1 I had the girl trying to worm her way into my husband’s bed committed to a psychiatric hospital. That night, Damien lost his mind. He strapped our son to the landing gear of a helicopter. The aircraft circled three hundred feet in the air. His ultimatum crackled through the intercom. “Elara, get her out of there, right now. Unharmed.” “For every hair on her head that's out of place, I'll cut off one of your son's fingers and drop it down to you as a gift.” I fell to my knees on the helipad, my heart twisting in agony as I watched the tiny, dangling figure above. “Damien, are you insane? That's your son! Your only son!” His voice came back, devoid of all warmth. “She's just a girl. You locked her away in a place like that. When did you become so venomous, Elara?” “You have three minutes. If I don't see her, I cut the rope. He can experience what a freefall feels like.” “The countdown starts now.” … My hands trembled so violently I could barely hold my phone. “Two minutes, fifty seconds.” My fingers stabbed blindly at the screen, misdialing several times before I got it right. The moment the call connected, I shrieked into the receiver. “Release her! Let Seraphina out, now! Have her call Damien the second she’s free!” The hospital director on the other end stammered, saying her discharge paperwork wasn’t even processed. Tears streamed down my face. I knelt on the rough concrete, screaming into the phone. “Forget the damn paperwork! Just get her out! If you’re a minute late, Damien will kill my son! Go! Now!” I hung up and tilted my head back, my eyes fixed on the helicopter circling in the night sky. The small, dark shape was tossed about like a dead leaf in the gale. I could hear his faint, terrified cries. “Mommy, it’s so high! Leo’s so scared… Where’s Daddy…?” I snatched the intercom, my voice a broken, trembling mess. “Damien, I’ve told them to release Seraphina! She’s coming out right now! Please, just bring Leo down! The wind is too strong up there, he can’t take it!” A cold laugh echoed in my headset. “Now you’re worried about your son, Elara? When you threw Sera into that hellhole, did you ever stop to think that she might be scared, too?” “One minute left.” The howling wind swallowed the sound of my sobs. I began slamming my forehead against the ground, again and again. Blood trickled into my eyes, turning my vision a sickening red. “I was wrong, I was wrong! Please, don’t take it out on Leo! He’s your son! I’m begging you, just land the helicopter! You can punish me however you want!” “Fifty seconds.” He ignored my pleas, his voice a metronome of doom, counting down the seconds. The psychological torture was tearing me apart. I scrambled to my feet, trying to get closer to the helicopter, but one of Damien’s bodyguards kicked me squarely in the knee. I crumpled to the ground, my chin splitting open on the concrete. I didn’t feel the pain. All I could do was crane my neck, my desperate gaze locked on the sky. My phone chimed. It was a video from the director. Seraphina was being escorted out of her room. I held the phone up, aiming it at the helicopter. “Damien, look! She’s out! They’ve released her! Stop this, now!” Two seconds of silence. Then, Damien’s voice, colder and darker than before. “Too late.” “I want you to remember this pain, Elara. This way, you’ll never dare to touch what’s important to me again.” Then came the sickening slice of a blade through rope. “NO—!” A horrifying scream ripped from my throat as I watched the small, dark shape detach from the helicopter. The aircraft was hovering directly over the man-made lake on the estate. Three hundred feet. Such a small child. I watched him plummet, a straight, unyielding line, with nothing to break his fall. A few seconds later, a massive splash erupted from the water, sending a plume several feet into the air. In that instant, my heart stopped beating. I shoved the bodyguards aside like a madwoman, stumbling and scrambling toward the lake, losing a shoe but not even noticing. I was about to jump in when more security guards tackled me, pinning me to the muddy bank. “Let me go! I have to save my son! Leo’s in the water!” I bit down on a guard’s arm, the coppery taste of blood flooding my mouth, but they didn’t budge. Damien’s helicopter descended slowly. He stepped out of the cabin, looking down at my soaked, pathetic form with an air of detached superiority as he adjusted his cuffs. “What’s all the screaming for? It’s a lake. He’s not going to die.” His lip curled in a sneer. “A little lesson for him. So he learns whose side he should be on. So he doesn’t grow up to be a spineless bitch like you.” The rescue team took a full ten minutes to pull Leo from the water. His little face was a ghostly white, his chest barely moving. His limbs hung limp and lifeless. I lunged forward, clutching his cold, small body, my trembling fingers searching for the faintest breath from his nose. It was barely there. “Call an ambulance! Someone call an ambulance!” I shrieked, my voice raw and broken. Damien watched, impassive. He waved a