Chapter 2

When Sadie woke again, she found herself bound tightly in the backseat. The atmosphere inside the car was suffocating, the cramped rear space transforming into a prison that trapped her completely. The drug still coursed through her veins, leaving her body weak and powerless to resist. The ropes bit into her skin like jagged, serrated teeth, digging deeper with every movement. Her arms had been forcibly twisted behind her back, rendering her helpless. Sadie pleaded desperately, her voice trembling as she begged, "Please, let me go! You'll regret this. I promise you'll regret this!" She turned her tear-filled eyes to Zeke, who sat in the driver's seat. "I'll give you anything you want—just let me go, Zeke. Please. For the sake of what we once had… You'll regret this!" Zeke's face remained cold and unmoved. The warmth and affection that had once filled his eyes were gone, replaced by an icy void, as if staring into the depths of a frozen cavern. "Regret?" Zeke scoffed, his voice dripping with disdain. "You must be out of your mind. Why would we regret this?" Beside him, Lila turned her head to look at Sadie. A cruel, triumphant smirk spread across her face as she sneered, "As soon as you're out of the picture, everything you own becomes Zeke's. Then, the two of us can be openly together and start fresh somewhere far away." Her voice turned venomous, her words cutting like knives. "And you? You can rot in this hell on earth, Sadie." Sadie exhaled shakily and curled in on herself in the backseat. Her eyes drifted to the window, where the passing scenery grew more and more familiar, filling her with a relentless sense of despair. It crashed over her in waves, drowning her in hopelessness. Memories she had fought so hard to suppress came flooding back, each one more painful than the last. The image of that man loomed in her mind like a demon crawling out of the pits of hell. His hands were stained crimson with the blood of countless victims, every drop a testament to his crimes. For Gideon Thibodeaux, killing was as natural as breathing. The lives of the innocent were no more than insects beneath his feet. Sadie had spent five long years by his side, and not once had she seen warmth in his eyes. His eyes were always cold, lifeless—eyes that had witnessed too much death but remained numb to it all. In northern Myanmar's compounds, every firework display was paid for with human lives. Beneath the dazzling bursts of color lay the shattered remnants of countless families, their joy extinguished, their pain boundless. Whenever the fireworks lit the night sky, Gideon would hold Sadie close, forcing her to watch his so-called masterpiece. His voice, smooth and sinister, would echo in her ears like the devil's whisper. "Sadie, don't you dare try to act like one of those fools." "My sweet Sadie is so delicate. If you got hurt, I'd feel just awful." "Be a good girl, Sadie. A girl with scars just isn't pretty." Curled into a ball in the backseat, Sadie glanced at the two people plotting to sell her off. A bitter thought flashed through her mind. If Gideon ever found out what they'd done to her, would they be tossed to feed the wild dogs? "Let me go," Sadie ventured, her voice low and steady. "The leader of the compound is my childhood sweetheart. If you sell me to that place, you'll regret it. You'll die for this." But her words only drew mocking laughter. Lila's eyes swept over her with disdain as she snorted, "Are you crazy? What kind of pathetic lie is that?" She rolled her eyes dramatically, her tone dripping with sarcasm. "The boss of the compound is your childhood sweetheart? Please. I might as well claim he's my long-lost cousin." "She's an orphan," Zeke said dismissively, his voice laced with contempt. "Where's she supposed to get a childhood sweetheart from? If he really cared about her, why hasn't he come looking for her?" "I think she's just scared out of her mind, making up nonsense to try and save herself," he added with a sneer. Seeing that neither of them was willing to listen, Sadie fell silent. No use wasting words on the dead.