Chapter 5

Halfway there, he took a call and dumped me out of the car. "Cindy says she needs me for something. You can walk back yourself."

I gave a bitter smile.

"Stanley, I never want to see you again."

But the moment I stepped out, someone yanked a hood over my head.

Someone drove a stun baton into my belly.

Ninety-nine times, every blow landing with vicious force.

"Who are you people?"

The taste of blood filled my mouth.

The man sneered as he pulled a burlap sack over my head and threw me into the fighting pit.

"You crossed someone you never should've crossed! You knew Miss Pruitt was the apple of Mr. Sanchez's eye, and you still dared to provoke her. You had this coming!"

"No, it can't be, he wouldn't do this to me…"

I still refused to believe Stanley could go this far.

"Cindy, I brought you the one who led the mob that trashed your cart. Punish her however you like."

Stanley's voice came from the platform above.

The blood in my veins froze.

It really was him?!

Cindy's voice floated down, soft and delicate. "Really? No matter who's inside this sack, you'll let me punish them however I want? Even if the person down there were Teresa?"

Stanley hesitated for a heartbeat, then answered, doting. "Of course. You're the one I love most. Whoever hurts you, I'll pay them back a hundred, a thousand times over. No one matters more than you."

My mind roared.

Hot, stinging tears ran down my cheeks. Every organ in my body ached!

All because I wouldn't apologize to Cindy?! He would punish me like this?

Cindy smiled down at me, venomous. "Then let the dogs in. Smear her with chicken blood first. That’s what she gets for destroying my smoothie stand."

"Whatever you want."

"No! Stanley, you can't do this to me!"

I fought with everything I had, screaming, only to be kicked hard to the ground, blood bursting from my mouth.

A pack of guard dogs lunged at me like they'd gone mad.

Stanley glanced around, uneasy, wanting to check. "What was that just now? It sounded a little like Teresa…"

Cindy suddenly cried out in pain. "Ah! Stanley, my stomach hurts so much. Will the baby be all right?"

In an instant he swept her up into his arms, never once looking my way.

The men asked him what to do with me.

Stanley answered, impatient. "Whatever."

The dogs tore me into a bloody ruin, every organ screaming.

Tears mixed with blood, the pain shaking my whole body, my knuckles white.

Seven years of love, traded for a single "whatever"!

Stanley, I want you to never, ever find me again!

The moment they threw me into the water, I thought of the year I turned eighteen, when I fell into the sea by accident.

To save me, Stanley had nearly drowned in the deep water himself.

He'd knelt beside me, giving me breath after breath, and the man who was always so composed wept like a child. "Teresa, wake up. Just wake up, and I'll give you anything you ask for."

That boy whose whole heart, whose whole gaze, had once been only me, was the one who threw me into the sea with his own hands…