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He Held My Mother Hostage, So I Became His Absolute Worst Nightmare
NovelShort
Completed
My eyes widened in shock upon seeing the balance of my bank account was zero. My husband drained my money for his mistress and used my comatose mother as a hostage to keep me obedient. He thought I would swallow his abuse forever. But I finally broke his chains, rescued my mother, and secured my true fortune. Now, our wrecked limousine sits in a dark alley surrounded by men in tactical gear. "Take her! She's collateral!" my billionaire husband screams, shoving me at the masked gunmen to save his own life and mistress. The leader lowers his rifle and laughs because my husband was about to learn you can’t offer your wife to the assassin she paid to destroy you.
Chapters (4)
第1章
My eyes widened in shock upon seeing the balance of my bank account was zero. I had saved thousands of dollars for a year by skipping meals, and working part-time, but now it was wiped out.
"If you are looking at the funds in your hidden account, I repurposed them," my husband Reeve said.
"You drained my life savings," I trembled. "For what?”
A cruel smirk touched his lips. "Hayley wanted a specific vintage wine. A rare case became available today. I bought it for her."
My breath caught in my throat. Hayley? My step-cousin.
"But I needed that money to survive," I pleaded. I dropped my hand. The phone hit my side. "I need winter clothes. I need soap. I need fresh food. You refuse to buy me basic necessities. Yet you buy her diamonds and rare wine."
Reeve closed the distance between us. He moved fast and grabbed my chin. His fingers dug into my skin. It hurt as he forced my head up to make me look into his cold eyes.
"You do not have needs, Zoe," he whispered. "You are property. I bought you to pay off a family debt. A woman in your position has no right to money. You exist because I allow it. Remember your place."
He shoved me away. I stumbled backward. My back hit the heavy mahogany door. Reeve turned around and walked out of the house, leaving me alone in the freezing foyer.
I slid down the door and I pulled my knees to my chest.
Bought.
The word echoed in my head. It beat against my skull. It dragged me back to the past.
The nightmare started three years ago. That was the year my mother died. Everything changed the day of her funeral. My father stopped looking at me and caring at me, blaming me for what happened to my mother.
He moved my aunt into our house with her daughter, Hayley, too. They took over instantly. My father bought them expensive clothes. He took them on trips. He treated them like royalty.
I was thrown away. I was moved out of my bedroom. They put me in a windowless closet down the hall. They took my clothes. They gave me rags to wear. I was not allowed to eat at the table. I ate leftover food from the kitchen counter. I ate after the servants finished.
Then came the day that broke me completely.
Hayley was throwing a tantrum in the living room. She was screaming and crying. I was cleaning the floor nearby.
In a fit of rage, she grabbed a heavy glass ashtray from the coffee table and threw it at my head.
The glass cracked against my skull. I fell to the hardwood floor. Pain exploded in my head as warm blood ran down my face. It blinded my left eye.
I waited for someone to help me.
Instead, my aunt walked over. Her face twisted with disgust. She did not offer a towel. She did not call a doctor.
"It should have been you," she said. "You should be dead instead of your mother."
I closed my eyes. I wished I was dead. I prayed for the pain to stop. Maybe that was better… if I was truly the reason my mother died.
But the pain did not stop. It got worse.
That same night, I sat in my dark closet.
Suddenly, a loud crash shook the house. Someone kicked our front door open.
It was Reeve. He came to collect a massive debt. My father and aunt fell to their knees. They wept. They offered him anything to spare their lives.
Reeve looked around the room. Then, he saw me. I was bleeding and bruised in the corner.
He pointed at me. He took me as payment. He cleared the debt. My family let him take me. They did not even say goodbye.
I became his wife on paper, but in reality, I was nothing more than the dirt beneath his expensive shoes. I scrubbed his floors until my knees bled. I survived on the staff's cold leftovers.
I swallowed every ounce of his cruelty.
