Begging for My Forgiveness

Five years of marriage to Caleb Sterling, and he still hated my guts.

He didn't just hate me.

At the behest of his precious Lucia Rossi, he had me beaten until I was hospitalized.

Then, he forced me into that cold operating room to end my pregnancy.

He did it because he loathed the idea of a child carrying my genes.

Even my own brother, Xavier Vance, turned against me because of Lucia's lies.

To top it all off, they framed me for Lucia's crime and threw me into a cage.

I endured hell in prison, and I finally decided to let them all go.

But now, they're the ones begging for a second chance.

......

When Caleb came to collect me, I was in the Warden's office, receiving my daily punishment.

The Warden forced me to my knees, his whip whistling through the air before it bit into my back.

"Warden, Inmate 1931's family is here."

The guard's voice at the door finally made the Warden stop.

He looked down at me, his eyes cold and menacing.

"1931, you know what will happen if you say a word about what goes on in here, don't you?"

I nodded, my body trembling uncontrollably.

"I... I know."

Satisfied by my cowardice, he shoved a stack of papers toward me.

"Sign it. Now."

I picked up the pen with numb fingers.

It had been so long since I had heard my own name.

After a moment of hesitation, I scratched out the name "Seraphina Vance."

The Warden escorted me to the prison gates himself.

I knew it wasn't a gesture of kindness.

It was a final threat.

The sunlight was so blinding it made my eyes ache.

In the distance, a luxury sports car gleamed under the sun.

Standing beside it was a man who exuded wealth and power.

My husband, Caleb Sterling.

It was a cruel joke.

The man who put me in this hell was the same man waiting to take me home.

Him, and my brother Xavier, who once promised to protect me from the world.

The two men I loved most had conspired to destroy me.

Caleb frowned when he saw me standing still.

"Seraphina, quit stalling. What the hell are you doing?"

I dragged my meager belongings toward him.

But as I got closer, the scent of his expensive cologne made my stomach churn.

I stopped, doubling over as a wave of nausea hit me.

I hadn't eaten in twenty-four hours.

Nothing came up but bitter bile.

Caleb didn't offer a hand or a kind word.

He looked at me with pure disgust.

"Still playing the victim, I see. It's pathetic. Don't you have any other tricks?"

I forced myself upright.

He looked at me like I was a stray dog, something filthy and beneath him.

In his mind, I was probably worse than a beast.

Right before I was locked away, I found out I was pregnant with his child.

He took me to the clinic and forced me onto that table.

When I woke up, the life inside me was gone.

I still remember the first thing he said to me after the procedure.

"Seraphina, you're so rotten to the core. A child with your blood wouldn't be any better. It's better to snuff it out now than let another monster into this world."

With those few, casual words, he murdered our baby.

"Are you spacing out again?"

Caleb's sharp voice snapped me back to the present.

"Get in the car. We need to get home. Don't keep Lucia waiting."

The mention of her name sent a sharp pang through my heart.

If it weren't for Lucia Rossi, I wouldn't be a broken shell of a woman.

Caleb stepped forward to grab my bag, but I flinched and pulled it away.

"No... I can do it myself."

Years in prison had taught me that I was the only person I could rely on.

Caleb looked surprised.

"Maybe prison was good for something. At least it knocked that spoiled brat attitude out of you."

I wanted to laugh, but my throat felt like it was filled with glass.

Good for me?

Lucia was the one who hit that pedestrian while driving drunk.

But Caleb and Xavier couldn't bear to see her suffer.

So they sent me, the woman they hated, to pay for her sins.

In that cell, I was subjected to horrors no human should endure.

On my first day, the Warden put me in a private cell.

I thought Caleb had pulled strings to keep me safe.

I was wrong.

He had pulled strings to make sure I was specially targeted.

I tried to report a group of inmates who were bullying others.

That same night, I was dragged to the Warden's private room.

It was a chamber filled with instruments of pain.

They tied my hands and hung me from a ceiling beam.

They stripped my shirt and lashed my back until it was a bloody mess.

I fainted from the pain.

They woke me up by pouring a bucket of salt water over my wounds.

That agony is something I will never forget as long as I live.

When they were done, they threw me into a cell with the very bullies I had reported.

They tortured me all night to teach me a lesson about snitching.

I realized then that everyone was on Lucia's payroll.

I had no allies.