You were the one who abandoned me, why do you regret it?

For nine years, I chased after Bradyn Ruiz. Yet in the end, he sent me to a mental hospital for his true love.

By the time I was tortured terribly, I finally let go of my love.

But then Bradyn lost his mind.

He crawled on his knees, begging for the same lucky charm he'd once asked for on my behalf.

***

A Bentley pulled up in front of the mental hospital.

The director of the hospital Aron Gates, wearing his white coat, gave me a gentle push from behind, and then bowed deeply to the man getting out of the car.

Like a puppet on strings, I moved forward mechanically, only to be stopped by Bradyn's outstretched hand. That was when I realized I had already walked up to him.

With his arms crossed, a mocking expression flickered across his handsome face as his sharp eyes coldly scanned me up and down.

"You seem better now. At least not so noisy anymore."

He gave a faint smirk, lifting his chin in acknowledgment toward Aron.

The expression on Aron's face, the one that filled me with terror, was now plastered with a sycophantic grin.

Bradyn shoved me into the car with a rough push. As the car moved forward, the hell I'd been trapped in for two months faded further and further away, until it finally disappeared.

"It's been two months. You should have learned your lesson by now. If it weren't for you, Kelsie wouldn't have lost the baby! Even though the security footage showed you didn't push her, it's still because of your argument that she tripped."

He stretched out his legs, making the car feel cramped.

"Our parents are back from overseas, so you'd better behave yourself. Otherwise, once they leave again..."

Bradyn glanced at me sideways with a ruthless smile, his tone carrying a cruel, unquestionable authority.

I was terrified, frozen stiff, but I clung tightly to the lucky charm in my hand. It had been my sole source of courage for the past two months.

The lucky charm was now so distorted from my grip, much like my love for him since childhood.

Like a doll, I placed my hands neatly on my knees and stared straight ahead without uttering a word.

In the mental hospital, they didn't allow me to speak. Even the smallest noise would be met with punishment.

They beat me, over and over again, until there wasn't a spot on my body left unscathed.

I became jumpy after that, afraid of the dark, light, and sound. It was as though I had contracted rabies.

If Bradyn had bothered to look closer, he would've noticed the vacant look in my eyes and the way my legs trembled uncontrollably.

But he didn't. Or maybe he did, but he just didn't care.

He occasionally glanced at his phone, smiling with relaxed brows. I hadn't seen him smile like that in a long time. When we were younger, Bradyn used to smile at me like that all the time...

Our families were close, and we were childhood sweethearts. At our closest, we were inseparable, crying whenever we were apart.

Our parents would jokingly say we were bound to get married when we grew up.

I believed it too. I always saw Bradyn as my future husband, imagining the happy home we would build together.

But all of that was shattered by a woman named Kelsie Munoz.