Chapter 4

The ballroom glittered, packed with Boston's elite. Jake's 25th birthday gala was a spectacle of wealth and power.

Eleanor had ensured Jake was the center of it all, the heir apparent, flush with Ethan's newly signed-over assets.

Ethan stood in a shadowed corner, his scarred face drawing stares and hushed, cruel whispers.

"Look at him, ruined."

"Deserves it, after what he did to poor Jake."

He felt like an exhibit, a monster on display.

Jake, handsome and beaming, took the stage. He spoke of his "ordeal," his "recovery," his gratitude to his mother and Olivia.

Then, he looked directly at Ethan.

"My brother, Ethan, is here tonight," Jake announced, his voice smooth and solicitous. "He has something he wants to say."

He gestured for a waiter, who approached Ethan with a glass of champagne on a silver tray.

"A toast, Ethan?" Jake said, a smirk playing on his lips. "To new beginnings. To forgiveness."

Ethan looked at the champagne. His throat was a mangled wreck from the caustic cleaning chemical Olivia had forced down his throat five years ago. He could barely swallow water, let alone alcohol.

"I can't," Ethan said, his voice hoarse. "My throat..."

Olivia, standing beside Jake, initially looked uneasy. A flicker of something, perhaps memory, crossed her face.

Jake' s eyes narrowed. He leaned into the microphone.

"Still defiant, Ethan? After everything? Can't you do this one small thing for your brother? For your family?"

Olivia' s expression hardened, her brief hesitation gone. Under Jake' s manipulative gaze, she took the glass from the waiter.

She walked towards Ethan, her steps determined.

"Drink it, Ethan," she commanded, her voice low but firm. "Show everyone you're sorry."

It was a chilling reenactment. Her hand on his arm, the pressure, the expectation.

Ethan shook his head, backing away.

Suddenly, the massive screen behind the stage, which had been displaying images of Jake, flickered and changed.

Horrific, grainy footage filled the screen. Hidden camera views from inside the "correction facility."

Ethan, skeletal and bruised, being brutally beaten by guards.

Ethan, forced to eat slop from a bowl on the floor like an animal.

Ethan, screaming, being dragged to a solitary confinement cell.

The audio was raw, filled with his cries and the guards' taunts.

The entire ballroom fell into a stunned, horrified silence.

Ethan saw himself on the screen, the raw depiction of his torture.

The memories, the pain, the terror, all crashed down on him.

He collapsed to his knees, his body shaking uncontrollably.

"No more," he sobbed, his hands covering his scarred face. "Please, mercy... no more."

He was breaking, piece by piece, in front of everyone.