Abandoned in the Cellar on Our Wedding Night

1 On our wedding night, Alex decided we should play a game. He tied a dark silk scarf over my eyes, led me down the narrow stairs, and locked me in the basement. When I screamed, pounding my fists against the heavy oak door until my knuckles bled, Alex’s voice came through the grain, smooth, polite, and sickeningly apologetic. "Gwen isn't happy that you married me, Sienna," he said softly. "She just wants to give you a little lesson. Be a good girl. Once you come out, we’ll still be husband and wife." Then I heard the dull click of the heavy iron latch, cutting off the light, the air, and my sanity. Darkness has a way of turning seconds into hours. Up in that cold cellar, terror became a physical weight pressing against my chest, crushing the oxygen out of my lungs inch by inch. By the time the door finally creaked open hours later, I was collapsed on the concrete floor, barely conscious. Gwen stood over me, covering her mouth as she let out a delicate, musical chuckle. "Oh, Sienna," she purred, smoothing her disheveled hair. "I took Alex for a test drive for you last night. Turns out, he’s very capable." Alex knelt beside me, his thumb gently wiping a tear from my cheek with sickening tenderness. "The rest of my life belongs to you, Sienna," he murmured, his breath smelling faintly of her perfume. "I gave her my first time. It’s only fair." I stared at the vivid, dark red hickeys painted across Gwen’s neck, and something inside my chest quietly shattered. The last lingering embers of my love for him turned to ash. After they walked away, hand in hand, I dragged my limp body upstairs and collapsed onto the king-sized bed. The master bedroom was thick with the suffocating, heavy scent of sweat and expensive silk—the unmistakable lingering atmosphere of intimacy. I didn’t need to see it to know how wild, how passionate their night together had been while I was suffocating downstairs. I sat there in the silence, numbly pulled off the platinum diamond band from my left ring finger, and rubbed its cool metal edge between my thumbs. I remembered the day Alex proposed, his eyes wide and full of gentle warmth: "Sienna, Gwen and I grew up together. She’s been spoiled her whole life. Now that we’re together, just let her have her way sometimes, okay?" Back then, I had felt a mix of annoyance and disbelief. I had playfully nudged his arm. "Am I your girlfriend, or is Gwen? Why am I the one who always has to yield to her?" Seeing my frustration, Alex had chuckled, ruffling my hair with fond indulgence. But his voice had dropped, laced with a helpless, grave sincerity. "Sienna, Gwen saved my life when we were kids. I was almost snatched by traffickers at a crowded carnival, and she was the one who ran and found the security guards. For my sake, don't hold things against her, please?" Looking into his pleading eyes back then, I swallowed my pride and agreed, despite the bitter taste in my mouth. When Gwen found out we were dating, she threw a terrifying, theatrical tantrum. She climbed over the railing of a high-rise rooftop downtown, barefoot and hysterical, screaming into the wind: "Alex, you betrayed me! I hope you burn in hell!" A massive crowd gathered on the street below, filming her on their phones. By the time Alex rushed to the top floor, he was pale with terror. "Gwen, please, step back!" he had pleaded, his voice cracking. "Don't do something stupid! You know how much you mean to me. We’ve known each other our whole lives—how could I not care about you?" Gwen had wiped her eyes, letting out a cold, venomous laugh. "You care about me? Then why are you with that bitch, Sienna? If you really care, prove it!" She swung her bare legs over the ledge, dangling hundreds of feet in the air. Alex’s heart practically stopped. "How?" he had rasped out, his hands shaking. "How do I prove it?" Gwen pointed a manicured finger at me, a cruel, triumphant smirk breaking across her face. "Slap Sienna across the face right here, in front of everyone. Do it, and I’ll come down. Otherwise..." She shifted her weight, pretending to lose her balance. "I’ll make sure you regret this for the rest of your life. You’ll see my face every time you close your eyes!" The bustling world around us seemed to fall dead silent. Alex’s brows pulled into a deep, painful knot. He looked tormented, caught in an agonizing bind. Then, slowly, he turned and began walking toward me. Meeting my wide, disbelieving eyes, Alex raised his hand. He closed his eyes tightly, his tone dripping with