"You stay put in there, or I''ll beat you!" thenky man warned.


    Hannah stumbled into the cage, her forehead hitting the iron bars. By the time she turned around, the cage door had been mmed shut and locked.


    From that moment on, her world was framed by bars. She was trapped in a dog cage so small she could only sit, unable to stand up or even stretch her legs.


    She sat there in a daze for several minutes before her senses returned. She drew her knees to her chest, wrapped her arms around them, and rested her head on her knees.


    It was humiliation, despair, and an overwhelming sense of disgust.


    Even as a child in the orphanage, being bullied by other kids and abused by the director, orter being tormented in school, she had never felt this humiliated.


    Time and again, she had fought back against her tormentors, showing them that even without parents, even being small and thin, she was not someone they could push around.


    But the strong, resilient woman she was had stumbled time and again when it came to Lionel. He had repeatedly shattered her dignity, grinding it into the dust.


    Tears soaked her clothes until her eyes were dry. The grief in her heart was as thick and dark as ink.


    Through the bars, she watched the blue sky and white clouds appear after the storm. Her body felt feverish and weak. She leaned against the cage, her mind a nk te, trying not to think at all.


    "If Lionel really doesn''t show up, what do we do with this woman? We can''t just keep her locked up like this."


    "If he doesn''te, we''ll put a hood over her head and dump her somewhere. Look at her. It''s not like she''s in any state to get revenge on us," the bald man said, taking a picture of Hannah with his phone and sending it off.


    Thenky man looked at her and clicked his tongue. "I thought that even if there was no love, a rich man''s wife wouldn''t be left in such a pathetic state."


    "There''s no love among the rich. It''s all an act. But her husband won''t even bother to put on a show. It''s a joke," the bald manughed.


    Hannah heard their words but didn''t react, her heavy eyelids closing as she drifted into a feverish sleep.


    When she opened her eyes again, the evening sun was casting a warm glow on her. A box of food had appeared in the cage, but there were no utensils.


    Hannah opened the box and couldn''t help butugh at the contents.


    One meat dish, one vegetable dish-not bad treatment at all.


    Without a second thought, she reached in and began eating with her hands. In her most desperate times, she had eaten expired bread from a dumpster. Eating with her hands was nothing


    The autumn night was


    bone-chillingly cold. A frigid wind seeped in through the cracks in the walls. Hannah curled into a tight ball, her arms wrapped around herself, her mind already bazy and


    s as her eyelids fluttered"


    shut.


    When she opened her eyes again,, there was another box of food in the


    cage, but she had no appetite. She


    up her eyes listlessly


    following an ant on the ground.


    "Hey, make another call. Tell him if he doesn''te save you, we''re going to have our way with you!"


    The bald man crouched in front of her and dialed the number.


    "What do you want now?"


    The moment the call connected, Lionel''s familiar, furious voice roared through the phone.


    "Lionel..." she began, her voice weak. "Save me... They''re going to assault me, save_"


    Beep..... beep..... beep...


    Before she could finish her sentence, he hung up.


    Hannah stared at the darkening screen, a faint smile ying on her lips.