Disobedience

At twenty, I was sold to Joe Ramirez by my own brother.

Everyone called him cold and ruthless, betting I wouldn't last a month. Yet he showered me with affection.

His raspy voice would coax me repeatedly:

"Be good, baby. Lift higher."

Naively, I thought this would last forever.

Until his white moonlight drugged me. He caught me half-dressed in bed with another man.

Eyes bloodshot, he clamped down on my throat, demanding:

"Jennifer Allen, what did I ever deny you? How dare you betray me?!"

...

A sickening thud echoed.

Joe kicked the man beside the sofa, sending him crashing against the wall. A pained grunt escaped as he slumped to the floor.

Those crimson eyes pinned me.

"Jennifer Allen. Last chance."

His icy voice scraped like a blade over my nerves.

"Speak! Why?!"

"Haven't I given you everything?!"

The drug left me boneless, barely standing.

All I saw in his frigid gaze was my own disheveled reflection.

Jessica Williams cowered behind him, feigning fear while triumph stabbed me from her eyes.

The man scrambled to his knees, babbling:

"Mr. Ramirez! It's her! Mrs. said you were dull... wanted wilder thrills!"

Joe's fist smashed his face before he finished.

"Filth. Who let you defile her name?"

Murderous rage exploded from him.

"Drag him out. Break him."

Bodyguards hauled the man away.

A shriek cut off abruptly as the heavy door slammed shut.

He whirled, seizing my jaw.

"Jennifer Allen. What did Joe Ramirez lack? Why disgrace yourself... disgrace me?"

His raw scream felt like being devoured alive.

"Won't even lie to me now?"

"So desperate to leave?"

No! Joe! Jessica set me up!

My mind screamed explanations, but only ragged whimpers escaped.

Jessica pressed against his back, whispering softly:

"Joe, don't ruin your health over her. Since she loves playing... let her? River Styx knows how to please women like her..."

Her velvet words were a venomous snake, licking Joe's bleeding wounds.

The last flicker of hope died in his eyes.

"Silence? Then we do as she says."

I was dragged into an elevator, shoved into an airless car.

Later, I was dumped in a dank basement.

Bone-chilling cold and mildew seeped into my limbs.

Shadows closed in, reeking of tobacco, liquor, and sour sweat. Hyena-like chuckles bounced off concrete walls.

"Tsk. Joe's woman. Prime cut."

Do You Admit Your Mistake?

A mountain-like shadow pressed down.

That piggishly obese body brought nauseating weight.

Crumbling my world, inch by inch.

His greasy mouth gnawed at my neck.

Rotten liquor breath mixed with halitosis flooded my nostrils.

My stomach churned as tears rolled down.

I hated.

Hated myself for lacking even an ounce of strength to resist.

Like a fish on the chopping block, enduring this hellish humiliation.

Suddenly, a sharp cramp seized my lower abdomen.

As if gripped by an invisible hand, threatening to tear my insides out.

Biting pain surged through my body.

"Hey, she's bleeding!"

The man growled excitedly, movements turning rougher, voice dripping with treasure-hunting greed.

"Who knew the one sent to Mr. Joe's bed was still untouched!

This trip's worth every penny!"

How could I be untouched after Joe had claimed me day and night for three years?

The warm gush and tearing agony inside told me—

This wasn't deflowering blood.

Thick metallic scent overwhelmed all filth.

My body turned icy.

Convulsing from pain.

Then, plunging into endless darkness.

...

Splash! Ice-cold water drenched my head.

I jolted awake.

Abandoned clinic. Cold operating table.

Hands and feet bound raw by coarse ropes.

Jessica stood before me.

Elegant fingertips pinching a pregnancy test.

Her eyes, venomous nails, piercing through me.

"Jennifer, you bitch! How dare you carry Joe's child!"

Next second.

The paper crumpled into a ball, smashing against my face.

Its edges scraped my cheek raw.

"Still, I should celebrate," she laughed, twisted and triumphant.

"It was just... right here... destroyed by that stinking old gambler!"

"Jes!

Si!

Ca!"

I screamed with every fiber, voice hoarse and grating.

"You framed me! You did!"

Her lips curled victoriously.

Vermilion nails dug into my chin.

"So what if I did?"

She savored my pain-twisted expression, each word a cruel blade.

"I'm destined to stand by Joe's side!

