He didn’t ask if I was hurt.

He walked to the corner near the pantry, picked up a thick wooden stick he used in the yard, and came back with it loose in his hand as if this were the most natural response in the world.

“I told you to get up,” he said.

The blow landed across my thigh.

Pain exploded so suddenly that my scream sounded like it came from someone else.

I curled inward on instinct, arms wrapping around my belly, knees pulling up as far as they could.

The baby.

Protect the baby.

That thought drowned out everything.

Helena laughed.

The sound of it hit me almost as hard as the stick had.

“She deserves it,” she said.

“Hit her again.

She still hasn’t learned her place.”

“Please,” I sobbed.

“Please, the baby.”

Victor crouched, his face close to mine, the stick still in his hand.

“Is that all you care about?” he hissed.

“You don’t respect me.

You embarrass me in front of my family.”

Nora was still recording.

I saw the phone first—the tiny red light, the blank expression on her face, the way she kept filming as if this were a clip to rewatch later.

Then, beyond her foot, I saw my own phone on the floor where it had slipped from my robe pocket when I fell.

It was only a few feet away.

It may as well have been across an ocean.

I lunged for it anyway.

“Catch her,” Raúl barked.

My fingers scraped the screen.

The glass was cold and slick under my shaking hand.

I didn’t need a passcode.

Face recognition caught enough of me.

The last open conversation was the one I always kept pinned at the top.

Alex.

My older brother had been an ex-Marine for years before he became the most patient man I knew.

Patient with everyone except men who frightened their wives.

He had never trusted Victor fully.

The first time he saw bruises on my wrist, he didn’t push me.

He just took my phone, turned on location sharing, pinned his chat, and said, “If you ever can’t explain, send two words.

That’s enough.”

I typed the only thing I could.

Help.

Please.

The message showed sent.

A second later Victor snatched the phone out of my hand and hurled it into the wall.

The screen shattered.

He grabbed a fistful of my hair and yanked my head back until tears blurred my vision.

“You think someone is coming to save you?” he whispered.

Then everything went black.

When I came to, the tile felt even colder.

My mouth tasted metallic, and my leg throbbed in deep, ugly pulses.

For a terrifying second, I forgot where I was.

Then Helena’s voice cut through the fog.

“Lift her up,” she snapped.

“We can’t let anyone see her like this.”

I moved both hands to my stomach.

Nothing.

The entire world narrowed into one silent, impossible second.

I stopped breathing.

Then, faint but real, I felt a small kick against my palm.

A broken cry escaped me.

Relief and terror crashed together so hard it hurt.

“She’s awake,” Nora said.

There was no mockery in her voice now.

Just panic.

Victor was pacing.

The wooden stick lay near the table.

Raúl had opened the back