Chapter 6

Cameron's arms tensed. He paused in the doorway, looking down at her, his expression unreadable in the dim light. "Did you hear what they were saying?" he asked, his voice quiet.

He didn't wait for an answer. "I'm doing this to atone for your sins, Alanna," he said, his tone self-righteous. "Bailey is an innocent girl with no one to rely on. You destroyed her future. Someone has to pay for what you did."

His words were a calm, rational explanation for his cruelty. Alanna' s fingers, which had been weakly clutching his shirt, went limp. Her eyes fluttered shut as she finally succumbed to the darkness.

Three days later, the fever broke. The allergic reaction subsided. The moment she was strong enough to stand, Cameron's men escorted her from the house, not to a doctor for a follow-up, but to the corporate headquarters of the Robertson Group. She was there to sign away her birthright.

As she approached the boardroom, the door flew open and Bailey ran out, sobbing. She shot Alanna a look of pure hatred before disappearing into the elevator, ignoring Anderson who was calling her name.

The boardroom was filled with stony-faced shareholders. Anderson stood at the head of the table, his face tight with anger. He glared at Alanna.

"The transfer of shares was my decision," he announced to the room. "If anyone has a problem with it, you can take it up with me."

Alanna remained silent. They pushed the papers in front of her. Just as she was about to be forced to sign, Anderson's assistant burst in, breathless.

"Mr. Robertson! Miss Kent is gone! We can't find her anywhere!"

The meeting devolved into chaos.

Cameron and Anderson turned the city upside down looking for Bailey. They found her hours later in an abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of town, her clothes torn, her face bruised.

She threw herself into Cameron's arms, weeping hysterically. "I was kidnapped! He said... he said if I hadn't jumped from the car and run, I'd never see you again!"

They brought back another man, a low-life criminal, beaten and bloodied. He fell to his knees, begging for mercy.

"It was her!" he cried, pointing a trembling finger at Alanna. "Miss Robertson! She hired me! She promised me a million dollars to get rid of the other one. She said she was the real Robertson heiress, and that Miss Kent was a nobody who stole her life!"

Cameron kicked the man unconscious. The bodyguards dragged him away to the police.

Cameron and Anderson then turned on Alanna, their faces terrifying in their fury.

"Why?" Cameron' s voice was a low snarl. "Why can't you just let her be?"

Alanna looked at the perfectly staged scene, her eyes empty. She was so tired. So tired of fighting.

"I didn't do it," she said, her voice flat. "Check the surveillance cameras. I never left the house."

"You're still lying!" Anderson roared. "You've been targeting her from the moment you came back!" He took a step closer, his eyes filled with a cold, hard rage she had never seen before.

"I've made a decision," he said, his voice dropping to a chilling whisper. "You need to learn a lesson, Alanna. A real lesson. I'm sending you back to the village. Maybe some time in a place without privilege will teach you to be grateful."

"You'll stay there until you understand what you've done wrong," Cameron added, his arms crossed, his judgment final.

Alanna didn't argue. She didn't plead. She just looked at them, at the two men she had loved more than life itself, and felt nothing but a vast, empty pity.

They pushed her into the car. As Cameron was about to close the door, he paused. "Do you have anything to say for yourself?"

Anderson, standing beside him, also looked at her, a flicker of something-doubt? regret?-in his eyes.

Alanna' s voice was barely a whisper. "You're both so pathetic."

She saw the flash of anger on their faces.

"You're blind and stupid," she continued, her voice gaining a strange, light quality. "So easily manipulated. It's truly sad to watch."

Cameron slammed the door.

His enraged voice was muffled through the glass. "To hell with her! Tell the people at the village not to go easy on her. Let her suffer! Maybe then she'll learn some damn gratitude!"

A sad and tragic smile touched Alanna' s lips. He wasn't punishing her for what she'd done. He was punishing her for not being the girl he remembered, for not making his betrayal easy.

Her hand went to her locket. The tiny lens was aimed perfectly. This time, there would be no doubt. There would be proof.

She would burn their world to the ground.

She was taken back to the compound, back to the filth and the pain. They threw her in a disused cattle shed. They beat her. They starved her. And she endured it all without a sound, her eyes fixed on a future only she could see.

The small camera in her mother's locket recorded every blow, every sneer, every moment of her renewed nightmare. It was her final, silent witness.