Chapter 5

She stopped screaming, letting these people kick and punch her as they liked, accompanied by their gleeful laughter.

She pleaded for help not because she was afraid of the pain and the beating, but because she trusted in that tiniest bit of hope and fantasy she had left.

After the women grew tired of beating her up, they crawled into their own beds and went to sleep.

Jane was curled up on the floor in agony, her tears flowing out of the corner of her eyes and smearing dirt all over her face.

She had never been bullied by so many people before. She had never been so humiliated before. All she did was fall for a man she should not have, Sean Stewart!

Why was it that she had to take the brunt of his fury and hatred just because something happened to Rosaline?

After what happened to Rosaline, Jane tried to explain to everyone. “I didn’t do anything to Rosaline.”

No matter how hard she tried to explain, though, no one was willing to believe her.

She explained with everything she had. She had not been the one who invited Rosaline to Nightlight; it was Rosaline who wanted to go because she was curious to know what a ‘bar’ was like.

In everyone else’s eyes, Jane, the heiress of the Dunns, was wild and crazy, while Rosaline Summers was pure, innocent and timid. No one believed that Rosaline would suggest going to a place as chaotic and impure as a bar herself.

Jane said that her car broke down on the way there, which was why she was late to arrive at Nightlight.

No one believed her. All of them said she was making excuses, that she had purposely left Rosaline alone at Nightlight so it would be easier for those thugs she hired to rape Rosaline and ruin her good name.

However, Jane never had a reason to do any of that. Rosaline always said to her, “Jane, I don’t think about Sean that way, honest.”

If Rosaline was Sean’s girlfriend, Jane would give him a wide berth. Yet Rosaline did not even like Sean, did she?

Everyone thought of Jane as the evil antagonist, the villainess who had committed all sorts of unspeakable acts.

Those thugs probably knew that things were bad, so they vanished without a trace. Who knew where they could have gone? The country was huge, and it was not as though there have not been stories of murderers who hid in the woods deep within the mountains for a decade or two. Jane wanted those thugs captured more than anyone else.

She let the tears flow. After the incident with Rosaline until the moment she ended up in jail, Jane had steadfastly believed in one thing: she was innocent, she did not commit any crime.

Now, however, she understood. As long as Sean believed she was guilty, then she was guilty as sin and deserving of death.

Everything that had happened today— It was all in accordance with Mr. Stewart’s wishes.

What Jane did not know was that her life in prison would continue to be filled with “Mr. Stewart’s wishes”.

She did not have the Dunns’ support, a file, or any educational background, plus she was a convict… Sean Stewart had effectively wiped all proof of Jane’s existence off the records! Now, Jane Dunn was nothing more than Convict No. 926!

Jane thought it through, hugging her knees to her chest and making herself even smaller. ...Sean had completely removed all traces of her existence!

The next morning

“Hey, wake up. Go wash the toilet…” One of the female convicts gave Jane a shove, but then she received such a scare that she screamed, “Gah! She’s dead!”

One of the bolder convicts rushed up to her and placed a finger under Jane’s nostrils, waiting for a while before she finally felt a faint breath. “Shut up! She’s still alive! Go get the guards!”

Jane was strong enough to live, so she survived that encounter. That was not necessarily a good thing, though. The endless humiliation and infinite torture were enough to drive anyone crazy, enough to… change someone completely.