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

covered the rest, including

that wasn’t close to what he spent on Melody and her friends and family

my junior year in college, when I fell ill with encephalitis and

to take a physical test for Melody’s sister Serena. I told him I was sick, and in pain, but he dismissed it.

if you’re not dead,

15:02

his words echoing in my mind, “Phoebe, you

and

weak, and made it to the field. I collapsed halfway through the 800 meters, skinning my

thought I was insane–running a physical test with a forty–degree fever, like I

of this incident that Serena got caught cheating on her test and lost

dragging me out of bed. “Phoebe, I never knew you were so cunning. Just because Serena took the exchange spot, you’d go this far to

deceit and of being calculating, yet not a word about my

I might die, but my allowance was not enough to cover the exorbitant medical

lend me money

well, I’d work and pay him back.

me with disgust. “Even now, you’re still pretending, Phoebe.

the ground, my headache unbearable.

Show me what you’d do for it,” Dexter sneered, grabbing my hair. “What did you give Hank in exchange for money before? Didn’t I tell

Dexter, trying to explain, “I never asked

the wall, looking down on me. “If you want money, stop playing the victim. Follow me. I’m not

tears scalding my cheeks. I knew what he was going to do to me.

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