Chapter 3

Eva POV:

A three-year-old. And another on the way. My mind, still grappling with the impossible, did the math. Derek had moved on, not months, but years ago. His "five-year search" for me? A lie. A cruel, elaborate charade. He hadn't been searching for me; he'd been building a new life, a new family. My ghost was a convenient scapegoat for his new happiness.

The irony tasted like ash in my mouth. He spent five years supposedly looking for me, only to seal me away again when I finally returned. He wanted to marry Casey. He wanted me to die, quietly, conveniently, so his perfect new life wouldn't be disturbed.

A bitter, humorless laugh escaped my lips. It was a raw, dry sound.

"Explain?" I rasped, the word a curse. "There's nothing to explain, Derek. Your actions speak louder than any words you could ever conjure."

I turned away from their sickening display, my gaze falling on the pile of jagged rocks. I had to get out. My broken body, my dying body, needed to move. My hands, raw and bleeding from my desperate escape from the simulation, clawed at the stone. Each movement sent agonizing bolts of pain through my arm, up to my shoulder, but I ignored it. I had to.

Tears streamed down my face, hot trails mixing with the cold sweat and grime. My fingers, scraped and torn, were slick with blood, but I kept digging. I wouldn't die here. Not like this. Not after everything. My parents. I needed to see my parents. They would listen. They would understand. They would love me.

A faint sliver of light, almost imperceptible, peeked through a crack in the rockfall. A tiny beacon of hope. My breath hitched. I pushed harder, a desperate sob tearing from my throat.

Just then, Casey' s voice, a sickeningly sweet whisper, cut through the air. "Derek, look!"

I heard a sudden shriek, then a thud. I spun around, my heart pounding. Casey lay on the ground, curled into a ball, clutching her abdomen. A dark, wet stain bloomed beneath her.

"My baby!" she wailed, her voice piercing. "She pushed me! She pushed me!"

Before I could react, a heavy boot slammed down on my outstretched hand, pinning it to the ground. Bone-jarring pain shot up my arm, a sickening crunch echoing in the cavern. I screamed, a primal sound torn from my throat. The familiar, bone-deep agony. It was the same pain I felt when the creatures in the simulation broke my limbs, when I starved, when I was tortured. This wasn't the simulation. This was real. This was Derek.

He ripped his foot away, then roughly pulled Casey to her feet, his face contorted with fury. He didn't even glance at my mangled hand. He just kicked at the pile of loose rocks near the entrance, sending them crashing down, further sealing me in.

"You monster!" he roared, his voice shaking with rage. "You tried to kill my child! You tried to hurt Casey!" His eyes burned with hatred. He hadn't seen anything. He hadn't asked. He just assumed. His love, his devotion, was a shield for her, a weapon against me.

The betrayal was complete. It wasn' t just that he had moved on. It was that he saw me as a villain, a threat, an inconvenience to be discarded.

I bit down on my lip, hard, until the metallic taste of blood filled my mouth. My mangled hand, almost certainly broken, trembled as I slowly pulled it from beneath the rocks. I looked at Derek, my eyes burning with a hatred that mirrored his own.