Chapter 3: The Severed Ties
I found Eliza upstairs, wrapped in my shirt, trembling.
I knelt in front of her.
“I’m sorry.”
She didn’t look at me.
“That scares me,” she whispered. “It sounds like you knew.”
“No,” I said. “But I should have.”
That mattered.
“I tried to tell you once,” she said.
My chest tightened.
“When?”
“You were on your laptop. I said she scared me.”
I remembered.
I hadn’t even looked up.
“She told me you’d think I was crazy,” Eliza continued. “Your mother agreed.”
Gaslighting.
Systematic.
Cruel.
“They made me believe I was the problem.”
Tears fell.
“They made me feel… disgusting.”
I held her hands.
“Did she ever hit you?”
A pause.
Then—
A nod.
Everything inside me went cold.
“Where?”
Part 3 of 3
“Places you wouldn’t see.”
I stood.
“We’re going to the hospital.”
She hesitated.
“I can’t.”
“You don’t have to explain everything. But we need to check the baby.”
After a moment—
She nodded.
