Chapter 3

Rachel's POV

By the fifth day locked in my room, I was about to pass out from hunger.

Katherine only slipped a piece of stale bread and a cup of tap water under the door when she felt like it. Sometimes once a day. Sometimes not at all.

But I kept holding on.

Because of one thing—my college acceptance letter.

The day before they locked me up, I'd checked my email. SUNY had accepted me. Better yet, because of my grades, they'd given me a full ride.

That was my only ticket out of this hell.

If I could just make it to the start of the semester, if I could just get that physical letter, I could leave this place forever and start over on the East Coast.

At three in the afternoon, the lock suddenly clicked.

The door opened.

It wasn't Katherine.

It was Hannah.

She wore a brand-new Chanel jacket and held a white envelope in her hand, that sickeningly sweet smile plastered across her face.

"Hey, Rachel. God, you look like shit." Hannah walked up to me, looking down at where I was curled up in the corner of the bed.

She wrinkled her nose. "And Jesus, it smells like death in here."

My eyes locked onto the envelope in her hand—the SUNY logo stamped right on it.

My stomach dropped.

I lunged forward. "Give it back! That's MINE!"

Hannah sidestepped easily. I crashed hard onto the floor.

"Whoa, easy there, sis." She laughed, actually laughed. "Full scholarship? SUNY? Wow, not bad."

She paused, waving the envelope just out of reach.

"Too bad Mom and Dad never planned on letting you go anyway. They said someone like you should flip burgers at McDonald's after high school and pay them back for raising you."

"What the hell do you want?" I ground out through clenched teeth, glaring up at her.

Hannah tilted her head, studying me like I was some kind of bug. Then she leaned close to my ear, her voice dropping low.

"You really wanna know?" She paused, savoring it. "I want to destroy you. Destroy EVERYTHING you have."

I could feel her breath on my face.

"You think I actually wanted that stupid five-hundred-dollar dress? Hell no. Watching you grovel like a dog in that restaurant? That was the best part."

She straightened up, grinning.

"So what if you get good grades? In this house, I'M the one they love. All I gotta do is cry, and they'll stomp you into the ground."

She smiled wider. "Actually, you know what? Let me show you."

Then she pulled something shiny from her pocket.

Katherine's most prized emerald diamond ring. Worth at least twenty grand.

Right in front of me, Hannah stuffed that ring between my mattress and the bed frame.

"NO! What the hell are you—" My eyes went wide with horror.

Hannah ignored me.

She stepped back, suddenly messed up her own hair, then violently ripped open the collar of her jacket.

Then she let out an ear-piercing scream:

"STOP! Rachel, please stop hitting me! I'll put it back, I swear, I'll put everything back!"

Urgent footsteps thundered up from downstairs.

Seconds later, Robert and Katherine burst into the room.

"What happened?! Hannah, baby, what's wrong?!" Katherine pulled Hannah into her arms.

Hannah trembled all over, pointing at me with a shaking hand, gasping for air:

"Mommy... I saw her door wasn't locked... so I just wanted to bring her some food..."

She choked up, tears streaming down her face.

"But I caught her packing her stuff... and she took your emerald ring! I told her to put it back, and she... she just started hitting me..."

She sobbed harder, burying her face in Katherine's shoulder.

"She's LYING! That's not—she put it there! SHE did it!" I screamed frantically, scrambling toward the bed. "I'll show you, I'll prove it—"

But Robert was faster.

He strode over and yanked the mattress up with one violent motion.

The emerald ring clattered onto the wooden floor, glinting harshly in the sunlight.

There it was. Evidence planted.

The room went dead silent.

Katherine stared at the ring on the floor, her face turning ashen. She let go of Hannah slowly, walked up to me, and raised her hand—

"CRACK!"

A slap with all her strength.

My lip split. Blood ran down my chin.

Katherine leaned in close, her face twisted with pure rage. "You THIEF! You worthless piece of TRASH!" Her voice cracked with fury. "We feed you, we clothe you, and THIS is how you repay us?! Stealing my ring and trying to run away?! You're a born CRIMINAL!"

"I didn't... Hannah... she..." I clutched my swelling cheek, the words barely making it out.

"ENOUGH!" Robert roared.

He snatched the white envelope from Hannah's hand.

"What the hell is this? SUNY?" He looked at me with disgust. "You seriously think you can just take off like that?"

"Give it BACK! Please, that's my LIFE!" I threw myself at Robert, grabbing his leg, tears streaming down my face. "I don't want anything else, I just want to go to school! Please, just give me my letter back!"

Robert looked down at me coldly, like I was a pile of trash rotting on the street.

Right in front of me, he gripped the envelope with both hands.

"RIIIIIP—"

The harsh sound of tearing.

That acceptance letter—the one carrying all my hope—he tore it in half without mercy.

Then into quarters. Then eighths.

"College?" Robert let out a harsh laugh. "You? Dream on."

He threw the shredded pieces in my face. They fell like snow all over me.

"You're dangerous. A thief and a liar. We're not letting you loose on the world."

He turned to Katherine, not even looking at me anymore.

"Call Stone Hope Ranch. Send her tonight. I don't want to look at her face for one more goddamn second."

"No... please, don't send me there..." I collapsed among the scattered paper pieces, my voice breaking. "Please..."

I knew about Stone Hope Ranch.

The most notorious wilderness boot camp in Utah, specializing in "reforming" troubled teens. No laws there. No dignity—just endless physical punishment, abuse, and brainwashing.

Kids went in and either died or came out broken.

Hannah hid behind Katherine, looking at me over their mother's shoulder. Our eyes met.

She smiled sweetly and silently mouthed:

"If I were you, I'd just kill myself."

I stared at the shredded paper on the floor. At Robert's cold back. At Katherine's disgusted face. At Hannah's satisfied smirk.

In that moment, something inside me that had been holding on so tight—

SNAP.

It broke.

I stopped crying. Stopped begging.

I just sat there on the floor, my eyes going dead and hollow.

"Fine." The words came out flat. Empty. "You gave me life? Take it back."