But the true torture began the day he moved my vicious step-cousin, Hayley, into the mansion. Making her his pampered mistress was his ultimate weapon.
It was his way of proving I was entirely worthless.
But I had been scraping together an escape fund. It was my only way out.
Until he drained my hidden account.
Something inside my chest finally shattered. I refused to die in this freezing house.
Wiping the tears from my cheeks, I slipped into his private bedroom. I tore through his heavy dresser until my fingers brushed against a velvet pouch hidden at the very bottom.
I ripped it open. Thick, solid gold coins gleamed in the shadows.
I shoved the heavy pouch deep into my pocket and ran. I flew down the grand staircase, my eyes locked on the massive front door. Then, a towering shadow stepped into my path.
I curled my hands into tight fists. I braced my trembling body, fully prepared to fight for my life.
But he didn't lunge. He didn't even yell. He just took a slow, deliberate step forward.
I backed away instinctively until my spine hit the heavy wood of the front door.
There was nowhere left to run.
He reached out. I flinched, expecting pain. Instead, his cold fingers gently traced the line of my jaw. The touch was a terrifying contrast to the monster he was.
"Going somewhere?" he asked.
"I'm leaving," I forced the words past the lump in my throat. "You took my money. So I took yours."
Reeve glanced at my pocket. He leaned in close, trapping me against the door. His breath brushed against my ear, sending a violent shiver down my spine.
"If you walk out that door," Reeve whispered, "I will call the clinic. And I will have them turn off your mother's life support… and she’ll be really dead forever."
第2章
"You are lying," I whispered. "I went to her funeral. I stood by her grave. I watched them lower her into the ground."
"It was a closed casket, Zoe," he said smoothly. "You buried an empty wooden box. Your mother is currently resting in a private clinic. She is in a medically induced coma. I pay the elite doctors. I own the highly secure facility. And I control the machines that keep her lungs breathing."
"Why?" I choked out. "Why would you do this to me?"
"Because leverage is everything," he replied. "You are my wife. You belong to me. Your absolute obedience is the only currency that keeps those life support machines running. If you defy me again, if you ever try to walk out that door, I will make one phone call. I will end her life without a second thought."
He turned his back on me and walked away.
I collapsed onto the cold marble floor. I cried until my throat bled.
I cried for the terrifying reality that she was trapped in a nightmare.
But I could not stay on the floor forever. I had to save her.
I wiped my wet face with the back of my trembling hand. I forced my aching body to stand. I needed help. I needed my father. If he knew his true wife was still alive, he would finally step up.
He would fight for her. He would use whatever influence he had left to save us both.
I crept down the dark hallway toward the staff quarters.
I found a maid's winter coat hanging on a brass hook in the mudroom.
I reached into the deep pocket. My fingers brushed against cold plastic. I pulled it out.
My hands shook violently as I dialed my father's private number. I pressed the phone to my ear. I squeezed my eyes shut. I listened to the first ring. A desperate, naive hope flared in my chest.
Before the second ring could sound, a hand shot out from the shadows.
The phone was violently snatched from my grip.
I gasped and spun around.
My aunt stood in the dim light of the hallway.
"Who are we calling, little bird?" she sneered. She tapped the screen, ending the call immediately.
"Give that back to me," I demanded as I reached for the phone.
"You always were a pathetic, naive girl," she said. "Did you really think you could just call your daddy to come rescue you? He does not care about you, Zoe."
"What are you doing here?" I asked. "Reeve hates you. He bought me to clear the debt. You are not supposed to be here."
My aunt threw her head back and laughed.
"Reeve does not hate me, Zoe. I have always had free reign of this estate. I come and go exactly as I please."
"Why are you keeping this secret from my father? If he knew my mother was alive—"
"He would leave me," she interrupted. "He would drop me in a heartbeat and run right back to her. I could never let that happen. I worked too hard to take her place."
The final illusion of my family shattered into a million jagged pieces.
