Chapter 2

Dax took a few steps closer, his leather shoe pressing down on my bare foot. As I cried out in pain, he spoke slowly.

“Tell me, do you think Seraphina felt this much pain the day she died?”

I looked at Seraphina’s photo, propping myself up with my arms on the floor. A bitter realization dawned on me, and I suppressed a groan of pain.

“Dax, I didn’t kill Seraphina.”

Back then, Seraphina had found herself a man far wealthier than Dax and decided to break up with him. I felt bad for Dax, so I didn’t dare tell him the truth.

But after I married Dax, Seraphina regretted it.

I still remember sitting in Seraphina’s car. She’d said she had something to tell me, but instead, she stomped on the gas pedal, speeding toward the bridge.

Seraphina’s expression was wild, her words sharp and venomous. She’d screamed that if I, Elara Vance, died, Dax would forever be hers.

But something went wrong with Seraphina’s plan. After the car plunged into the river, I easily unlatched my seatbelt and escaped.

Seraphina, however, got stuck in hers and drowned inside the car.

And the scratches and marks from our struggle? In Dax’s mind, they became proof that I had deliberately wrestled the steering wheel from Seraphina.

Dax pressed down harder, his eyes filled with dark malice.

“You still dare to lie?! I saw you climb out of that river with my own eyes while Seraphina stayed at the bottom forever! Are you going to tell me Seraphina drove the car down herself?!”

I gasped, a soft whimper of pain escaping my lips. It felt like my foot bone was about to snap under his weight.

I shook my head frantically, not knowing how to explain it so Dax would believe me.

Seraphina was dead, and her silence condemned me.

Seeing my tormented expression, Dax let out a chilling laugh of pure satisfaction.

“Before, I couldn’t touch you because of your family’s power. But now Vance Enterprises has fallen. Let’s see who can save you now! And your mother and your sister? I won’t let a single one of them go!”

“Are you… are you going to kill them?!” A sudden terror seized me. I tried to pull away, but his foot pinned me down.

“Dax Thorne, murder is a crime!”

“You killed Seraphina, and the law didn’t punish you, did it?” Dax half-crouched, reaching out to grab my hair, forcing my gaze toward Seraphina’s photo.

“Don’t worry, I won’t kill you. Death would be too easy. I’ll make sure you live a long, miserable life, atoning for Seraphina.”

After that, Dax kept me imprisoned in his mansion. My phone was confiscated.

My left foot bone was indeed broken, just as he’d promised. But he wouldn’t allow a doctor to treat me. Helpless, I had to suffer in silence, crudely bandaging my foot with a piece of wood, hoping it would heal on its own.

Imprisoned, I became Dax’s plaything. My fractured foot was repeatedly tormented by him, shattering any hope of it ever healing properly.

Dax pinned me against the cold floor, unleashing his wild, raging desire.

The floor was freezing, but Dax’s body was scorching hot. I shivered, caught between the cold and the heat, struggling to breathe.

I placed my hands on his arm, which felt like an iron bar wrapped around my neck, and pleaded, my voice breaking.

“Dax… you can do anything you want to me… just please, can I see my mother and sister… just once?”

Dax’s hand slowly tightened. “Do you want to see their corpses?”

My eyes widened in horror. When I spoke again, my voice was choked with tears.

“No… no, I don’t… please, my family is innocent, don’t hurt them…”

“Your family is innocent? Was Seraphina not innocent?”

With that, Dax thrust hard, and a cry of pain escaped my lips.

Dax left after he was finished. I slowly got up from the floor, stumbling my way to the bathroom. Warm blood trickled down my thigh and dripped onto the tiles.