Chapter 3He Hid Our Daughter to Break Me

Sophie chased after him, gasping for breath as she grabbed his jacket just before he got into the driver's seat.

"Dom, baby, calm down! Actually, I saw Caroline sneak out to the kitchen in the middle of the night. I tried to say hello, but she ignored me. She shoved me against the counter and told me to mind my own business..."

Sophie let go of his jacket, biting her bottom lip, looking like the perfect victim. "Dom, do you think... Caroline is still refusing to forgive us?"

Dominic's foot froze just outside the car door.

He let out a slow, shaky breath. The panic vanished, instantly replaced by a wave of cynical rage. "Of course. Pretending to go on a hunger strike while sneaking food. Even using Cici's life to put on a sick little show. She really outdid herself this time."

With a dark sneer, Dominic walked right back into the restaurant, banishing every urge to go home.

My soul drifted back to the empty, echoing penthouse.

A few hours later, I heard frantic, stumbling footsteps rushing through the foyer.

It was my mother.

After four years of crying over my missing daughter, her eyesight was almost completely gone. She tapped her white cane against the walls, holding a thermal flask tight to her chest.

"Caro? Honey, where are you? Mom brought you your favorite ribs..."

She fumbled for the nursery door handle and pushed it open.

Her trembling hands reached out, brushing against the bed. When her fingers finally touched my freezing, rigid face, a scream of pure, shredded agony ripped through the silence of the penthouse.

Watching my mother clutch my rotting corpse, sobbing until she was choking on her own breath, my ghost actually felt physical pain.

Hours later, the tears stopped. Her face hardened into something unrecognizable.

To prevent Dominic from ever touching my body again, she quietly hired a discreet private funeral service. They wrapped me up and took me away before the sun even set.

The next time anyone opened that front door, it was three days later.

Dominic walked in, smelling heavily of bourbon. He peeled a clinging Sophie off his arm and kicked the nursery door open. "Caroline! How long are you going to keep up this pathetic act? Enough is enough!"

He was greeted by nothing but a perfectly stripped, empty bed.

Dominic's heart skipped a beat. A weird, hollow feeling hit his chest.

Then, his pride kicked back in. "Good! Perfect! You think you can run away? Go ahead and die out there on the streets! Do not ever come back!"

He stormed into the master suite and ripped open my walk-in closet. Seeing all my designer bags and clothes still sitting on the shelves, he let out a heavy sigh of relief.

The very next morning, Dominic ordered a dozen maids to pack up Sophie's things. He moved her into the penthouse with all the fanfare of a new queen taking her throne.

For the next few days, Dominic played the ruthless corporate king in the boardroom and the charming bachelor at high-society galas with Sophie on his arm.

Everything looked perfect on the surface. But his eyes grew darker and more violently restless every single day. He spent hours just staring at a blank phone screen.

On the seventh day of my disappearance, Dominic snapped.

He drove to the family mansion, grabbed Cici by the arm, and shoved his phone into her face. "Call your mother! Tell her to drag herself home right now!"

Cici shook like a leaf, bursting into terrified tears.

Dominic's eyes were totally bloodshot. "Are you completely useless? All you do is cry! You cannot even say one word? What good are you!"

"Daddy, please... Mommy? Are you there? I am so scared..."

Dominic cut the recording and sent the audio file to my phone.

He typed out a follow-up message with shaking fingers: "Caroline, I have Cici. If you are not back in this house in thirty minutes, you will never see her again for the rest of your life."

Sophie watched the whole meltdown from the doorway. She let out a soft, pitying sigh. "Dom, you do not have to do this. You know how stubborn she is. She will come back when she realizes she has no money. Besides, it seems like she doesn't even care about Cici that much..."

Dominic did not hear a single word.

He was hyper-fixated on the chat screen. Nothing. He dialed my number. Again. And again. And again.

When the robotic 'voicemail' prompt played for the fiftieth time, he let out a primal roar and hurled his phone directly at the marble wall, shattering it into a million pieces.