Scarlett’s POV
I sat there in the dimness of the forgotten room, the box open before me, and for the first time in a long time… I let myself breathe. Not the shallow gasps of fear, not the sharp gulps of adrenaline, but a true breath. One that seemed to sink down to my bones.
The silence in the room wasn’t empty. It was filled, with echoes, with memories, with the ghosts of everything I had endured to reach this point.
My eyes drifted shut, and one by one, the sacrifices replayed themselves.
The child I had lost. The phantom ache in my womb still burned at the memory. A life snatched away, a piece of me buried forever because of David’s cruelty. I pressed my palm hard against my stomach, not because it hurt now, but because the wound wasn’t in my body, it was carved into my soul. I tho
