Chapter 1: The Locked Years
Chapter 1: The Locked Years
The mansion was silent.
Alejandro slowly walked toward Elena.
She took an instinctive step backward.
"Don't..."
Her voice trembled.
"They'll punish me."
Alejandro's heart shattered.
"No one is going to hurt you again."
He gently reached for her bruised wrist.
Fresh marks circled it.
Not from one injury.
From years of them.
Vivian laughed nervously.
"This is ridiculous, Alejandro."
"She left you years ago."
Elena finally looked into her husband's eyes.
"I tried to come home."
"I never left willingly."
The room fell silent.
She explained that three years earlier, after leaving a charity event, her car had been forced off the road.
She awoke in a private medical facility with no identification and a head injury that affected her memory.
During the months that followed, she was repeatedly told she had no surviving family and nowhere to go.
By the time fragments of her memory returned, she had become dependent on the people controlling her life.
Those people eventually delivered her to Vivian, who falsely claimed Elena owed a large debt and would "work it off" as a live-in maid.
Vivian knew exactly who she was.
She simply made sure Elena never had access to a phone, identification, or anyone who might recognize her.
Alejandro quietly turned to his head of security.
May you like
"Lock down the estate."
"No one leaves."
