Chapter 1

I shuddered as the rope tightened over my wrists and legs.

“Terence, I swear I didn’t ignore Sadie on purpose! You have to trust me. Please!”

“Trust you?” Terence’s hand holding the rope paused.

I nodded fiercely, tears streaming down my face.

“Eight times!” He pinched my chin. "Sadie called you eight times, and you ignored every call! You didn’t even call her an ambulance! How do you expect me to believe you?!”

His eyes flashed red with anger, and I felt my chest constrict.

The typhoon made landfall in our city two days ago, and the emergency center where I worked had received countless calls.

One number had called multiple times, but nobody was on the other end when we picked up.

At first, I thought I was talking to an asthma patient who had experienced an attack due to the extreme weather, so I patiently waited for them to collect themselves and speak.

“It’s alright if you can’t talk. If you need an ambulance, just knock twice on anything around you, and I’ll call one.”

Then, the call ended.

Thirty seconds later, another call came in. “Do you need an ambulance? I understand if you can’t talk. Please stay on the line. Our command center will locate your call.”

The caller hung up again. After a few more times, I began to believe this was a series of prank calls.

That night was especially accident-prone, and it was hectic at our emergency center.

When the call came in again for the eighth time, I could not help but scold the caller. “Your prank calls are occupying the line and taking away help from the people who actually need it!”

Suddenly, Terence’s voice shouted through my earpiece, “Melinda! This is the eighth time Sadie's called you for help! Haven’t you made her suffer enough?!”

He was furious, and his tone was concerned in a way I had never heard before.

Before I could say anything, he ended the call after threatening me with a ‘suitable punishment’.

I did not expect him to be serious and actually restrain me to avenge Sadie.

“How could you be so cruel? You’ll never learn if I don’t teach you a lesson now.”

I snapped back to reality.

He taped my mouth up before I could get a word in, and then he threw me into our basement, which was beginning to flood with seawater.

He gave me a heartless look before locking the door. “You knew Sadie couldn’t talk because she hurt her throat, yet you still hung up on her! I'm going to make sure you feel the same hopelessness she felt!"

For three whole days, I was submerged in the fishy seawater.

By the time I finally escaped, blisters covered my body, and I felt raw all over from losing so many layers of skin.

My left hand was fractured from detangling the ropes, and I was on the verge of death when when I was sent to the hospital by a neighbour. My wounds were festered with pathogens, and they had to remove a kidney to keep me alive.

When the hospital called Terence, he merely scoffed and asked, “So, is she dead?”

“What? Your wife is in critical condition. We need to perform surgery—”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever.” Terence did not even have the patience to listen to what the nurse had to say.

“Sadie is still in hospital because of her! Tell her to get herself together and stop acting like some suffering maiden! She can die for all I care!”