Chapter 1

The heavy door creaked open, light sliced into my dim room.

Two large men I didn' t know entered, their faces blank.

They lifted me from the stained mattress, my legs useless beneath me.

Pain shot through my hips, a familiar burn, but I made no sound.

They carried me like a sack of unwanted things through long, cold hallways I barely remembered.

This wing of the estate was always kept dark, always forgotten, like me.

Finally, we reached the main living area, bright and loud.

Ethan stood by the massive fireplace, a drink in his hand, looking like the king of his castle.

Chloe, the pop star, clung to his arm, her smile sharp and victorious.

My son, Leo, stood a little apart, his small face tight. He wouldn't look at me.

Ethan swirled his drink, ice clinking.

"Sarah, good of you to join us."

His voice was smooth, the same voice that once whispered love songs he now believed I stole.

Chloe squeezed his arm tighter, her eyes, cold as polished stones, fixed on me.

"Ethan, darling, be gentle. She's been through so much."

Her voice was sugar, but the sweetness was poison.

Ethan nodded, a serious look on his face.

"Yes, of course. Sarah, we need to discuss your public apology to Chloe."

"For what?" My voice was a rasp, unused for days.

"For trying to sabotage her career years ago," Ethan said, his tone hardening. "For spreading vicious lies about her talent."

Leo suddenly spoke, his voice high and strained, "You were mean to Aunt Chloe! You tried to hurt her!"

He was repeating lines, lines Chloe or Ethan had fed him.

My own son.

A coldness spread through me, deeper than the chill of the neglected room I called home.

This was it, then. The final humiliation.

Ethan continued, "Chloe has been remarkably forgiving. All she asks is a simple, public statement. Then, perhaps, we can move forward."

Move forward to what? More of this gilded cage? More torment?

Chloe simpered, "It's for the best, Sarah. For Leo. He needs a peaceful home."

The System, that quiet voice inside my head, the one that had been my only companion in the dark, whispered.

Are you ready to leave, Sarah?

It was an old question, a recurring offer when things got too much.

I focused on a point beyond Ethan's shoulder, a crack in the expensive wallpaper.

A tiny nod, a flicker in my eyes. That was my answer.

Ethan saw the movement, misinterpreted it.

A satisfied smile touched his lips. "Good. I knew you'd see reason."

He started to move towards me, perhaps to offer a patronizing hand.

In that instant, the world fractured.

The bright room, the cruel faces, the sound of Chloe' s false sympathy – it all dissolved.

I "vanished."

Not physically, not in a puff of smoke.

I simply disconnected. My mind pulled away, leaving an empty shell in the wheelchair.

I was gone from their immediate reality, into the quiet space the System held for me.