Chapter 4

The mother-in-law had been beaten dizzy, too far gone to answer Dominic at all.

"You old hag, answer me!"

"Don't you play dead on me. Ms. Harding said you love playing dead."

"Somebody get me some chili peppers."

Chili peppers?

A cold sweat broke over me. Were they going to burn her awake with peppers?

The thought had barely formed when someone brought them over, fast.

Like it had all been arranged in advance.

They broke open a few hot chili peppers and shoved every last one into her mouth, and the heat jolted her awake on the spot.

She lay on the floor retching in agony, her voice gone hoarse.

I shouted and wrenched free of the restraints, rushed over and shoved Dominic aside, found water to give her, only for Dominic to kick it out of my hands.

"Dominic, this is elder abuse. What you're doing is against the law."

"Screw your law. We didn't take a knife to her, we didn't lay a heavy hand on her."

"Worst case, she just couldn't take it herself and dropped dead from her own temper."

The peppers were too much for her, and she tried to crawl into the bathroom to rinse out her throat under the tap.

But Dominic wouldn't let her in, no matter what. He wanted her to get down on all fours like a dog, barking and apologizing at the same time for having cursed Edwina earlier.

All ten of her fingers were dug in raw. She had to be in unbearable pain.

"Mom, don't kneel!"

"I'll call Edwina right now."

The line picked up soon enough, and her first words were: "What now? Is the old hag still not dead?"

Everyone there heard it. Everyone knew she didn't care in the slightest about the mother-in-law right in front of us.

"Edwina, make Dominic and the rest of them stop. Mom's about to be played to death."

"They've even taken a whole stack of photos of her. This is humiliation."

"Played to death? Who are you trying to scare?"

"Dominic knows his limits. You're the one being downright rude."

"You woke my son up."

A dog's barking came from the other end. Furious, the mother-in-law lunged over and cursed at the phone.

But her voice was too hoarse for Edwina to make out, and it only gave Edwina an excuse to say we'd deliberately woken up her and Dominic's precious son.

I wondered what was going through the mother-in-law's head, hearing that.

That she counted for less than a dog Dominic kept.

Edwina slammed the phone down, and the mother-in-law spat a mouthful of blood and passed out cold.

"Ah! Someone's dead."

"What do we do? Is she really going to—"

"Really my ass. She's faking."

I was the only one who knew she wasn't. The father-in-law had told me again and again that her heart was bad.

I panicked, went to her, and lifted her up.

"Mom, how are you doing?"

No response. Her face was drained white, not a trace of color left.

Terrified, I hauled her onto my back to carry her to the hospital.

Dominic kicked us both to the floor and shut the door.

"There's still twenty minutes left. Don't think you can play dead and slip out."

"Dominic!"

"Open the door! This is Edwina's mother. If she dies of this, the Hardings will kill you."

"Ha, why not call her your own mom now? You're just grabbing at some new excuse to scare me. Not a chance."

I called Edwina again for help, and all she did was yell one line.

"Coughing up blood? So is she dead or not? If she's not, she can hold on until the game's over."

"Get that door shut, and don't let those two play dead and escape."

"Don't worry, Ms. Harding, we locked the front door ages ago."

After hearing that, Edwina, afraid I'd disturb their precious son's sleep, blocked my number outright.

And so the mother-in-law lost her best chance to be saved.

I tried calling the father-in-law, but his phone wouldn't connect.

I went to call the police, and Dominic charged in, snatched the phone out of my hand, and backed out again.

There was nothing I could do. I could only watch the mother-in-law slowly die.

Once the game's time was up, Dominic opened the door.

He left with that swaggering air of his, and he even drove off in Edwina's supercar.

I got the mother-in-law onto my back and rushed for the hospital.

Back home, Dominic couldn't wait to describe the whole prank to Edwina.

Edwina laughed, well pleased, then scolded him in a tone that was half doting, half reproach:

"What kind of photos did you even take of my mother-in-law? Delete them right now."

Dominic kissed her lips. "Let me show you the old woman first. Not a shred of the class you'd expect from someone country folk raised."

Edwina rolled her eyes at him, then looked up at his phone.

And the next second, her breath went ragged, and she was thrown into a panic...