dismissive hand. “That’s enough. Leo didn't fall from the helicopter. This was a lesson for both of you.” He gestured to his men. “Have the guards take him to the hospital, put him on an IV. He has to apologize to Sera tomorrow.” I held my unconscious son, a rage so profound it threatened to tear me in two boiling in my chest. Damien, if anything happens to Leo, I swear to God I will kill you. The red light above the emergency room door was a blinding glare. I stood there, soaked to the bone, water dripping from my clothes to form a small puddle on the sterile floor. A doctor burst through the doors, his surgical mask stained with blood. “The patient has ruptured internal organs! Three broken ribs have punctured his lung! He’s in critical condition and needs surgery immediately! We need a signature from his next of kin!” I grabbed the doctor’s arm. “I’ll sign! I’m his mother!” The doctor hesitated. “Mrs. Vance, Mr. Vance is his legal guardian. He gave us specific instructions that he must personally approve any surgery for Leo.” My world exploded. Damien. It was always Damien. My hand shaking, I pulled out my phone and dialed his number. It rang for a long time before he answered. Seraphina’s delicate, cloying sobs whispered through the speaker, followed by Damien’s low, comforting murmur. “Damien, my wrist hurts so much. Those restraints at the hospital were so tight. Do you think they’ll leave a scar?” “Don’t worry, darling. I’ve already sent for the best scar cream. You’ll be fine.” I couldn’t take it anymore. I screamed into the phone. “Damien! Leo needs surgery! You have to sign! He has massive internal bleeding, he’s on the operating table dying! Just tell the doctor it’s okay!” A moment of silence on the other end. Then, Damien’s cold, emotionless scoff. “Elara, you’re a compulsive liar. Wasn’t he perfectly fine at the lake a little while ago? Now he’s suddenly dying at the hospital?” “I’m busy helping Sera with her medication right now. I don’t have time for your little stories.” My knuckles were white, my nails digging into the palm of my hand. “He fell three hundred feet, Damien! Are you even human? That’s your son!” My voice broke into a desperate plea. “I’m begging you. Just tell the doctor you consent. If you wait any longer, it will be too late…” As I spoke, my legs gave out and I collapsed to the floor. I bowed my head to the empty air, slamming my forehead against the linoleum again and again. “Damien, please. I’m on my knees. I’ll never go near Seraphina again. Just save Leo… please…” The disgust in his voice was palpable. “Enough! Stop trying to manipulate me with this pathetic act. Sera has a red mark on her wrist. That’s what’s important. If Leo were really in trouble, you wouldn’t have the energy to be screaming like a banshee.” He hung up. When I tried to call back, the line was dead. I listened to the dial tone, and a tide of despair washed over me, pulling me under. The operating room doors opened again. A nurse ran out, holding a critical condition notice. “Did you reach Mr. Vance? The patient’s blood pressure is still dropping! If we don’t get a signature, we can’t take responsibility for what happens next!” I snatched the pen from her. “I’ll sign!” I yelled, a crazed look in my eyes. “He agreed on the phone! You can call him back if you don’t believe me!” The nurse gave me a skeptical look but handed over the consent form. With a trembling hand, I signed my name, and she rushed back inside. Leo, don’t be scared. Mommy’s here. You have to hold on. Please, don’t leave Mommy all alone. The seconds ticked by, each one a new slice of a blade against my heart. At three in the morning, the light above the operating room went out. The doctor emerged, pushing a gurney. The medical staff all stared at the floor, none of them daring to meet my eyes. A white sheet was draped over the gurney, covering him from head to toe. I stood up, my limbs numb and wooden. I walked over and pulled back the sheet. Leo’s small face was as white as the cloth, completely drained of color. There were marks all over his body where tubes had been, and his chest was wrapped in thick gauze, but it would never rise and fall again. Just yesterday morning, he’d slung his little backpack over his shoulder and told me in his sweet, soft voice, “Mommy, you look so pretty today! I’ll draw you a picture when I get home from school.” Now, my Leo was a cold, lifeless body. “Aaaargh—!” A gut-wrenching, soul-tearing scream ripped from my throat as I collapsed beside the gurney. “Leo! Wake up! Mommy’s here to take you home!” I clung to his body, still faintly warm, refusing to let go. Doctors and nurses tried to pull me away, but I shoved them back with the strength of a madwoman. “Get away from me! Don’t touch my son! He’s just sleeping!” Just then, footsteps echoed from the end of the hall. Damien approached, his arm wrapped around Seraphina, who was draped in his jacket. She leaned against him, a triumphant smirk on her face, though her words were meek. “Damien, Elara is so upset. Do you think something really