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

I covered the rest, including the compensation for the workers with the insurance money

a lot of money, but even that wasn’t close to what he spent

in college, when I fell ill with encephalitis and collapsed with a high fever on the school’s field.

with a raging fever, Dexter forced me to take a physical test for Melody’s sister Serena.

if you’re not

15:02

couldn’t argue, his words echoing in my mind, “Phoebe, you owe me.”

him, and

I collapsed halfway through the 800 meters, skinning my arm and forehead, the pain

a physical test with a forty–degree fever, like

Serena got caught cheating on her test and lost her

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

and of being calculating, yet not a

money for treatment, or I might die, but my allowance was not enough to cover the exorbitant medical bills.

to lend me money

was well, I’d work and

“Even now, you’re still pretending, Phoebe. What a waste it is for you not to be an

fell to the ground, my

my hair. “What did you give Hank in exchange for money before? Didn’t I tell you to come to me if

blankly at Dexter, trying to explain, “I

still lying. Your mouth’s been full of lies from the start!” Dexter pushed me away and leaned against the wall, looking

I knew what he

viciously took and vented on me, over and over. That night, the fever didn’t break, and I passed out in a hotel bathroom, nose