Chapter 4

Sarah tried to speak, to tell them about the blood, the babies, the searing pain that was not an act.

Her throat was raw, her lips cracked. Only a hoarse whisper emerged.

"Hurts... babies..."

Ethan scoffed, his face a mask of contempt.

"Still with the theatrics? You think I don' t know you already delivered those brats days ago and hid them somewhere? Planning to spring them on us at the right moment?"

His delusion was complete, fed by Chloe' s insidious whispers. He was blind to her agony, to the truth so starkly evident in her failing body.

He reiterated his false beliefs, his voice rising with each word.

"You' re faking this! All of it! Just like you faked everything in our past life to destroy me and Chloe!"

His conviction was terrifying. He genuinely believed he was the victim, that Sarah was the master manipulator.

Chloe, ever the cunning actress, recoiled dramatically, clutching her nose.

"Oh, Ethan, the smell... the blood... it' s making me quite faint."

She swayed, pressing a delicate hand to her forehead.

It was a calculated move, designed to disgust Ethan further with Sarah' s state, to paint Sarah as something foul and intentionally distressing.

"She' s doing this on purpose, isn' t she? To ruin everything for us, for our son."

Ethan' s face twisted with revulsion as he looked at Sarah, at the bloodstains on her clothes and the floor.

"Disgusting," he muttered.

He barked an order to the guards standing impassively by the door.

"Get some ice water. Buckets of it. Let' s see if we can snap her out of this supposed stupor."

The cold water hit her like a physical blow, shocking the air from her lungs, sending shivers wracking through her already weakened body.

Again and again, they doused her, the icy water stealing what little warmth she had left.

Her teeth chattered uncontrollably, her body convulsing.

Chloe, meanwhile, played her part to perfection.

She suddenly cried out, clutching her arm as if in great pain.

"Ethan! She... she somehow made me hurt myself! My arm, it feels broken!"

It was a blatant lie, a staged act of self-harm, but Ethan, in his paranoid state, bought it instantly.

He whirled on Sarah, his eyes blazing.

"You see! Even now, you try to harm Chloe!"

He was beyond reason, completely ensnared in Chloe' s web.

To break Sarah completely, to crush any remaining spirit, Ethan pulled out his phone.

His voice was chillingly calm as he spoke to his security chief at Mr. Miller' s care facility.

"The situation with Mr. Miller. Terminate his specialized care. Effective immediately."

A death sentence.

Sarah, overhearing, felt something inside her shatter. Her father. Her kind, gentle father.

She tried to scream, to beg, but only a choked sob escaped.

The guards were dousing her again, and the fresh wave of icy water, combined with the horrific news, sent a new, violent tremor through her.

A fresh gush of warm blood, shockingly bright against the cold floor, spread from beneath her.

Her body was giving up. The twins...