happened to Leo?” Damien didn’t even glance at the body on the gurney. “For God’s sake, Elara, what are you wailing about in the middle of a hospital? Have you no shame?” I looked up from the floor at the two of them, a vision of pure evil. If looks could kill, they would have been hacked into a thousand pieces. “You’re too late, Damien,” I rasped, my voice thick with the taste of blood. “Leo’s dead. You killed him.” Damien’s brow furrowed for a second, then his expression soured into one of even deeper contempt. “Dead?” He let out a cold laugh and reached for the white sheet. “I think he’s gotten addicted to playing dead. What have you been teaching him? To participate in your little dramas at his age?” I scrambled forward and wrapped my arms around his leg, my nails digging into the fine wool of his trousers. “Don’t touch him! You don’t have the right!” He kicked me aside with such force that I slammed into the wall, the impact rattling my organs. Seraphina pointed at a corner of the sheet that had slipped down. “Oh, my,” she said with theatrical surprise. “Why is his face so pale? Is that a doll? Elara, you really went all out to try and trick Damien into coming back, didn’t you?” Her words fueled his anger. He ripped the sheet off and, to my horror, slapped Leo’s lifeless face. Twice. “Stop faking it! Get up!” Leo’s head lolled limply to the side. I flew at Damien like an animal, sinking my teeth into his wrist. “Let go, you psycho!” he roared in pain, backhanding me across the face. My ears rang, and blood trickled from the corner of my split lip, but I felt nothing. I threw myself back over Leo’s body, shielding him with my own. “Get out! Take your whore and get out! Don’t you dare defile my son’s path to the afterlife!” Damien stared at the deep, bloody bite mark on his wrist, his face a thunderous mask of rage. He rounded on the doctor. “How dare you!” he bellowed. “You’re all in on this together, trying to fool me!” The doctor flinched, shrinking back. “Mr. Vance, the young master… we received the consent form too late…” “Shut up!” Damien cut him off, his voice raw with fury. “A bunch of useless idiots!” He turned back to me, his eyes filled with nothing but disgust and disbelief. “Elara, I have to hand it to you, this is a very convincing performance. You’d even curse your own son just to make me feel guilty?” “Fine. This doll is creeping me out. Take it to the morgue and put it on ice! Let’s see what other tricks you have up your sleeve then, you crazy bitch!” He actually called his bodyguards and ordered them to take Leo’s body to the morgue. “No! Damien, you will pay for this!” I was pinned to the floor, forced to watch as they wheeled my son away. I struggled, my fingernails scraping bloody tracks into the linoleum. Seraphina walked over and crouched down in front of me. With her back to Damien, her face twisted into a hideously evil grin. “You see, Elara?” she whispered. “This is what happens when you cross me. Your son is dead, and Damien doesn’t even believe it. In his mind, Leo is worth less than this little red mark on my wrist.” I stared at her, a low, animalistic growl rumbling in my throat. “Seraphina… I’m going to kill you…” She immediately stood up, her expression morphing into one of pure terror as she ran back into Damien’s arms. “Damien, her eyes… she looks terrifying! Do you think she’s having a breakdown?” Damien held her close, stroking her back soothingly. When he looked at me, his eyes were like chips of ice. “I think she’s lost her mind,” he said. “Treating a doll like her own child.” “Since she’s insane, she can’t be allowed to run around making a scene. Lock her in the house. She’s not to step one foot outside without my permission.” The guards hauled me to my feet and began dragging me away. I went limp, my eyes fixed on the direction they had taken Leo, until the door to the morgue swung shut. And in that moment, my heart died with him. Back at the mansion, I was thrown into the master bedroom. The door was locked from the outside. I lay on the cold floor, thinking of the birthday cake Leo never got to finish, the picture for me he never got to draw. And the image of him falling from the sky… All of this was because of Damien. Because of his twisted affection for that bitch, Seraphina. I pushed myself up and took Leo’s photo album from the bookshelf. I traced his face in every picture, my tears long since run dry. I was locked in that room for two days. I didn't eat or drink. I just sat on the floor, folding every piece of clothing Leo had ever worn and arranging them on the bed. Damien never came back. He was with Seraphina, tending to her bruised wrist. On the evening of the third day, the door opened. Damien stumbled in, reeking of alcohol, the house manager trailing nervously behind him. He glanced at the neat piles of children’s clothes on the bed and sneered. “Still keeping up the act? You’re very convincing.” I ignored him, mechanically placing Leo’s favorite little dinosaur stuffed animal on the pillow. My silence enraged him. He strode over and