"You knew," I whispered. The truth hit me like a physical blow. "You knew she was alive this whole time."
"Of course I knew," she mocked. She took a slow step closer. "Who do you think arranged the accident, Zoe?"
My blood ran cold. The floor seemed to drop out from under me.
"What did you do?" I choked out.
"I tampered with the brakes on her car," she confessed. "Three years ago, I crawled under her pristine little sedan and cut the brake lines. I wanted her dead. I wanted your father. I wanted his wealth and his status. I wanted the life she stole from me. But she did not die. She survived the crash. She was in a coma. That was when Reeve stepped in. He offered me a brilliant deal."
"A deal?" I repeated.
"Reeve needed a submissive, broken wife," she explained. "He needed a quiet girl to uphold his clean public image. He took you off my hands. In exchange, he hid your mother away in his private clinic. He kept my secret. I got to keep your father and his money without any interference. It was a perfect arrangement."
Before I could scream, before I could even react to the sheer evil of her words, my aunt grabbed my arm. She dragged me down the hall.
I fought her, but I was weak from starvation and shock.
She shoved me hard. I stumbled backward into an old, unused storage room. It had no windows. The air inside was freezing.
"Rot in here, little bird," she spat.
She slammed the heavy oak door shut.
I heard the deadbolt slide into place with a heavy, final click.
I rushed to the door. I pounded my fists against the thick wood. I screamed for help until my voice was entirely gone.
No one came. No one cared.
I slid down the door and hit the freezing stone floor.
Hours passed. The cold seeped into my bones. I closed my eyes, waiting for the end. Then, a soft scratching sound broke the silence.
When I opened my eyes, a sliver of light shone under the door crack. A piece of thick parchment paper slid under the door with a small, heavy brass key.
"Zoe," a frail, familiar voice whispered through the crack.
It was Martha. She was the old, loyal housekeeper. She had served my mother for twenty years before my aunt took over.
"Martha?" I croaked.
"Take the key," she whispered urgently. "I stole it from the guard's desk. You must leave tonight."
I crawled toward the door. My trembling fingers picked up the brass key. I grabbed the folded parchment. It was sealed with dark red wax. I broke the seal and opened the letter.
The handwriting was elegant and familiar. It was my mother's handwriting.
My dearest Zoe, the letter read. If you are reading this, I am awake. I am safe. But we are running out of time. Come to 424 Blackwood Avenue. Trust no one else.
第3章
I needed to get out of the mansion.
I slipped through the dark, freezing hallways. My heart hammered against my ribs.
I found the night guard standing by the side gate.
I pressed three solid gold coins into his palm. He looked at the gold.
He looked at my bruised face. He opened the gate without a single word.
I ran into the night. The address on the letter led me downtown. I stood before an exclusive, heavily guarded private law firm. I stepped into a massive office.
A man stood by the floor-to-ceiling window. He turned around.
"Zoe," he said. "I am Charles Navarro."
I gripped the brass key. "Who are you?"
"My adoptive father was your maternal grandfather's closest ally," he replied. "Before your grandfather died, I swore an oath to him. I promised to protect his only true heir."
He walked over and gently took the key from my trembling fingers. He moved to a hidden vault behind a painting. He unlocked it and pulled out a thick stack of legal documents.
"Your aunt and Reeve hid the truth from you," Charles said. He handed me the papers. "Your mother was the sole heiress to a massive real estate empire. She transferred everything to you before her accident."
I stared at the documents. The words blurred through my tears.
"But my mother," I choked out. "Reeve has her. He will kill her if I leave him."
Charles handed me a pen. "Sign this authorization. I will handle Reeve."
I signed my name instantly. Charles tapped an earpiece. He gave a sharp command.
Then, he placed a tablet on the desk. A live video feed played on the screen.
Men in black tactical gear moved through a pristine white hallway. It was Reeve's secret clinic. They bypassed the guards effortlessly. They entered a sterile room. My mother lay on a hospital bed. She was surrounded by machines.
