CHAPTER 73: CHAPTER 73; SHE WAS BACK....

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Darkness.

That was all she felt at first, thick, suffocating darkness pressing against her skin, wrapping around her chest like iron bands until she couldn’t breathe.

Then came the voices.

Whispers, cold and echoing, filled her ears with mocking laughter that sliced through her like blades.

"She’s nothing."

"Just a pawn... just a toy..."

"She thought she could be loved... so pathetic."

"No one will come for you."

"No one ever will."

"Shen Xiao has never loved you, you are just a trophy wife to cover up the space!"

"Even your son doesn’t want you!"

Her body felt heavy, pinned down against icy stone as hands reached out from the darkness, clawing at her arms, her legs, her throat. Shadows loomed above her, shifting and curling like snakes ready to strike.

She tried to scream, but no sound came out. Her mouth opened in a silent, desperate gasp as panic burned through her veins like acid.

Suddenly, a flash of blinding white light seared through the shadows, revealing a tall figure standing before her.

Shen Xiao.

His obsidian eyes looked down at her, cold and empty, his expression carved from unfeeling stone. He reached out a hand towards her, his long fingers curling around her throat with slow, deliberate force.

"You belong to me," his voice rumbled softly, almost tenderly, as his grip tightened. "Even in death."

Her vision blurred with tears as the darkness surged back, swallowing his face until only his cold, unbreakable grip remained.

She struggled weakly, choking, clawing at his wrist as the world began to fade around her. Her heart slammed painfully in her chest, the pounding so loud it drowned out every other sound.

Then....

A sudden rush of air filled her lungs as her eyes snapped open.

She lay staring at the ivory ceiling above, her chest rising and falling in ragged, shallow breaths.

Sweat dampened her hairline, dark strands sticking to her pale, clammy forehead.

The faint morning light filtering through the sheer curtains illuminated the ornate carvings along the ceiling mouldings, the delicate beauty blurring through her tear-filled eyes.

She pressed a hand against her chest, feeling her heart hammer violently beneath her ribs.

"It was just a dream," she whispered shakily, her voice barely audible over her ragged breaths. "Just... a dream..."

But deep within her, the phantom echo of his cold grip lingered, wrapping around her throat and chest like invisible chains that refused to break.

’No matter how far she tried to run, awake or asleep, there would never be a day she was truly free.’

The oppressive silence pressed down on her chest like a boulder. She checked the place around, and it was all the same once again! She didn’t feel like she would ever escape the place....

She was back.

Back in the mansion she had fought so desperately to escape. Back in the place where her soul had died long before her body ever would.

Tears welled up in her eyes before she could stop them, hot and bitter as they slid down her temples into the tangled mess of her hair strewn across the satin pillow.

Her arms trembled as she pushed herself upright, the thick duvet slipping off her thin shoulders to pool around her waist. Dizziness swept through her, dark spots flickering at the edges of her vision as her pulse fluttered weakly beneath bruised skin.

Her eyes darted around the vast, echoing bedroom in panic, searching for her phone, her shoes, anything, but the room was pristine, stripped of every small belonging she could use.