My husband sent me to a mental
hospital.
Chapter One
To cure me of what he called my obsession, Ryan shipped me off to a mental institution.
He figured it was the best way to teach me a
lesson.
No matter what he did to me, I’d always
pretend it was okay and stick to him like glue, which disgusted him.
On the wooden headboard of my bed, I
carved a tally for every time he hurt me.
I used to joke, “Ryan, when I hit a hundred
marks, I’m out of here.”
He never took me seriously.
After I got back from that hellhole, I carved
the hundredth line.
Everyone thought I’d go back to clinging to
him like before.
But this time, I really am leaving.
- 1.
Because Ryan’s grandma missed me so
much, he sent someone to pick me up.
When the butler arrived, a couple of the
inmates were trying to force a scorpion into
my mouth.
“Stop it, now!”
The butler shoved them away, but when he
saw me, I was a shell of my former self.
My skin was yellow and pasty, and I was
thinner than a rail.
His eyes welled up instantly.
“Mrs. Carter, you’ve suffered terribly… Ryan
sent me to bring you home.”
I just nodded, numb.
Ryan. My husband.
L
Three years ago, he’d dumped me in that
place.
I spent countless nights, as they tortured me,
praying he’d come rescue me.
But what did I get?
This kind of thing was just everyday life for
the last three years.
Those crazies, they tormented me every
single day. They ripped my clothes off, stuck
my hands in boiling water, and let poisonous
bugs bite me.
They thought it was hilarious.
From the moment Ryan coldly threw me in
there, I lived in constant fear.
Three years is enough to numb you, to turn a
living, breathing person into a walking corpse.
Before I left, I took a shower. When the hot
water hit my head, my first instinct was to
flinch. When I realized what I’d done, I just
broke down, sobbing into my hands.
<
The director, all smiles, walked me part of the
way out. But just looking at his face made me
sick.
He let those inmates bully me, even rewarded
them, saying it was all Ryan’s idea.
Those psychos got a kick out of it, and they
tormented me even worse.
He broke into my room more than once,
assaulted me, said Ryan told him to do it.
Ryan, the man I’d loved with everything I had
for seven years.
I never thought he could hate me so much!
Hate me enough to want to torture me to
death.
I sat huddled in the car, arms wrapped tight
around myself, shaking like a leaf.
The driver kept glancing at me in the rearview
mirror. He’d been working for Ryan for years,
but he never realized they’d put me through
something like that.
The evening was drawing in as the car pulled
up to the Carter family estate.
It was eerily quiet.
The butler looked at me, then at the dark
mansion, and said, “Mr. Carter’s tied up with
work. He’d be here himself if he could! He still
cares about you, Mrs. Carter…”
My face was blank. I just shook my head. “I
just want to know, where’s Leo?”
Leo’s my son.
He was three when I was locked away.
The butler hesitated, then said softly, “Mrs.
Carter, young Leo… he was adopted by Miss
Hawthorne. Mr. Carter thought…”
He shook his head, unable to finish.
But I knew what he meant. Ryan thought I
wasn’t fit to be Leo’s mother, so he gave my
son to his childhood sweetheart, Hazel
Hawthorne.
A sharp pain, like a thousand needles, pierced
<
my heart.
Ryan, why?
I’ve already lost everything. Why did you have
to give the child I carried for nine months to
Hazel Hawthorne?
