Chapter 3

My heart dropped. I'd rushed in to demand the bracelet without lining up an excuse first, and now here she was, straight to my face.

There was nothing to do but lie. I let a sob into my voice and made myself look wronged.

"You've always liked stealing my things. Designer bags, jewelry. Name one you haven't taken."

"I just never made a fuss about it. But that bracelet is the only thing my mother left me. I won't let that go."

Felicia's face went scarlet in an instant. She buried it against Arnold's chest.

"Arnold, she's slandering me."

Arnold pulled her close at once and rounded on me.

"Josephine, that's enough!"

"You waste money like it's nothing. Felicia's close with you. What's wrong with her holding onto something for you?"

The whole thing was absurd. Stealing was suddenly holding onto it for me?

I had no interest in trading more words with them. I just wanted out of that room.

I turned to go, and Arnold suddenly called after me.

"Wait."

His eyes went to the security camera in the corner of the office. His brows drew tight.

"Why is there a camera in here?"

My heart jumped to my throat. All I could do was keep playing pitiful.

"I was worried about you. Afraid something might happen to you at the zoo, so I put a camera in without telling you."

"It was so long ago I forgot all about it."

Arnold looked half-convinced. But Felicia snatched my phone away and started scrolling, fingers flying.

She found the camera's viewing history fast, and her face changed.

"Arnold, she's lying!"

"She just watched the footage. She already knows about us!"

The blood drained from my face. My mouth opened and closed several times, and no excuse came.

Arnold's eyes turned vicious in a heartbeat. He grabbed the phone and slammed it hard against the floor.

The phone shattered at once.

"Josephine, don't even think about leaving!"

I fought with everything I had, but I was no match for him.

He bound my hands and feet tight with rope, dragged me to the storage room, and hurled me inside.

There was no point in the act anymore. I screamed at them.

"Arnold, Felicia, you two dogs deserve to die."

Felicia dropped the act too and let out a cold laugh.

"Arnold, since she already knows we're sleeping together, why not just dump her?"

Arnold blurted it out.

"No!"

Felicia froze.

She stared at him, disbelieving.

"What, do you actually love her? Was I just for fun?"

I couldn't help it. I burst out laughing.

Laughing until the tears came.

"You idiot. This has nothing to do with love."

"Arnold's a kept man. Why would he ever bear to let me go?"

"Everything he has, I paid for. Without me, he's nothing."

Felicia went white.

"No, that's not possible. Arnold, didn't you say you were the one supporting Josephine?"

"How could she be the one giving you money?"

Arnold hadn't expected me to expose him to her face. His face cycled through green and white.

He scrambled to twist it around.

"Felicia, you're the only one I love."

"But I had no choice. Josephine's been funding me since high school. She forced me to date her, said if I refused she'd make me pay it all back."

"I was backed into a corner."

I laughed, furious.

He'd chased me for a whole year before I ever said yes.

After we got together, he was terrified people would call him a kept man. I was the one supporting him, and still he made me play along.

Told everyone he earned the money and kept me.

And now, somehow, I was the one who'd forced him.

Felicia was quiet for a few seconds. Then she spoke, all sweetness, in a voice cold enough to chill the blood.

"Arnold, I believe you."

"But an idiot like Josephine doesn't deserve all that money."

"Let's lock her in the storage room and let her starve. No one left to tell the tale."

"And then the whole Pruitt fortune is ours."

It was like being dropped into ice.

These two animals were deranged enough to go that far.

After they left, the lions' roaring grew more and more frantic.

I knew what it meant. The water was rising, and those cornered beasts were about to ram the cage doors open and pour into the office.

When that happened, they'd throw me out first, feed me to them.

I gave a bitter laugh and closed my eyes.

At least I'd left myself a backup.

Just before, I'd uploaded the footage of them together, of them forcing me to open the cage, to the cloud.

With that evidence, even if I died, those two would never get away.

And my father would be safe. He wouldn't be driven to jump off a building, the way he was in my last life.

Right then, there was a deafening crash.

A large hole broke open in the storage room wall.

I looked toward it, and my eyes went wide with shock.