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

to what he spent on Melody and her

never forget my junior year in college, when I fell ill with encephalitis and collapsed with a high fever on

a physical test for Melody’s sister Serena.

not

15:02

words echoing in my mind,

owed him, and I had

out of bed, shaky and weak, and made it to the field. I

a physical test with a forty–degree fever, like I had

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

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

me of deceit and of being calculating, yet

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

begged Dexter to lend me money to

well, I’d work and pay him

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

ground,

want money? 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 you to come to me if you were

stared blankly at Dexter, trying to explain, “I never

mouth’s been full of lies from the start!” Dexter pushed me away and leaned against the wall, looking down on me. “If you

bowed my head, tears scalding my cheeks. I knew

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