Victoria's POV
"Don't answer it," Marcus hisses, grabbing my arm hard enough to bruise.
The doorbell rings again. Then someone knocks.
"Mrs. Chen? This is Officer Rodriguez. We need to speak with you."
My heart hammers in my chest. The police are here. For me. But why?
Marcus's grip tightens. "If you say one word about our conversation, I'll tell them you're having a psychotic break. I'll have you committed to a psychiatric hospital before sunset."
He's not bluffing. He has two years of documentation showing my mental decline. He has power and respect and connections. I have nothing but a phone recording hidden in my pocket that he doesn't know about yet.
"Let go of me," I whisper.
"Remember what I said about Ezra," Marcus breathes in my ear. "One wrong word, and that boy's life is over."
He releases my arm and pastes on a concerned husband smile. Then he opens the door.
Two police officers stand on our porch. A woman with kind eyes and a younger male officer beside her.
"Dr. Chen," the woman says. "I'm Officer Rodriguez. This is Officer Kim. We're looking for your wife."
"Is something wrong?" Marcus asks, playing the worried spouse perfectly. "Victoria's been going through a difficult time. If she's done something—"
"We just need to ask her a few questions," Officer Rodriguez says, looking past Marcus to where I stand frozen in the hallway. "Mrs. Chen, can we speak with you?"
Marcus steps aside, but his warning look is clear. Be careful. Say nothing. Or else.
I walk to the door on shaking legs. "What's this about?"
Officer Rodriguez's expression softens. "Your therapist, Dr. Helen Morrison, didn't show up for her morning appointments. When her secretary went to check on her, she found Dr. Morrison unconscious in her office. She's in the hospital now."
My stomach drops. Dr. Morrison is my therapist. The one Marcus chose for me.
"Is she okay?" I ask.
"She's stable, but confused. She keeps saying your name. Says she needs to warn you about something." Officer Rodriguez pauses. "Mrs. Chen, when was the last time you saw Dr. Morrison?"
"Yesterday afternoon. My regular appointment."
"And how did she seem?"
I think back. Dr. Morrison had seemed distracted yesterday. Nervous. She'd asked me strange questions about Marcus. About whether I felt safe at home. Whether anyone was controlling my medication.
At the time, I thought she was just being thorough. Now I wonder if she suspected something.
"She seemed fine," I lie, feeling Marcus's eyes boring into my back.
Officer Rodriguez nods. "Dr. Morrison's assistant said she made an urgent call right after your session. She told someone she needed to report suspected psychological abuse. Do you know anything about that?"
My mouth goes dry. Dr. Morrison was going to report Marcus. She figured out what he was doing to me.
And now she's in the hospital, unconscious.
"I don't know anything," I say, my voice barely above a whisper.
Marcus puts his hand on my shoulder. To the officers, it probably looks supportive. But I feel the threat in his touch.
"My wife has been struggling with severe depression," Marcus says smoothly. "Dr. Morrison has been wonderful, but Victoria sometimes has... episodes. Paranoid thoughts. It's possible she said something to Dr. Morrison that was misconstrued."
"Paranoid thoughts about what?" Officer Kim asks.
"About me," Marcus says sadly. "Victoria sometimes blames me for our son's death. It's part of her grief process. Dr. Morrison and I have been working together to help her through it."
It's a perfect lie. He's painting me as the crazy one before I can even speak.
Officer Rodriguez looks at me carefully. "Mrs. Chen, is that true? Have you been having paranoid thoughts?"
I want to scream. I want to tell them everything. But Marcus's warning echoes in my head. He'll have me committed. He'll destroy Ezra. And Dr. Morrison is already hurt.
"Sometimes," I admit quietly. "Grief makes you think strange things."
I see the officers exchange a glance. They're already believing Marcus over me.
"Well, if you think of anything that might help us understand what happened to Dr. Morrison, please call," Officer Rodriguez says, handing me a card. "She was found with elevated levels of sedatives in her system. Same kind you're prescribed, actually."
My blood turns to ice. Marcus poisoned Dr. Morrison with my medication. If she dies, he'll blame me.
"That's concerning," Marcus says. "Victoria, you haven't been sharing your pills with anyone, have you?"
"No," I whisper.
But we all know how this looks. My therapist, who I saw yesterday, is now in the hospital with my medication in her system. And I'm the mentally unstable patient with a history of depression and grief.
Marcus has framed me perfectly.
After the police leave, Marcus closes the door and turns to me with cold eyes.
"You see how easy that was?" he says. "One phone call, and Dr. Morrison is gone. She was going to be a problem, so I handled it. Just like I'll handle you if you don't cooperate."
"You tried to kill her."
