I didn't know how long I had been lying there.
Time didn't exist in this room.
There was no sun. No night. No sense of hours passing. Just the slow, suffocating weight of my own body pressing into the mattress… and the hollow ache inside me that refused to go away.
Hunger.
Pain.
Emptiness.
They all blurred together until I couldn't tell where one ended and the other began.
My lips were dry. My throat burned every time I swallowed. Even breathing felt like effort—like my body was slowly forgetting how to stay alive.
Valentin had made sure of that.
He didn't beat me.
He didn't scream.
He simply… took things away.
Food.
Strength.
Control.
My children.
A shaky breath slipped past my lips.
Adrien.
My baby.
My chest tightened painfully at the thought of them. I hadn't seen Adrien since—
I squeezed my eyes shut.
No.
I couldn't think about that.
If I let my mind go there… I would break.
Completely.
A faint sound echoed in my memory.
A door opening.
Footsteps.
