LINA'S POV
I squinted as the bag was ripped from my head.
Cold air hit my face first, then the smell of rust, mildew and something rotting. My vision blurred, adjusted then I realized I was in a warehouse. Abandoned by the look of it. Moonlight spilled in through broken windows above, casting shadows across the concrete floor.
And there they stood.
Cassandra, Julian and Margaret.
My family.
"Finally awake, bastard?" Cassandra's voice dripped venom. She looked beautiful even now in her designer dress and perfect hair. She always did. Father made sure of that.
I tried to move but for reason i couldn't as my wrists burned. I looked down and saw that i was in chains bolted into the floor. My heart speed up in my chest.
"What... what is this?"
"What does it look like?" Julian leaned against a support beam, arms crossed looking bored like this was an inconvenience. "You really thought we'd let you have him?"
Him.
so that's what this was about?
The man who'd chosen me over Cassandra at dinner three nights ago. I didn't even know his name as he was just some investor, some tycoon Father wanted to impress. I'd served tea with my head down like always, and somehow that was enough for him to ask for my hand instead of my sister's.
Father said yes before I could breathe.
Cassandra screamed for an hour after he left.
"I didn't ask for this." My voice came out smaller than I wanted. "I didn't—"
"Shut up." Margaret stepped forward, her face twisted with an ugly look. Hatred, maybe. Or just exhaustion. Years of Father's affairs had carved lines into her face, turned her bitter. I was just another reminder. "You've ruined everything. Do you know that? Everything."
"I'll reject him." The words tumbled out desperately. "I'll tell Father I don't want—"
"Too late." Cassandra crouched in front of me with a deadly smile. "Father already announced it. The contracts are being drawn up. You, the bastard maid's daughter, marrying into wealth while I get nothing."
"That's not my fault!"
Her hand smacked across my face.
Pain exploded across my cheek as my eyes watered.
"Everything is your fault!" She grabbed my chin, nails digging in. "You simply breathe exist. You took up space in our house, ate our food, wore our old clothes. And now you think you can take what's mine?"
"Cassandra, please—"
"I begged Father to love me." Her voice broke, just for a second as raw pain flickered in her eyes. "I did everything right. Perfect grades, perfect behavior, perfect daughter. And he still looked at his whores. Still ignored me. And now you—you get the one thing I wanted?"
I saw it then the desperation. The hunger for Father's approval that would never come. We weren't so different, she and I.
Except she had Mother's cruelty, and I had nothing.
"I—" I swallowed. "If I Had said no, Father would have—"
"Father would have what? Beat you?" She tilted her head. "He's done that before. You survived."
I had. Barely.
But this was different. This was my way out. For the first time in my life, I had a chance to leave this house, these people, this suffocating invisible existence but that stupid thought was about to get me beaten or worse…
"Just let me go," I whispered. "I'll disappear. I'll leave the city. You'll never see me again."
Julian laughed. "And risk you coming back? Risk you talking?"
"I won't—"
"We can't trust that." Margaret's voice was cold now.. "We can't trust you."
She sounded like she had decided something. Ice flooded my veins.
"What are you saying?"
Silence.
Cassandra stood, brushed off her dress and wouldn't meet my eyes.
"Please—" My voice cracked. "I didn't ask for this. I didn't—"
"Didn't what?" Cassandra crouched in front of me, her perfectly manicured hand gripping my chin hard enough to bruise. "Didn't seduce him? Didn't sit there looking pathetic until he chose you over me?"
"He just—he just looked at me, I swear I didn't—"
"Shut up." She shoved my face away.
"No." My voice shook. "No, you can't—I'm your sister—"
"You're nothing." Margaret turned away. "You were always nothing."
"Julian!" I looked at my stepbrother desperately. "Julian, please, we grew up together—"
"Barely." He pushed off the beam, hands in his pockets. "You were the bastard in the corner. Don't rewrite history now."
Panic clawed up my throat. I yanked at the chains, metal biting into my wrists. "Someone will know! Father will—"
"Father doesn't care." Cassandra's voice was flat. "He never cared about you. Why do you think he let Mother treat you like dirt all these years?"
Because I reminded him of his shameful affair. The maid he had killed to keep his wife from leaving.
My mother.
God, I was so tired.
Tired of begging. Tired of being small. Tired of hoping that maybe, someday, someone would see me as worth more than the bastard title added to my name.
"Please." I gave it one last try as my voice cracked. "Please don't do this."
Cassandra walked toward the door. Julian followed.
Margaret lingered, staring down at me with empty eyes.
"You should have stayed invisible," she said quietly.
Then she pulled something from her purse.
A gun.
My breath stopped.
"Mom—" Cassandra's voice, uncertain now. "You said we'd make it look like an accident—"
"This is cleaner."
"Mother—"
"Get in the car. Both of you."
They hesitated for a moment the turned and walked away door slamming.
It was just Margaret and me now.
I watched as she slowly raised the gun with steady hands like she had done this before.
"I'm sorry," she said. But her eyes were dead. "You understand, don't you? I can't let her suffer because of you. I already lost my husband. I won't lose my daughter's future too."
"I never wanted any of this." Tears slid down my face. But they were useless at this point. "I just wanted to be loved."
Something flickered in her expression that i couldn't decipher.
Then it was gone.
"You were born from sin, Lina. You were never meant to be loved."
She cocked the gun.
Even now, faced with death i thought of nothing. No one. Because there was no one to think of. No one who'd mourn me. No one who'd even notice I was gone.
Maybe that was the saddest part.
Not the dying.
The fact that my death wouldn't matter.
"Please—" Tears blurred my vision. "Please, I just wanted to be free—"
"You were born a mistake, Lina." Her finger moved to the trigger. "You'll die one too."
"No, wait—"
I heard a bang.
Everywhere went dark.