What are you?

A plaything to be summoned and discarded—how dare breed his seed?!"

Tears instantly blurred my vision.

I'd foolishly believed these three years granted me wife's rights without the title.

But truly, I was just a toy.

"Jessica!

You killed his child."

Blood filled my mouth as I gritted teeth. "He'll destroy you!"

She snorted contemptuously, as if hearing the world's greatest joke.

"He tossed you to me like garbage to handle."

"Think he'll trust the woman who betrayed him in his bed? Or trust me—his loyal cleanup crew?"

After that day, I was locked in true hell.

Daily beatings. Endless violations by different men.

This torment lasted half a year.

During those sunless six months, my belly grew and shrank, shrank and grew, until I could bear children no more.

I was tortured to mere skin and bones, my eyes hollow voids, stripped of all human semblance.

Until one day, Jessica appeared again.

She ordered her men to drag me from the filthy corner.

Scrubbed me clean.

Forced a pill down my throat, stealing my voice once more.

Then she presented me before Joe like some exhibit.

He sat on the sofa.

Seeing me now—barely recognizable—his brow furrowed almost imperceptibly.

A flicker of anguish flashed through his eyes, gone so fast I thought I'd imagined it.

He lifted his coffee and took a sip.

When his gaze met mine again, all warmth had frozen into indifference. His voice came slow and measured:

"Jennifer,"

"Do you admit your wrongs?"

I stood there, numb.

Tried to open my mouth, but no sound came out.

The fury in his eyes was almost enough to burn me to ashes.

"Locked up for half a year, and still looking like a corpse!"

He suddenly turned his gaze to Jessica beside him.

"Jessica, is this what you call training?"

Jessica turned pale with fright.

Immediately, she started making excuses in a tearful voice:

"Joe, sister... she's been starving herself to resist me..."

"I was afraid she'd hurt herself, so I didn't dare to force her..."

Hah.

What an actress.

For half a year,

in a basement without daylight,

I was fully conscious as they shattered my bones inch by inch.

They fed me spoiled food.

Forced me to drink filthy water from the toilet.

I once slammed my head against the wall,

just wanting to end it all.

But they saved me again and again.

Jessica's icy voice still echoes in my ears to this day:

"Want to die? I'm not done playing with you yet!"

So tired.

When will this endless torment end?

Suddenly, everything went black.

I fell heavily onto the cold floor.

In the last second before losing consciousness,

I heard Joe's panicked scream:

"Jennifer! Call an ambulance!"

...

I don't know how much time had passed.

The strong smell of disinfectant.

I woke up.

Jessica's crying sounded by my ear, fake and grating.

"Joe, it's all my fault, I didn't take good care of sister..."

"I've contacted a top private sanatorium, let's send her there to recover, okay?"

Joe's warm hands held my withered ones.

It was the warmth I had craved for three whole years.

How I wished he would hold on a little longer.

Even for just one more second.

"Jennifer, I'm giving you one last chance."

Joe's voice was bone-chillingly cold.

Then, he abruptly pulled his hands away.

"If you refuse to behave and admit your mistake, don't blame me!"

That hard-won warmth vanished in an instant.

I was quickly transferred.

When I opened my eyes again,

I was tied to a cold operating table in an all-too-familiar position.

A cart beside me was filled with gleaming surgical instruments.

Jessica wore a mask, revealing only her vicious eyes.

She looked down at me from above.

"Jennifer, you just won't stay dead."

She let out a cold laugh.

"Even after all this, Joe still has pity for you!"

I weakly closed my eyes.

Utterly broken.

"If I could, I wish I'd never met him."

That sentence ignited her insane jealousy.

She picked up a scalpel.

The cold blade pressed against the back of my neck.

"Stop acting so pure! You're nothing but meat on my chopping block now!"

She screamed frantically at the person in the white coat:

"Doctor Adam!"

"Cut her spinal cord! I want her to be a living corpse for the rest of her life!"

No anesthesia.

That Doctor Adam, right in front of Jessica.

Severed my tendons with his own hands.

The blade sliced through flesh.

Crunching through bone.

Agony swallowed me whole.

Jessica laughed hysterically beside me.

"Jennifer, taste that despair?"

"This is what you get for coveting Joe!"

She dumped me like trash in the sanatorium's dankest corner.