"I neutralized a threat," Marcus corrects. "And now the police think you did it. Your fingerprints are all over her office. You were the last patient she saw. Your medication is in her system." He smiles. "If she dies, you'll go to prison. If she lives, she'll be too scared to say anything."
"You're insane."
"I'm thorough." He picks up the glass of poisoned juice again. "Now drink this, or I make one phone call to the police saying you confessed to poisoning Dr. Morrison. Your choice."
I stare at the glass. At the man I married. At the monster wearing his face.
"I need time to think," I say.
"You have until tonight," Marcus says. "I'm going to work now. When I come home, you either drink the juice, or I call the police. Decide."
He leaves me standing in the kitchen with the poison.
As soon as his car pulls away, I grab my phone and delete the recording. It's too dangerous to keep. If Marcus finds it, he'll destroy it and punish me worse.
I need a different plan.
I need to disappear for a few hours. Clear my head. Figure out what to do.
I grab my jacket and walk out the door. I don't know where I'm going. I just walk. And walk. And walk.
Eventually, I find myself on the university campus where Marcus teaches. Students rush past me to classes. No one looks at me. No one knows who I am. I'm invisible here.
It feels like freedom.
I sit on a bench near the fountain and try to breathe. Try to think. But my mind is chaos.
Marcus killed our son. Poisoned me for two years. Attacked my therapist. And now he's threatening to frame me for a crime I didn't commit unless I kill myself.
I have no one to help me. No one to believe me. No way out.
The sun is setting, and it starts to rain. Cold drops on my face. I don't have an umbrella, but I don't care. Let the rain wash me away. Let it erase me completely.
I'm so lost in my misery that I don't notice the person sitting down next to me until he speaks.
"Are you okay?"
I look up. It's a young man, maybe mid-twenties. He has dark hair and sad eyes that somehow mirror my own pain.
"No," I answer honestly. For the first time in two years, I tell the truth. "I'm not okay at all."
He doesn't ask questions. Doesn't offer useless advice. He just sits with me in the rain, and somehow that makes me feel less alone.
We sit in silence for a long time. The rain gets heavier.
"Sometimes," he finally says, "the rain makes it easier. No one can tell you're crying."
I realize I am crying. Hot tears mixing with cold rain.
"I'm Ezra," the young man says gently.
My heart stops.
Ezra. The graduate student Marcus threatened to destroy. The next victim on his list.
He's sitting right here next to me, and he has no idea what's coming for him.
"I'm..." I can't tell him my real name. Can't put him in more danger. "I'm just someone who's very, very lost."
Ezra smiles sadly. "Me too."
We sit together as darkness falls. He doesn't try to leave. Doesn't act like I'm a burden. He just exists beside me, another broken soul in the rain.
Finally, he stands. "I have to go. But I'm here most evenings. Same bench. Same time. If you ever need someone to sit with."
"Why would you do that for a stranger?" I ask.
"Because two years ago, I needed someone to sit with me, and no one did," he says quietly. "I don't want anyone else to feel that alone."
He walks away into the darkness.
And I sit on the bench, soaking wet, and realize three terrible things at once:
One: I've just met the person Marcus plans to destroy next.
Two: I'm the only one who can warn him and save him.
Three: If I save Ezra, Marcus will know I'm not cooperating. He'll call the police and frame me for attacking Dr. Morrison. I'll go to prison.
But if I don't save Ezra, an innocent person will suffer the way I've suffered.
I have to choose: save myself, or save him.
I stand up from the bench and start walking. Not toward home. Not toward safety.
Toward campus security.
I'm going to tell them everything. Show them my hidden pill. Warn them about Marcus. Even if no one believes me. Even if it destroys me.
Because I'm done being Marcus's victim.
I'm done letting him hurt people.
I reach the security office and push open the door.
But before I can speak, I see something that makes my blood run cold.
Marcus is inside, talking to the head of campus security.
And they're both looking at a screen showing security camera footage.
Of me and Ezra sitting together on the bench.
Marcus turns and sees me standing in the doorway.
He smiles.
"There you are, darling," he says. "I've been so worried. I was just telling Chief Morrison here about your condition. About how you've been following my graduate students. Fixating on them inappropriately."
Chief Morrison looks at me with pity and concern. "Mrs. Chen, your husband says you need help. Is this young man bothering you, or...?"
I understand what Marcus has done.
He's already started framing me. Not just for Dr. Morrison's poisoning. But for stalking Ezra too.
When Marcus destroys Ezra, they'll blame me for that too.
"I..." My voice won't work.
Marcus walks toward me. "Let's go home, Victoria. You've had a long day. You need to rest. Take your medication."
His eyes promise punishment.
And I realize with perfect, horrible clarity: I never had a choice at all.
Marcus has already won.