He flicked his cigarette at her. When the burning ember landed on her skin, Jessie cried out in pain, but her body was so battered
that she could not even move.
In the days that followed, they showed no mercy.
Every cruel tactic once used against Ashlyn was now turned on Jessie, but amplified and intensified. They destroyed her
reputation and exposed every vile thing she had ever done to the public.
Jessie was locked away in the remote villa, where she was tortured every day.
The search and rescue team pulled the car from the ocean, but there was no trace of Ashlyn inside. However, no one believed that she would be still alive at the bottom of the sea.
Yet Grant and Jeremy refused to hold a funeral, or rather, they hoped that I would remain alive as long as they did not do it.
By the time the news reached me, I was already far away, recovering in a foreign land.
In a little town where no one knew me, I found my smile again.
The man who took me away treated me well, even if he only did so to use his latest drug on me.
+15 Bonus
Every day, countless fresh flowers were delivered to my room. Not just that, my room was the biggest and best in the entire villa.
It was filled with golden sunlight that made the whole space glow.
Because of the long period of bullying I suffered at Jessie’s hands, I developed severe psychological issues. When I had finally begun to recover, my brother brought Jessie back into our lives.
He called it redemption. He said that I needed to atone for the mistakes I had made, though I never even knew what mistakes I
had supposedly made.
Jeremy called me cruel and selfish. He said he loved me while constantly belittling me.
They held Jessie up like a precious treasure and gave her everything that once belonged to me. Then, they blamed me for being
petty and ungracious. Every time they hurt me, they came back around to comfort me and say everything they did was only to
help me become a better person.
For a long time, I was trapped in a deep haze of self–doubt. It was during that time that I met Jo Stanley, who was the youngest
psychologist in the country.
He took great interest in my condition and invited me many times to try his new drug.
He said it was designed to dull emotional attachment toward those who had caused harm. As a psychiatric medication, it would
cause a nationwide stir if it worked.
I used to believe without question that Jeremy and Grant loved me.
However, after everything I went through, I drank the medicine without the slightest hesitation.
