Chapter 6 - The Shattered Mirror
The world began to lose its focus. The pain in her side was turning into a dull, throbbing ache, but the real agony was in the way Ethan was looking at her. It wasn't the look of a husband protecting his wife; it was the look of a caregiver watching over a patient he didn't quite trust.
'Emily, calm down,' Ethan said softly, his voice echoing in her ears as if from a great distance. 'You’re having an episode. It’s okay. We’ll get you help.'
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'Episode?' Emily’s scream was barely a whisper. She looked at Margaret. The older woman was watching her with a look of smug, triumphant satisfaction. She had won. She had successfully reframed the entire event as a psychiatric breakdown rather than an assault.
Emily felt the walls of the house closing in. She realized then that this wasn't just about the house or the baby; it was about control. Margaret didn't just want to remove her; she wanted to dismantle her mind until she was nothing more than a ghost in the corners of this home. Every word, every look, every calculated move Margaret made was part of a grander design, a suffocating tapestry of psychological warfare that Emily was currently losing.
