Chapter 3

Joshua was there, on the flickering screen, radiating power and confidence. Beside him, Giselle Carney, sleek and composed, her eyes shining with an almost predatory satisfaction. They were a vision of success, a united front, celebrating a triumph built on the foundation of my despair. The news anchor was gushing, detailing the groundbreaking acquisition that had just cemented Joshua's position as a titan in the tech world.

Fifty million dollars. The exact sum of my ransom. My blood ran cold, fear and a dawning, terrible realization battling in my chest. No. It couldn't be. Not Joshua. Not my family.

The captor' s heavy hand gripped my arm, dragging me towards the phone. "Call him," he hissed, pushing the device into my trembling hand. "One last chance. Tell him to pay."

I dialed, my fingers numb, a desperate hope fluttering in my chest. Maybe it was a misunderstanding. Maybe.

The phone rang twice, then a click. But it wasn' t Joshua's voice that answered. It was Giselle. Her voice, smooth and confident, filled the small, grimy room.

"Joshua is in a very important meeting right now, Haylee," she said, her tone laced with a subtle amusement that scraped against my nerves. "He can't come to the phone."

"Giselle, please," I choked out, my voice raw, "Tell him it's me. Tell him they'll hurt me if he doesn't-"

"Darling," Giselle interrupted, a soft, intimate laugh floating over the line, "he's really quite busy. We both are. You wouldn't believe the workload since the acquisition. And, well, some things are more important than others, aren't they?"

Then I heard it. A low chuckle in the background, unmistakably Joshua' s. Giselle' s voice softened, almost a purr. "Joshua, darling, it's just Haylee. Wants a chat."

Another low chuckle, then Joshua' s voice, distant, muffled, but clear enough. "Tell her I'm busy. And to stop... creating drama."

The line went dead.

My hand fell to my side, the phone clattering against the concrete floor. Drama. That's what I was. A disturbance. An inconvenience.

Joshua had chosen. He had chosen the fifty million dollars, the corporate empire, the dazzling future with Giselle by his side. Over me. Over his fiancée. Over the woman he claimed to love. He saw me as a transaction, and I was apparently not worth the investment.

I stumbled back, my mind reeling. The captors, their faces now contorted with rage, stared at me as if I were a ghost. They knew. They understood what I had just been told.

It was the eighth day. Still no ransom. The captors' patience had run out. They moved with a chilling efficiency, no longer careful, no longer hesitant. They began to hurt me, not just physically, but in ways designed to break my spirit. They sent videos, gruesome, degrading proof of my suffering, to Joshua, hoping to elicit a response.

There was none. Only a generic press release from Joshua's company, a cold, corporate statement about not negotiating with terrorists and not bending to extortion. It was a public declaration that I was expendable.

The ninth day. The videos escalated. They forced me into positions of abject humiliation, threatening to release them to the world. Anything to make him pay.

Still nothing. Only more news stories about Joshua' s meteoric rise, his unwavering resolve, his "courageous stance against terrorism."

Then came the tenth day. Another news report. My parents. Miriam and Robert Velasquez. They were making a joint announcement, their faces grim, but composed. They were officially withdrawing all investments from Joshua's company. And they were relocating. Permanently. Out of the country. For "health reasons."

I watched, numb, as they signed over their assets to a charity, effectively disinheriting me. They were abandoning me. My family, the people who were supposed to love me unconditionally, had chosen their reputation, their freedom, over their own daughter. I wasn't just abandoned by my fiancé; I was cast off by my own blood. I was no longer a cherished daughter, a beloved fiancée. I was a liability. A pawn in a game I didn't even know I was playing, tossed aside by everyone I had ever loved.

The captors' rage, once directed at my perceived value, now turned into something purely vindictive. They had been lied to, scorned. Their prize, me, was worthless. And they took their frustrations out on my body, my spirit.

I endured fifteen days of unspeakable horrors. Each day was a new layer of torment, a fresh wound carved into my flesh, my soul. I was starved, beaten, humiliated. They burned me with cigarettes, carved words into my skin. They broke my fingers, one by one, ensuring my artistic future, my passion, was forever stolen. I screamed until my voice was hoarse, until no sound came out. I begged for death, for an end to the agony, but even that mercy was denied. They wanted me to suffer. And I did. Every single moment of it.

But the most agonizing blow was still to come, something I wouldn' t fully comprehend until much later, after I had escaped the living hell they had trapped me in. A life, a tiny, precious spark of life, extinguished before I even knew it existed. My unborn child, a secret I had planned to share with Joshua on our wedding night, was lost amidst the violence, the terror, the betrayal.

Joshua, meanwhile, soared. His company became a household name. He was lauded as a visionary, a man who built an empire from nothing, unburdened by sentimentality. Giselle was always by his side, his shadow, his confidante. Their public appearances became increasingly intimate, their bond undeniable. The world celebrated their rise, oblivious to the human cost of their ambition. They were the success story. I was just the unfortunate, forgotten detail.

They had everything. I had nothing. Only the scars, visible and invisible, that covered every inch of my being. And a burning, silent rage that would one day demand its due.