Dripping the cheapest nutrient solution to keep me barely alive.

"You better live long."

She looked down, eyes dripping scorn.

"Your rare blood type makes you valuable."

"Your death comes when you're useless!"

They drained my blood again and again.

My body withered rapidly.

Once,

I overheard an intern nurse whispering by the door.

She said my marrow had turned cancerous.

I had days left.

Perhaps from pity, she texted Joe anonymously with her phone.

When he stormed in furiously,

He saw me pumped with stimulants, cheeks unnaturally "rosy".

"Jennifer!"

His fury could've turned me to ash.

"I ditched a billion-dollar deal for this charade?!"

"Scheming with outsiders—do you look dying to you?!"

Gathering my last strength, I parted cracked lips.

"Joe... I never betrayed you."

I exposed Jessica's traps.

Her imprisonment.

The blood harvesting...

Everything laid bare.

Begging him to believe.

Just this once.

Yet Joe raised his hand—

Slapped me hard across the face.

Crack

That slap shattered my last delusion.

"Accusing Jessica? You'd stoop this low?"

His disgust flayed me alive.

"She got you care here! This is your gratitude?"

"Ungrateful wretch! Get back to the apartment—now!"

Bodyguards dragged me out like carcass.

Jessica arrived tearful at Joe's rage.

He pulled her into an embrace, voice thick with remorse.

"Jessica... my poor girl."

"I was blind to love this viper."

They dumped me in our old apartment.

He locked me in the storage room himself.

"You're not my woman. Just the lowest maid now."

His voice chilled through the door.

"Clean every room Jessica uses."

They climbed upstairs together.

Soon,

Obscene noises echoed above.

I wondered morbidly—would Joe command her like he did me? Arch higher. Scream louder.

Later, they hauled me to the master bedroom.

The mess on the floor.

The scent of sex hanging thick.

My stomach churned violently, rage burning through me.

"Pfft"

A mouthful of blood gushed out suddenly.

Staining the pure white carpet beneath me crimson.

I couldn't hold on any longer.

Collapsed heavily to the floor.

My worn-out body, at this moment, had finally reached its end.

A scalding tear slid silently from the corner of my eye.

Joe, now it's my turn to never forgive you.

The moment my soul broke free from its shell.

I felt an unprecedented lightness.

I thought I was finally free.

But I wasn't.

Jessica walked into the storage room.

When she saw my cold body on the floor, a flicker of fear flashed in her eyes.

Immediately replaced by thick, undiluted malice.

"Worthless!"

She cursed under her breath.

"Couldn't you have died earlier or later? Why now to cause me trouble!"

She was relieved Joe was on a business trip abroad.

Giving her the perfect chance to dispose of this "trash."

A heavy black duffel bag.

My corpse got stuffed inside.

Sunk into the open sea under cover of darkness.

I watched helplessly as I ended up without a burial place.

I charged at her like mad, but my hands passed right through her body.

So this was death.

I was even more useless than when alive.

Joe returned to the country.

He immediately asked about my whereabouts.

Jessica instantly burst into tears, handing him a letter.

"Joe... she left. Said she'd had enough of you, and took all the money from our joint account..."

In that forged letter.

Every word accused him and painted me with greed I never possessed.

"How dare she?!"

Joe's face instantly darkened like stormy water.

Raging fury burned in his eyes.

He tore the letter to shreds.

"That thing I fished out of the mud—she'll never escape me in this lifetime!"

"I gave her everything, and she dares betray me like this!"

He smashed the entire study to pieces in his fury.

Bloodshot eyes gleaming with murderous intent.

"Find her! Turn the earth upside down if you must, but dig her out!"

"This time I'll break her bones myself. Let's see her run then!"

In that instant.

His icy killing aura nearly froze my soul solid.

I suddenly remembered I was already dead—and sighed in relief.

Only to discover in despair.

No matter what, I couldn't drift beyond ten meters from him.

Blind rage surged through me.

"Joe! Even in death you won't let me go?!"

A month later.

Joe threw a grand engagement party for Jessica.

Just as he lifted the ring to slide it onto her finger—

Police officers stormed in.

"Mr. Ramirez."

The lead officer showed his badge, expression grim.

"Fishermen recently salvaged a woman's body."

"Forensics confirm the deceased is your ex-girlfriend, Jennifer."