Chapter 4

Loretta's POV

I felt like I had been struck by lightning. I couldn't believe my ears. "Marnie! What the hell are you talking about?!"

Marnie spun around, glaring at me with agonizing malice.

"Officer, I was entirely manipulated by Loretta, this lunatic! She has severe paranoia and highly self-destructive tendencies. She runs around inventing malicious lies about her noble, kind-hearted mother. There is no abuse here at all; she's just having a psychotic episode!"

Officer Riggs frowned, his gaze sweeping over the elegant Marigold, the cold Killian, and finally resting on me—sobbing, shaking, and screaming on the floor.

"Miss Loretta. If your mental state is unstable, you need to see a psychiatrist," he said with strict authority. "Not manipulate your friends into filing false reports and wasting police resources to feed your paranoia!"

"I'm not crazy! She brainwashed all of them! It's that bathroom!" I lunged forward, trying to grab the officer's sleeve in despair.

"That's enough!" Riggs stepped back, his hand resting on his service weapon. "Ms. Marnie, since you admitted your mistake, you're off with a verbal warning. Don't let it happen again. — Let's go!"

The police turned and walked out, shutting the front door behind them, cutting off my absolute last chance at survival.

The living room fell dead silent.

Marnie walked over to me. Her high heels brutally stamped down on the scattered evidence files before she looked down and literally spat on me.

"Loretta, you are such a fucking bitch."

Her normally sweet voice was now as sharp as a sawblade scraping against glass. "Why don't you just die? A parasite like you, ruthlessly jealous of your own mother—even your breathing pollutes the air of Black Oak Manor!"

Having said her piece, she turned to Marigold and bowed—a sickeningly humble, sycophantic gesture. "Madam, please forgive my ignorance today. I swear, I will stay far away from this jinx for the rest of my life."

Marigold nodded in satisfaction, leaning back into Killian's embrace, thoroughly enjoying the sight of my agonizing despair.

---

Night fell.

I hid in the dark attic on the third floor, locking the door tight.

My love was shattered, my family distorted, and now even Marnie, my best friend who defended me, had plunged the most toxic knife into my back.

Completely broken physically and mentally, utterly isolated in the dark, I bit my fingers until I tasted blood.

I knew I couldn't wait any longer. If I stayed in this suffocating hellhole, I would eventually be crushed alive by endless psychological torture.

At 2:00 AM, barefoot, I crept out of bed. I shoved my ID and whatever cash I had left into a canvas bag.

I was running away tonight. Living on the streets was infinitely better than staying in a house full of demons.

Bag on my back, I slipped down the stairs like a ghost.

But as I passed the second-floor hallway, my footsteps slammed to a halt.

From inside that locked bathroom, an incredibly bizarre sound seeped through the wood—

It was Marigold. She was letting out suppressed, deeply satisfied pants and groans.

Like I was possessed, I held my breath and pressed silently against the door. Near the frame, there was a tiny, hairline crack in the wood.

I put my eye right up to it.

When I saw exactly what was hanging in that bathroom, my pupils shrank to the absolute limit.

I finally understood. The horrifying truth behind why she kept me locked by her side, using every sinister trick in the book to stop me from ever finding love!