swept the clothes off the bed with a single, violent motion. “Did you hear me talking to you? Who are you playing deaf and dumb for?” The clothes scattered across the floor, and he ground them under the heel of his polished leather shoe. That finally got a reaction. I lunged forward, trying to push his leg away. “Get your foot off! Don’t you dare step on his clothes!” He didn’t move. Instead, he twisted his heel, grinding the fabric into the carpet. “It’s just a piece of clothing. You value it more than your life? I’m tired of your games, Elara.” He crouched down, grabbing my chin and forcing me to look at him. “Sera wants to come see Leo. Get that little bastard out here right now. Tell him to stop hiding.” I stared at the face so close to mine. I had once loved him more than life itself. Now, he just made me sick. “You forgot? Leo’s in the morgue.” “You’re the one who ordered him to be sent there.” Damien froze for a second, then his face contorted with rage. “Are you fucking done with this? Do you get some sick pleasure from cursing our son to death?” “Sera already told me! She went to check again! The body in the morgue is a fake!” He stood up and roared at the manager in the doorway. “Go find that little brat and drag him out here! I don’t believe he can hide from me forever!” The manager whispered, “Sir, the young master… he’s really not in the house.” Damien wasn’t listening. He tore the room apart, ripping open the closet doors, flipping the mattress. Finally, his eyes landed on a small box on the desk. It held a lock of Leo’s baby hair and his first tooth. Damien strode over and shook it. “What’s in here? More of your black magic to curse Sera?” I scrambled to get it back. “Give it to me! That’s Leo’s!” He opened the box. The sight of its contents only deepened his rage. “You’re disgusting. No wonder Sera’s been having nightmares.” He hurled the box against the wall. The baby teeth scattered across the floor, the lock of soft hair landing on the carpet. It wasn’t enough. He called for a maid. “Get the vacuum. Clean up this trash.” A desperate scream tore from my throat. I dropped to the floor, trying to shield the precious mementos with my hands. “Don’t! Damien, I hope you rot in hell!” The maid stood frozen, holding the vacuum, too scared to move. Damien snatched it from her, flipped the switch, and jammed the nozzle against the back of my hand. The powerful suction pulled at my skin, a searing, tearing pain. My heart felt like it was being squeezed to death. I coughed, and a spray of blood erupted from my lips. Damien recoiled in disgust. “Pathetic. Clean this place up.” He threw the vacuum down and turned to leave. At the door, he paused. “Since that brat loves to hide so much, he can hide for the rest of his life.” The door slammed shut, but this time, it wasn't locked. I lay on the floor, my fingers combing through the carpet, desperately trying to find a single strand of hair. But there was nothing. It was all gone. Slowly, I pushed myself up and wiped the blood from my mouth. I looked at the ghost-like reflection in the mirror. Then I went to the garage and found the canister of gasoline. Night fell. The mansion was eerily silent. The staff knew Damien despised me, and they stayed in their quarters out back, not wanting to get in the way. I carried the gasoline can, my bare feet silent on the cold marble floor. I poured it over Damien’s favorite leather sofa, over the doorway to the nursery that was once filled with laughter but was now cold and empty. The acrid smell filled the house. I sat in the middle of the living room, a lighter in my hand. Click. A small flame flickered to life. I let it drop. It landed on the gasoline-soaked rug. WHOOSH. A wall of fire erupted, instantly devouring everything. The heat washed over me, singeing the ends of my hair. I pulled out my phone and dialed the familiar number. Damien answered instantly. In the background, I could hear the swell of an orchestra and the sound of laughter. “Elara, what now? I’m warning you…” “Damien,” I said softly, cutting him off. “You should come home.” “Come home to what?” he asked, annoyed. “To see our house. To see the fire. It’s such a big fire.” Two seconds of silence, then the sound of a glass shattering. “Elara! What are you doing?!” For the first time, there was panic in his voice. I smiled and began to sing Leo’s favorite nursery rhyme into the phone. “Twinkle, twinkle, little star…” “You’re insane! Put it out! I’m coming back right now!” Damien was screaming now, the background noise turning to chaos as he started to run. “How I wonder what you are…” My voice caught in my throat. “Leo is afraid of the dark. Daddy won’t go with him, so Mommy will. You just stay with your precious Seraphina, Damien. And live well, in this hell you’ve made on earth.” I threw the phone into the flames. The fire roared, and the support beams began to groan and splinter. I slipped out of the white dress Damien had once given me and tossed it into the heart of the inferno.
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