I backed away.
“Stay back,” I warned.
David grabbed my arms from behind.
“Hold still,” he said. “This will be much easier if you don’t fight.”
I struggled, kicking and twisting, but he was too strong.
Maria uncorked the vial.
“Once this is in your system,” she said, “the doctors will say you’re mentally unstable. Delusional. Dangerous. They’ll lock you away. And then… we take Jacob. And we take everything.”
I thrashed wildly.
“Help! Someone help me!”
“Shut her up!” David snapped.
Maria lunged forward.
I twisted my head aside at the last second.
The liquid splashed across my shoulder instead of my face.
It burned where it touched, hot and stinging.
I screamed and wrenched free, stumbling backward away from them.
David reached for me again.
I grabbed the heavy crystal vase from the side table and swung it.
It crashed against the wall, shattering into a thousand pieces.
David froze.
“Get out of my way,” I warned, clutching a large shard of glass.
They stared at me—shocked. The obedient, gentle wife had finally snapped.
“Elena, don’t be stupid,” David said, taking a step forward.
“I mean it!” I cried, holding the glass between us. “Come one step closer and I swear I will defend myself!”
Maria grabbed David’s arm.
“Let her go,” she said quietly. “For now.”
David hesitated. Then he nodded.
“Go then,” he said. “Run. But remember—you leave Jacob here. And if you ever come back… we will have you arrested. For assault. For everything.”
My heart broke all over again.
I couldn’t leave him. Not with them.
But if I stayed, they would drug me. Lock me away. And then Jacob would truly be lost forever.
I looked toward the stairs. Jacob was still asleep upstairs.
“I’m taking my son,” I said.
David blocked the way.
“You take one more step toward those stairs and I will call the police myself and tell them you kidnapped our child.”
We stood there in a standoff. Shattered glass at my feet. Poison burning my shoulder. My husband and his wife blocking my way.
And I realized—they were ready. They had planned this. If I tried to take Jacob, they would call the authorities and tell lies. And with their documents… they might win.
I looked at David one last time.
“How could you?” I whispered. “You promised to love me.”
“I promised to get what I deserve,” he said coldly.
Tears stung my eyes.
“I will come back for him,” I said. “And when I do… I will expose both of you.”
I turned and ran out the front door.
I didn’t have my phone. I didn’t have my wallet. I didn’t have a single penny.
I ran down the street in my slippers, burning and bleeding, leaving my heart behind in that terrible house.
But as I ran, one thought kept me going.
I knew their secret.
I knew they were already married.
And secrets… have a way of coming out.
