Chapter 4

My finger trembled as I tapped on the group chat. "Aleida's Auction."

The contents were worse than anything I could have imagined.

It was a log, a disgusting record of messages from Derek' s friends-men I had hosted in my home, men who had smiled at me and congratulated me on my pregnancy.

My eyes scanned the screen, and my vision blurred. I felt a wave of dizziness, and I had to grip the edge of the table to keep from falling.

The chat was filled with bids. Not just for the paternity bet, but for something else. I scrolled up, my heart pounding a sick, heavy beat.

There it was. A schedule. A "booking schedule." My name was at the top. Underneath were dates, times, and names. Edison. Mark. Steven. A list of Derek's friends. Next to each name was a dollar amount.

They had been selling me.

While I was drugged and unconscious, they had been letting these men into my bed. My home. My body.

A wave of pure, undiluted humiliation washed over me. I wasn't a wife. I wasn't even a person to them. I was a commodity. A thing to be used, abused, and sold to the highest bidder.

A new message popped up in the chat from a man named Frank.

"Is she available tonight? I'm willing to double the last bid."

Derek' s reply appeared almost instantly. "Sorry, Frank. She's off the market until the party. Big finale, you know."

Edison added a laughing emoji. "Yeah, think of her like a high-end escort. You have to book the main event in advance."

An escort. They were comparing me to an escort. The disgust was so intense it felt like a physical poison in my veins.

More messages flooded in, each one a new layer of degradation. They joked about my body, my "performance," my utter lack of awareness.

Just then, a notification appeared at the top of the screen. A new message from Else.

I clicked on it.

"Big news, everyone! My flight is booked! I'll be back in two days. We're having a welcome home party at The Grand Oak Pavilion. You're all invited!"

My blood ran cold. The Grand Oak Pavilion. That was where Derek and I had our wedding reception. Another sacred memory they planned to defile.

"And I have a little surprise to get everyone excited for the big prize," her message continued.

An image loaded.

My stomach dropped. I felt a violent urge to gag.

It was a sonogram picture. My sonogram picture. The one I had framed on my bedside table.

Beneath the image of my unborn child, Else had added a caption in bold, garish letters.

"THE POT OF GOLD."

A tremor started in my hands and spread through my entire body. A dark premonition, a certainty of what they planned for me at that party, began to form in my mind. This wasn't just about humiliation. This was about something far more sinister.

I had to act fast. I couldn't let them win.

With shaking fingers, I quickly forwarded the entire chat history, the photos, the schedule-everything-to a secure email address I had created years ago. I backed it up to a cloud drive. I made copies of copies. Evidence.

Footsteps on the stairs. Derek was coming back down.

I quickly closed the hidden interface and placed the phone back on the table, exactly where it had been. I turned just as he walked into the room.

"What's wrong?" he asked, his eyes narrowing slightly. "You look pale."

"I just felt the baby kick," I lied, forcing a shaky smile. "It startled me."

He seemed to buy it, his expression softening into that familiar mask of fake concern. The mask that now made my skin crawl.

"Well, speaking of good news," he said, his smile widening. "I was just talking to Else. She's coming home! We're throwing a party for her at The Grand Oak Pavilion in two days. To celebrate."

My heart hammered against my ribs. "The Pavilion? Derek, I don't know... I'm so tired these days."

"Nonsense," he said, his tone instantly dismissive. "It's for Else. After everything you put her through, it's the least you can do to be there and welcome her home properly."

There it was again. The lie. The foundation of their entire sick fantasy.

"I really don't feel up to it," I said, my voice pleading.

His smile vanished. "Aleida, you are going. This is not a discussion." His voice was low, threatening. "You owe her this. You will be there, you will be smiling, and you will show everyone what a happy, supportive family we are."

He stepped closer, his presence suddenly menacing. He grabbed my arm, his grip surprisingly strong.

"Do you understand me?" he hissed, his face inches from mine.

I looked into his eyes and saw nothing but cold, empty darkness. No love. No remorse. Just a chilling determination.

I had no choice. For my plan to work, I had to go. I had to walk into the lion's den.

"Yes," I whispered, my voice trembling. "I understand."

He let go of my arm and forced me toward the door. "Good. Now go get ready. We need to make a good impression."

He was dragging me to my own execution. But he didn't know that I was the one who had just set the trap.