The Truman Cage: My Husband Faked My World Chapter 04

The Truman Cage: My Husband Faked My World Chapter 04

The blow knocked me straight out of my wheelchair. I lay on the floor and looked up at Vivian as she screamed at me.

“I know you hate me. I know you think I stole Leo from you — your oldest friend, your first love.”

“But my baby is innocent! He’s just a baby! Do you have any idea what you could’ve done to him?” Her voice shattered into a sob. “You’re a monster. You have always been a monster.”

Footsteps pounded down the hall as Ethan, Julian, and Leo converged on the room. Ethan’s face had drained of color. He dropped to his knees beside Sunny, checked the child over quickly, then looked up at me, his eyes hardening into dark slits.

“Clara. What did you do?”

“Not even one day, Clara. Do I need to send you back to the estate?”

Leo took in the chaos instantly: Sunny wailing on the floor, Vivian shaking as she pointed a trembling finger at me. When his gaze finally landed on me, every trace of the warmth from earlier was gone.

“Clara — he’s a child. How could you do this?”

Julian handed Sunny off to the medics who had trailed behind him, never once taking his eyes off me.

It was playing out exactly like the last three years. Nothing had changed.

The overseer had accused me of stealing. When I denied it, the beating only escalated. A maid had claimed I was trying to seduce one of the guards. I had tried to defend myself, and they had stripped me naked in the courtyard.

Ethan had bought into a rumor that I’d tried to run, and they had thrown me into a pitch-black cellar for days.

My lips parted. I wanted to say no. I wanted to scream that I didn’t do it. I wanted to say a hundred things.

But I swallowed the words. No one would believe me. Defending myself had only ever made things worse. So I curled into a tight ball on the floor and whimpered the only thing that ever made the pain stop.

“I’m sorry…”

Vivian threw herself at me.

“That’s all you have to say? You’re sorry?”

“I’ll kill you. I swear to God, I’ll tear you apart.”

She rained blows down on me, and the three of them just watched. At some point, a detached voice floated through the chaos: “Don’t hit her stomach. She’s pregnant.”

That was the extent of their mercy.

Her fists and heels landed everywhere—my ribs, my face, again and again. It was agonizing. It felt like my skin was tearing from the inside out. Through the haze of pain, I watched the numbers drop. [24:17:43]

[20:13:05]

[15:39:17]

…

The thrashing kept going until someone finally dragged Vivian off me, and by then the numbers had reached [04:01:25]. Ethan walked over slowly and stood above me.

“Do you see what happens now?”

“Why can’t you just learn to behave?”

I coughed, gagging on the blood pooling in my throat. I didn’t answer him. I just reached up with a shaking hand and clutched the hem of his pants. “You promised…” I rasped. “You said no one would hurt me here.”

Ethan said nothing. He simply stepped back, jerking the fabric free from my grip.

“But you broke the rules, Clara. And actions have consequences — that’s always been the rule.”

“Lock her in the storeroom. When Sunny’s been cleared, I’ll let you out.”

I didn’t want the dark again. Three years of it was enough, and these were the last four hours I had left. I pawed weakly at the air, but Ethan’s back was already turning.

I looked to Leo instead, but he had already crossed the room to Vivian, one hand on her back, murmuring to calm her down. Julian had already gone, back to Sunny, where his attention had been from the start.

Of course. No one was going to save me. They never did.

I didn’t fight it. I let the maids drag me by the arms to the storeroom and dump me on the cold floor. I counted my fading heartbeats and watched the numbers tick down, one second at a time. I didn’t know what would happen when the numbers ran out.

The worst that could happen was death. By then, death sounded like a relief.

[00:00:00]The numbers hit zero. I closed my eyes. Beneath me, dark blood spread slowly across the floor, and I could no longer hear my heartbeat.

Half an hour later, a maid pushed open the door with a tray. A moment later, a bloodcurdling scream tore through the manor. The maid stumbled toward Ethan, half-running, breathless with panic. “She’s dead!”

“Clara is dead — there’s blood everywhere —”