Not after everything she’d already survived.
I coughed again—louder this time, rougher, forcing it from deep in my chest. It scraped my throat raw, tasted like blood and dust, but I didn’t stop. If I could pull their attention for even a second—
The elder brother turned on me with sudden violence.
His hand cracked across my face.
The sound echoed sharp and final. Pain exploded along my cheekbone, white and blinding.
My head snapped sideways, vision swimming, the world tilting on its axis. I tasted copper.
“Fatty,” he snarled, leaning in close enough that I smelled tobacco and something rotten beneath it. “Do you want to infect us all with your sickness?”
I staggered but didn’t fall.
Through the haze, I saw them—my sisters in hell.
Ana shaking so badly she could barely stay upright. Bianca pale, lips parted in silent terror.
Sofia frozen, eyes huge and dark. Christina and Simona with tears sliding down their faces, unashamed, unstoppable. Corina staring straight ahead, jaw locked, already retreating inward.
None of us deserved this.
Something burned up through my chest, fierce and reckless and unstoppable.
I screamed.
“RUN!”
The word tore out of me, ripping my throat raw. I didn’t wait to see if they understood.
I ran.
Bare feet slammed into packed dirt, pain lancing up my legs as I sprinted toward the far corner of the yard. Toward the shed. Toward the only hope we had left. Behind me, chaos erupted—shouts in Albanian, boots pounding, curses splitting the air.
Then footsteps—lighter, frantic.
They were following me.
The master roared in fury, his voice carrying across the compound like thunder.
The brothers barked orders, sharp and fast. Guards joined the chase, weapons clattering as they ran.
I reached the shed just as my lungs began to burn.
My hands fumbled beneath the loose floorboard we’d disguised with straw and dirt. My fingers closed around the hammer—cold, familiar, sacred. Our salvation.
I swung.
The impact jarred my arms to the bone. Stone cracked but held. I swung again. And again. I didn’t care about noise anymore. Silence was useless now.
Shouts grew closer.
Too close.
I hammered with everything I had left—rage, terror, love, despair. The wall finally gave way, chunks of stone collapsing outward in a cloud of dust.
Cool air rushed in, carrying the scent of pine and damp earth. Freedom smelled like forest.