---- Chapter 7 My hand clenched into a fist. | wanted to hit her, to wipe that smug, cruel smile off her face. But | couldn't. Not yet. | had to be smart. | had to survive. Olivia must have seen the rage in my eyes. She took a deliberate step back, bumping into a small table in the hallway. A porcelain vase, one my grandmother had given me, teetered for a moment before crashing to the floor, shattering into a hundred pieces. "Oh no!" she cried out, her voice filled with fake distress. She sank to the floor, cradling her stomach. "My baby! Sarah, what did you do? You pushed me!" Ethan was there in an instant, his face a mask of fury. He saw the broken vase, then Olivia on the floor, weeping. He didn't even look at me. He rushed to Olivia's side, helping her to her feet, his touch gentle and concerned. "Are you okay, my love? Is the baby all right?" "| think so," she sobbed, clinging to him. "But she... she attacked me! She's crazy, Ethan!" "| didn't touch her!" | said, my voice shaking. "She's lying!" Ethan turned to me, his eyes blazing with a cold fire. "I've had ---- enough of your lies, Sarah. Enough of your drama." He didn't ask what happened. He didn't give me a chance to explain. He had already judged and condemned me. "You are going to learn your lesson, once and for all," he said, his voice dangerously low. He strode over to the fireplace and picked up the poker. Then his eyes fell on the small, ornate box on the mantelpiece. My grandmother's ashes. A cold, terrifying dread filled me. "Ethan, no," | whispered. "Please." He ignored me. He picked up the box. "You seem to have a problem with letting go of the past, Sarah. Maybe this will help." "Don't," | begged, tears streaming down my face. "Please, not that. It's all | have left of her." He smiled, a chilling, empty smile. "Exactly." He walked over to the shattered remains of the vase and opened the box. He poured my grandmother's ashes onto the floor, mixing them with the dust and the porcelain shards. The world went silent. The air left my lungs. | couldn't breathe. | couldn't think. All | could see was the grey dust of the woman who had loved me more than life itself, desecrated on the floor of this cold, heartless house. "Does it hurt, Sarah?" he asked, his voice soft. "Good. | want ---- you to remember this pain. This is what happens when you defy me." Something inside me snapped. The grief, the rage, the pain-it all receded, replaced by a vast, empty numbness. | was a hollow shell, a ghost in my own life. | sank to my knees, my eyes fixed on the ashes. | didn't see him, | didn't see Olivia. | was alone in my silent, shattered world. He seemed to panic then. The sight of my complete and utter brokenness must have unnerved him. "Sarah?" he said, his voice laced with a flicker of uncertainty. He reached for me. | flinched away from his touch, a wounded animal recoiling from the hand that struck it. "Don't touch me," | whispered. His face hardened again. "Fine," he said, his voice tight. "But this ends now. No more fighting. No more accusations. You will be the quiet, obedient wife | expect you to be. Do you understand?" | didn't answer. | just started gathering the ashes with my bare hands, trying to separate them from the debris. It was an impossible task. "Sarah, | said, do you understand?" he repeated, his voice rising. ---- | looked up at him, my eyes empty. "I understand," | said, my voice flat and lifeless. "| won't cause any more trouble." He nodded, satisfied. He thought he had finally broken my spirit. He didn't realize he had just forged it into something unbreakable. In that moment, staring at the dust of my grandmother, | knew | would not just escape him. | would destroy him.