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The voice in the video rang out, sharp and chilling in the suffocating silence:
“How are you ‘taking care’ of her? She still has the strength to cry for help? Gag her-let her know what it feels like to be mute.”
The footage shifted. A guard grinned as he forced the girl’s jaw open. Another officer stepped forward with a pot of freshly boiled water-and poured it straight into her mouth.
“Ugh!!!”
Her scream was guttural, animalistic, cut short as the scalding water seared her mouth, throat, and esophagus. Her body convulsed in agony. The screen shook violently before freezing on the grotesque image: her mouth bloodied, eyes rolled back, body limp and unconscious.
The scene cut again-to a dim, filthy prison cell. The girl now lay motionless on a cold stone bed.
A pair of feet in elegant high heels stepped into frame, stopping beside her. The camera tiltec upward slowly, revealing the silhouette of a woman cloaked in shadows. She leaned down-anc slapped the unconscious girl across the face, again and again.
‘Ava,” came the voice, venomous and warped, “you’ve been discarded like trash, yet you keep crawling back to me like some wretched insect.”
Delilah’s distorted voice was now unmistakable.
‘I was born with a silver spoon, refined and adored. And you? You belong in the gutter-filthy unloved, disgusting.”
She seized the girl’s hair, yanking her up roughly.
‘Every time I look at your face-the same face Mom once had in her youth-every time I see her eyes fill with affection when she looks at you… it’s like a knife ripping through my heart!” Her voice cracked with jealous rage.
‘I won’t let anyone steal what’s mine. Not my parents. Not my brother. Their love, their attention their world-it belongs to me and me alone!”
She released her, letting the girl’s head slam against the stone slab.
Delilah’s voice turned dark, obsessive.
‘And Daniel… I love him! He’s mine. From the moment we fell in love, no one else ever existed. Sc why? Just because you went to the same school, you think you can steal his heart? You filthy rat -what right do you have to stand beside me?”
She was nearly unhinged now.
“I’ve had the best education, the finest upbringing-everything you could only dream of. You’re not even fit to lick my shoes!”
A low, broken whisper came from the unconscious girl. Her blistered lips moved with effort. “No… they… love me…”
That single, fragile breath snapped something in Delilah.
“Love?” she shrieked, her laugh high-pitched and maniacal. “Don’t kid yourself, Ava. Just try and see-will they believe you, or me?”
She stood straight again, her eyes gleaming with cold triumph. Then, turning to the guards, she
ordered:
“Clearly the last punishment wasn’t enough. Give her something… unforgettable. Make sure she never dares to defy me again.”
One of the guards bowed obsequiously. “Yes, Miss Wren! Don’t worry-we’ll make tonight extra memorable for her.” His snicker echoed hideously.
The screen went black.
Silence engulfed the banquet hall.
Then-
Chaos.
An explosion of gasps, curses, and shrieks tore through the crowd.
‘Oh my God-what kind of monster is she?!”
‘She’s deranged! That’s not even human!”
‘The Wren family raised this? No wonder they’re rotten to the core!”
‘She tortured her own sister? Bribed guards to do it? You’re all complicit!”
The wave of outrage crashed onto the Wren family and Daniel like a tsunami.
They stood at the center of the storm-pale, trembling, and powerless.
Mrs. Wren clutched her chest, staggering from the blow. Her voice cracked through her sobs as she turned to her husband:
‘My Ava… my poor girl… Didn’t you promise me she’d be safe? Didn’t you say she wouldn’t suffe n there?!”
Mr. Wren’s face twisted in horror, as if a steel rod had pierced his spine. He turned slowly-his bloodshot eyes locking on Delilah.
She stood frozen, pale as a ghost, lips trembling.
His voice trembled with rage and guilt.
‘You said you’d handle it. You said you’d take care of her.”
‘This is what you meant?”
‘You made me throw my own daughter into hell!”