Tears spilled down my cheeks. The men carefully transferred her to a mobile stretcher. They moved with precision and speed.
"She is safe," Charles said softly. "My team is moving her to my private hospital. It is untouchable. Reeve cannot hurt her ever again."
The invisible chains around my neck finally snapped.
I looked at the documents on the desk, then finally signed the divorce agreement. I had a courier send it straight to Reeve's office. But it will not end there. This is just the start.
The next morning, the city exploded. A massive scandal hit the news. Someone leaked photos of Reeve and Hayley to the press. Their twisted affair was front-page news. Reeve’s pristine public image shattered overnight.
I knew how he operated. He needed to fix his reputation immediately. He needed to play the victim.
I took a taxi to the Vargas Group headquarters.
Nine hundred and ninety-nine red roses covered the concrete plaza.
Reporters swarmed the area. Camera crews set up live broadcasts. Reeve stood in the center of the flowers. He wore a tailored suit. He looked like a tragic, heartbroken prince.
I walked into the crowd. I wore plain jeans and a faded sweater. I pulled a small bag of roasted sunflower seeds from my pocket. I cracked one between my teeth. I spat the shell onto the expensive red roses.
The crowd parted. The cameras turned to me.
Reeve saw me. His eyes widened for a fraction of a second. Then, he put on the performance of a lifetime.
He rushed across the roses. He grabbed my wrist. His grip was a vice. His face was a mask of pure agony.
"Zoe!" he cried out. His voice cracked perfectly for the live broadcast. "I know I was wrong. Please, darling. Come home with me. I cannot live without you. I will die without you!"
The reporters gasped. Camera flashes blinded me.
I stared at his fake tears. I opened my mouth to speak.
Reeve leaned in close. He pressed his lips near my ear. He pretended to kiss my cheek for the cameras.
"Don't be a shameless bitch," he whispered maliciously. His breath was hot and toxic against my skin. "Go back to the house and clean it. If you say one wrong word to these cameras, I will call the clinic. I will stop your mother's life support right now."
Before I could react, Hayley pushed through the crowd. She grabbed Reeve's arm. Her eyes were red. She forced fake tears to fall down her cheeks.
"Zoe, please," Hayley sobbed timidly. She looked directly at the cameras. She made sure they caught her good side. "Reeve and I are completely innocent. It was just a misunderstanding. Please do not throw your beautiful marriage away just because you are angry."
第4章
The crowd waited for my answer. I knew they wanted a dramatic show, so I decided to give them one.
I forced tears to well up in my eyes. I let my shoulders tremble perfectly. I threw my arms around Reeve's neck and buried my face in his tailored suit.
"I am so sorry," I sobbed loudly, making sure the microphones caught every pathetic quiver in my voice. "I was just so jealous. I didn't mean to cause a scene. Please take me home, Reeve."
The camera shutters exploded like rapid gunfire. The reporters shouted questions, their voices overlapping in a chaotic frenzy.
The crowd cooed at the touching reconciliation, completely blind to the monster hiding beneath the tailored wool of his suit.
Reeve wrapped his arms around me. He played the forgiving, noble husband flawlessly.
But his fingers dug fiercely into the base of my spine, bruising the skin.
"Good girl," he whispered. "You saved your mother’s life today. But you will pay dearly for this little stunt when we get home."
He guided me through the sea of reporters. He led me toward his waiting limousine.
Hayley followed closely behind us. She wiped her fake tears and offered a fragile, brave smile to the cameras, playing the innocent victim to perfection.
We stepped into the limousine. The romantic act ended instantly.
Reeve violently shoved me across the plush leather seat. My shoulder slammed hard against the door panel, the impact rattling my teeth.
"Are you completely out of your mind?" Reeve roared. "You humiliated me! Do you have any idea how much Vargas Group stock is going to drop because of your pathetic little tantrum?"
