sliding down the door

arrying his child, in a room that he knows terrifies her, all b

nees, trying to make myself smaller, trying to disappear. The air was thi

ered to the empty

ng. My mind was a maelstrom of terror, a looping reel of smoke and locked doors and Elias' s cold, u

lding my eyes. When my vision cleared, Juli was standing in the doorwa

ld him you were just being dramatic. He's so won

ted a spark of rage through my fear. "Get away

know. He belongs to me. This house, his name, his future-it was all suppos

to hurt her, but to push her out of my space, to

n of terror. But Juli was a performer. She let out a piercing shriek a

ma,

en me push her. He ran to us, his face contorted in a mask of fury. He di

you?" he murmured, his voice

her arm. "She just... she just attacked me.

he was taunting me! She faked the allergy at

ook in his eyes stopped my heart. It wa

hen you have the audacity to lie about it

did

et and advancing on me. "I have had enou

i is a guest in this house. She is my friend, and she is sick. You wil

e's not your friend! She's the woman you love! Th

r a terrifying second, I saw a flicker of something in his eyes-shock

eadly whisper. "And you will stay there until you can learn to

turned his back on me completely, bending down to lift

is voice once again soft and full of

of his contempt and the chilling realization that I was no longer a wife in this house