Reborn In a Murderer’s Embrace

Chapter 31

I remember asking Dexter once, why? By what right?

He sneered, “By right of you eating my food, drinking my drinks, and living under my roof! By right of the favors my family has done for you that you’ll never repay in a lifetime! It’s just a spot for an exchange program, so what right do you have to raise your voice at me?”

That day. I collapsed on the ground like a stray dog abandoned by its owner.

Hank, with Melody’s sister, Serena–the woman who had stolen my spot–wrapped in his arms. came up to me and trampled on me with the vilest words in the world.

She taunted, “Phoebe, you really are pathetic. My sister is the one who deserves Dexter. What are you but a lowly stain, fit for nothing?”

Hank kicked me, muttering. “My cousin said the biggest regret of his life was letting Hailey take you in.”

I sat there, my body slowly growing numb.

“Phoebe, if you dare tell my cousin about it, I’ll make your life hell,” Hank threatened, a delight in his voice as he did so in secret.

“Ah come on, even if she does, Dexter won’t believe her. Who’d trust such a woman?” Serena strutted away, her arm sporting a designer bag Dexter had bought for Melody, easily worth tens of thousands with a single swipe of his card.

Dexter always said I owed him and the Fitzgerald family, but the sum of my living and education expenses over the years with the Fitzgeralds didn’t come close to that–a few thousand bucks at most. I had a scholarship, which covered my tuition in college and sustained my basic needs.

I’d rather work night shifts at a 24–hour convenience store than spend another dime of the Fitzgerald family’s money.

What I owed Dexter was the

for my parents and the penalty he paid off for my family’s breached contract; I covered the rest, including the compensation for the workers with the insurance

that wasn’t close to

ill with encephalitis and collapsed with a high fever on the school’s field.

fever, Dexter forced me to take a physical test for Melody’s sister Serena. I told him I was sick, and

you’re not dead, then go.”

15:02

echoing in my mind, “Phoebe,

owed him, and I

I collapsed halfway through the

a physical test with a forty–degree fever,

Serena got caught cheating on her test and

Dexter barged into my room, fury in his eyes, nearly dragging me out of bed. “Phoebe, I never knew you were so cunning. Just

and of being calculating, yet not

my life. I needed money for treatment, or I might die,

lend me money to

was well, I’d work and pay him back.

Dexter just looked at me with disgust. “Even now, you’re still pretending, Phoebe. What a waste

the ground, my

in exchange for money before? Didn’t I tell you to come to me if you were

Dexter, trying to explain,

full of lies from the start!” Dexter pushed me away and leaned against the wall, looking down on me. “If you want money, stop playing

head, tears scalding my cheeks. I knew what he

me, over and over. That night, the fever