I kept my head down, letting my hair fall over my face. "I wasn’t the one who leaked it—”
“Do you think I would believe you? The moment we get back to the estate, I am calling the clinic. I am going to have the doctors lower your mother's oxygen levels. Just enough so she suffocates slowly. I want you to hear her gasping for air over the phone."
Hayley did not hold back either. She lunged across the wide seat. Her manicured hands grabbed a thick fistful of my hair.
She yanked my head back with vicious force, forcing me to look at her.
"You stupid, worthless bitch," Hayley hissed. She slapped my cheek hard. The sharp sting echoed in the confined space of the car. "You thought you could embarrass us? I had to stand out there and cry in front of those peasants because of you!"
"Let her go, Hayley," Reeve snapped "Do not leave marks where the cameras can see. I will deal with her in the soundproof room. She won't see the light of day for a month."
"Make her sleep in the dog kennel tonight," Hayley demanded, releasing my hair with a disgusted scoff. She sat back and smoothed the wrinkles from her pristine white dress. "And I want her scrubbing the grand staircase with a toothbrush tomorrow. If she misses a single spot, you take away her food for a week."
"Whatever you want, darling," Reeve agreed smoothly, adjusting his cuffs. He glared at me. "You are nothing, Zoe. You are dirt. You exist only because I allow it."
I touched my stinging cheek. I tasted copper in my mouth from where my teeth had cut into my lip. I did not cry. I did not beg for mercy.
I just looked at the digital clock glowing on the dashboard.
Ten seconds.
"Are you even listening to me?" Reeve barked, raising his hand to strike me again. "Look at me when I speak to you—"
The limousine violently swerved.
The heavy tires screeched against the asphalt. We were thrown forward in our seats. Reeve’s hand missed my face and slammed into the leather partition.
A deafening crash shook the entire car. Metal crunched loudly.
Glass shattered everywhere, raining down on the plush carpets.
Reeve shouted in blind panic. Hayley screamed at the top of her lungs, curling into a tight ball.
The limousine came to a violent, jarring halt. We were no longer on the main road.
The dim light filtering through the broken windows revealed we were trapped in a dark, empty alleyway.
Heavy footsteps surrounded the vehicle. Men in black tactical gear and ski masks appeared outside the tinted windows.
One of the men smashed the remaining glass of the passenger window with the solid butt of his rifle. He reached inside and unlocked the doors.
The heavy doors were ripped open. Freezing air rushed into the car.
"Get out!" a deep, muffled voice commanded.
Reeve trembled uncontrollably. A masked man pointed a gun directly at Reeve's chest.
"Wait! Wait!" Reeve pleaded, holding up his hands. "I am Reeve Vargas! I am a billionaire! Whatever you want, I can pay you! Double! Triple! Take my watch, take my wallet!" He frantically tore the million-dollar Rolex off his wrist and threw it at the man's boots.
The armed man didn't even look at the watch. He kept the rifle aimed at Reeve's heart.
Reeve did not hesitate. He grabbed my arms. He violently shoved me out the open door toward the armed men.
"Take her!" Reeve screamed. His voice cracked with pure, pathetic terror. "Take my wife! She is the one you want! She's collateral! I have no use for her! Just let me go!"
I stumbled out of the car. I did not fall to the ground. Strong, gloved hands caught my shoulders and steadied me gently.
Hayley cowered in the corner of the leather seat. She sobbed hysterically and covered her head with her arms, completely ignored by the men.
Reeve held his hands up in surrender. He breathed heavily. He waited for the kidnappers to drag me away into the dark alley. He waited to save his own skin.
The leader of the armed men lowered his rifle. He looked at Reeve.
He let out a low, dark laugh that echoed off the brick walls.
"Take her?" the masked man asked as he stepped back and respectfully bowed his head to me. "Why would we kidnap the woman who ordered us to kill you?"
