Chapter 3

"What's going on here?"

Mark's voice cut through the room, and he was already crossing it in long strides, one hand shoving me hard.

I stumbled back two steps and hit the wall with my spine.

He tucked Bianca behind him, brows drawn tight as he glared at me.

"Lucinda, what the hell has gotten into you now?"

Bianca gave a small tug at the hem of his shirt, the picture of wounded innocence.

"I only wanted Lucinda to make do in the basement for one night. I was going to clear out a room for her first thing tomorrow. But she suddenly turned on me and told me to get out of this house, and then she... she called me a whore, said I was trash..."

Slap.

Mark's face went livid, and his hand came across my cheek.

Half my face went hot and numb in an instant, the faint taste of blood spreading in my mouth.

My mother came running right behind him, gathered Bianca into her arms, tears falling for the poor girl.

Then she rounded on me, shrieking.

"Lucinda! How did I ever give birth to something this venomous! From today, I have no daughter! Bianca is my real daughter!"

Cornelius stood on the steps, looking at me with disappointment.

"Lucinda, you were never like this before. When did you turn so bitter and cruel?"

Mark turned his face away and gave the servant beside him a cold order.

"Take her down. Lock her in the basement and let her think about what she's done."

I pressed a hand to my burning cheek and looked him dead in the eye, one word at a time.

"This house was left to me by my grandfather. The name on it is Henson. Mark, what gives you the right to lock me in the basement?"

My words left his face cycling through white and green, but he answered as if he had every right.

"I'm doing this for your own good! I'm knocking that arrogant streak out of you, so you don't go out there offending people and causing real trouble down the line! No dinner for her tonight. One night hungry and she'll come to her senses."

The iron door of the basement clanged shut, and the dark closed in all at once.

Water seeped up through the floor, mold and cobwebs everywhere.

I had only a thin jacket on, and the cold sank straight into my bones.

All I could do was curl up helplessly on a broken cardboard box, my head growing heavier and heavier.

Somewhere in the haze, warmth suddenly wrapped around me.

I forced my eyes open and saw Mark crouched in front of me, brows furrowed.

The dim basement light fell across the clean line of his face.

For a blurred moment, I remembered how things used to be.

Back then he was away on business in a city hundreds of miles off, and late one night I sent him a message without thinking.

"Mark, I miss you so much."

He drove those hundreds of miles through the night, and came home worn out from the road.

Just to hold me for a moment, to spend a few short hours at my side.

Once, he cradled me in his palm, treated me like something precious.

He would have given me every tender thing he had.

But now, none of it was the same.

Seeing me awake, he sighed.

"Go apologize to Bianca. I've talked it over with her. As long as you behave from now on and take good care of us and the baby, you can stay in this house for good, with a decent room of your own."

I braced against the wall and pushed myself upright, my throat rasped raw from the fever.

"This is my home. You're the ones who should get out."

He flared at once and seized my wrist.

"Today you are going to apologize to Bianca!"

The words were barely out before his fingers touched my skin, and his tone snapped taut.

"Why is your body this hot?"

Only then did he notice how bloodless my face was, and panic hit him all at once.

He turned to go call the family doctor.

"Mark?"

Bianca's voice drifted from the top of the stairs. The moment she saw my flushed face, she cried out.

"Someone come quick, help me get Lucinda up to the bedroom. I'm the one with medical training, I'll take care of my sister. I promise nothing will happen to her."

I had no strength left to fight, and I was carried up to the bed in the second-floor guest room.

Bianca sent the servants away, locked the door, and drew out a syringe of a powerful stimulant.

The needle sank into my skin.

It had been nothing but a low fever, but as the drug burst through me the heat swelled until my head spun and my vision blurred and my mind started slipping.

I realized something was wrong and shoved her away with everything I had.

Bianca fell backward and slammed hard into the nightstand with a crash.

Bang. The door was kicked open.

"Bianca!"