Fiftieth Birthday

For sixteen years, I was a phantom in the Miller house, my entire existence centered on raising Caleb.

My destiny was sealed: on his 21st birthday, I was to become his wife, a debt my family couldn't pay.

In my first agonizing life, that wedding day led to a decade of imprisonment in their dark basement, then a horrific sale to the depraved Scrap Yard Joe, who brutally murdered me and my two young daughters.

But then, a miracle: I jolted awake, it was Caleb' s 21st birthday party again. I was back.

This time, I vowed to escape, coldly telling Caleb the "deal was off." His fury, fueled by his new girlfriend Chloe, erupted. They dragged me to their root cellar, where Chloe actively tried to crush me with cinder blocks.