The Wife Who Escaped Cruelty

as cooing at the dog in her room, I couldn' t sleep. The house was qui

oom, I heard her voice, low a

" she hissed into the receiver. "I paid good money

and on the ki

"The Blackwoods? They' re rich, not gods. They gave up looking for th

ss of water slipped from my ha

oods' los

there, her face a mask of fury. "Wh

s reeling, pieces of a puzzle I nev

l. A different house, a bigger one, with a sunny yard. A woman with kind eyes and a man

as E

arah Bl

stolen my life. The years of neglect, the constant belittling, the way she always favored Lily-it

my voice shaking with a rage so profou

broom to sweep up the glass. "Get back to your roo

of did I have? Just a half-overheard phone call and fragmented memories. Brenda would de

rful man, and he was targeting my fake family for a reason. Justice

be quiet, to pretend I' d heard nothing. But my foot caught on the edge of th

the doorway of her room, her expre

voice eerily calm. "You' re

in my throat. "W

' t play dumb with me, Sarah. I knew it the moment yo

red the rooftop, the fall, everything. This wasn' t just

w, terrifying reality, she moved. She was faster than I expected

ed behind my eyes, and