Chapter 9: The First Move
I was the obedient shadow of the house by day. I rolled quietly from one room to the other, fetching what Mira demanded, enduring Patrick's cold glances, surviving every whisper of the neighbors who pitied my situation but dare not intervene.
But by night I became someone else.
Every night when the mansion hushed, and Mira's laughter faded into silence upstairs, I would sneak out of my room. Rowena would be waiting, a candle in hand, and together we would go down the corridor to the makeshift room.
The storage room has transformed into a sanctuary. The bars, the mat, the weight, it was where I shed the skin of a victim and found my way back into my body.
The first nights were brutal, every attempt left me bruised, my arms aching, legs trembling.
More than o
