---- Chapter 7 Jody POV: The basement. The words echoed in the sudden, ringing silence of the yard. My blood ran cold. He knew. He knew about my claustrophobia, a deep, irrational terror of small, dark spaces that had haunted me since childhood. | had told him about it once, late at night, my voice trembling as | recounted the story of being accidentally locked in a closet for hours. He had held me, stroked my hair, and promised he would never let anything like that happen to me again. He saw the panic in my eyes, the sheer terror that gripped me. | saw a flicker of hesitation in his face, a moment of conflict. But then his expression hardened, erased by his loyalty to Claudia "Take her," he commanded, his voice flat and devoid of emotion. The guards dragged me into the house and down a set of steep, stone steps. The air grew cold and damp, smelling of earth and decay. They shoved me into a small, windowless room and slammed the heavy wooden door shut. The sound of the bolt sliding into place was the sound of a tomb being sealed. ---- Total, absolute darkness pressed in on me from all sides. The panic was immediate and overwhelming. My lungs seized, my breath coming in short, ragged gasps. The walls felt like they were closing in, the ceiling lowering to crush me. | scrambled to the door, my hands slapping against the rough wood, my nails splintering. "Arthurl" | screamed, my voice raw with terror. "Please! Don 't do this! Let me out!" There was no answer. Only the suffocating silence. Despair, black and suffocating as the room itself, swallowed me whole. | sank to the cold, damp floor, curling into a ball, my body wracked with tremors. Phantoms danced in the darkness behind my eyelids-shadows with Claudia' s smirking face, whispers in Arthur' s voice telling me how worthless | was. | don' t know how long | was in there. Time ceased to have meaning. | only know that at some point, my mind broke, and | welcomed the sweet oblivion of unconsciousness. When | woke, | was back in the guest room, lying on the bed. The room was empty, the house eerily quiet. | lay there for a long time, letting the lingering terror recede, replaced by a cold, hard clarity. | got up and methodically finished packing my suitcase. Just as | was zipping it shut, Arthur and Claudia appeared in the doorway. They were dressed to go out ---- "Oh, you' re awake," Arthur said, his tone casual, as if he hadn' t just subjected me to psychological torture. "Good. Listen, today is Claudia' s birthday. We' re going out to celebrate. You should stay here and rest." He paused, then added, as if it were an afterthought, "When we get back, we' II get married." The absurdity of his words was almost comical. He punished me like a prisoner, then spoke of marriage in the same breath. Claudia, clinging to his arm, shot me a venomous look. She was furious that | was still here, that | hadn't been completely broken. Arthur let her pull him away. | watched them go, feeling nothing but a profound sense of detachment. | picked up my phone and called Dr. Chaney, confirming my flight details. Then, | checked my suitcase one last time, ensuring | had my passport and all my important documents. With everything in order, | lay down on the bed and, for the first time in months, fell into a deep, dreamless sleep. | woke hours later to my phone buzzing incessantly. It was a string of texts from Claudia. She had sent photos and videos from her birthday celebration. One video showed them on a Ferris wheel, the city lights twinkling below. She was laughing, her head on Arthur' s shoulder, as he kissed her forehead. "Arthur bought me the whole amusement park for my birthday!" the caption read. "Isn't he the sweetest?" ---- A phantom pain echoed in my chest. | had begged Arthur to tide a Ferris wheel with me once. He had refused, claiming he was afraid of heights. It was never about a fear of heights. It was just that he didn "t want to do it with me. | closed the phone, my heart a cold, heavy stone in my chest. | wouldn't let them hurt me anymore. | grabbed my suitcase and walked out of the mansion without a backward glance. | took a cab to the other villa, the one Arthur had bought for us to be our marital home. It was filled with memories, with the ghosts of a happy future that had been a lie. | walked to the entryway and took off the simple silver band | still wore on my right hand, a pre-engagement ring he' d given me years ago. | placed it carefully on the console table, right where he would see it when he walked in. Then | took out my phone and sent him one last message. "Arthur, let' s break up. We are over." | blocked his number, hailed another cab, and told the driver to take me to the airport. The ring, the house, the man-none of it was mine anymore. And | had never felt so light.