desperate, wretched entreaty. "Sienna, you promised me you’d let her have her way. Don't make this harder for me, please. Let’s just get her down safely first. We can talk about everything else later." My eyes burned violently. I shook my head, my throat tight with horror. Before I could utter a single word, his hand swung down. Crack. The sound was deafening, sharp, and brutal. My cheek ignited in blinding heat. Tears burst from my eyes in hot, uncontrollable streams. Gwen squealed with delight, scrambling back over the railing and throwing her arms around Alex’s neck. "I knew it!" she sobbed happily into his chest. "I knew I was the one you loved most! Look at yourself in the mirror, Sienna—you can't compete with me!" Alex held her awkwardly, looking over her shoulder at me with eyes full of pathetic, hollow remorse. "Sienna... I’m so sorry." I refused to accept his apology. I packed my bags that night and broke off the engagement. Alex completely unravelled. He tracked me down to my apartment building and spent the entire night standing outside in a violent, freezing downpour. By the time I walked out the next morning, he was curled into a shivering ball on the wet concrete, burning up with a high fever. The second he saw me, he forced a weak, trembling smile onto his pale lips. "Sienna, please forgive me... I was just terrified she’d jump. I couldn't live with being responsible for someone’s death. You can hit me—hit me as many times as you want. I won't move. Just don't leave me. Do anything, just don't leave me." When I refused to lift a hand, he began slapping his own face violently, over and over, until he passed out right on the doorstep. My heart, which I thought I had hardened into stone, crumbled under the weight of his desperate self-destruction. I rushed him to the ER, and in the end, I forgave him. From that day on, I made sure to steer clear of Gwen Miller. I avoided being alone in a room with her, swallowed every snide remark, and kept my distance. Even when she brazenly moved into our new house weeks before the wedding, claiming she was "lonely," I didn't say a single word. I naively believed that once we walked down the aisle and exchanged our vows, everything would settle into place. It took being locked in a cold, suffocating basement on my wedding night to realize how utterly foolish I had been. This marriage was a mistake. This relationship should have died years ago. With a flick of my wrist, I tossed the wedding band. It arced through the air and hit the bottom of the stainless-steel trash can with a sharp, definitive clink. At that exact moment, my phone vibrated on the nightstand. [Of course my promise still stands. Hang tight. I’m coming to get you.] I breathed out a shaky sigh. Before I could even begin to collect my thoughts, the bedroom door swung open. Gwen stepped into the room, holding a massive, blooming bouquet of deep red roses. She was wearing a traditional scarlet silk robe embroidered with gold thread, heavy gold vintage jewelry dangling from her ears and wrists—dressed exactly like a beaming, triumphant bride. "Look at you, Sienna," Gwen sneered, her eyes glittering with dark malice. She crossed the room and slammed the door shut behind her. "So pitiful. So broken." She reached out, her sharp, acrylic nails digging viciously into my jaw, forcing my head up. "Alex and I were always meant to be together," she hissed through gritted teeth. "Why did you have to ruin it? You're nothing but a pathetic little home-wrecker!" Without warning, she shoved the massive bundle of roses directly into my face. A thick cloud of loose pollen rushed into my nose and throat. My airways constricted instantly. The oxygen drained from the room in a heartbeat. I gasped, my chest heaving violently as my face flushed a deep, blotchy red, my throat closing up as I clawed at my neck. Gwen watched me struggle for air, her eyes wide with sadistic wonder. She clapped her hands in delight. "Oh, wow! So you really are lethally allergic to pollen! Alex wasn't lying to me after all!" She pulled out her phone, snickering as she snapped a quick photo of my swollen, desperate face. She opened our mutual group chat and uploaded it: [Look everyone, Sienna's head is swollen like a pig right now!] A second later, Alex’s notification popped up in the chat—a helpless, laughing-emoji sticker. I stared at the screen, a solitary tear sliding down my hot, inflamed cheek. Years ago, on one of our very first dates, Alex had surprised me with a massive armful of fresh lilies. The second I touched them, my throat had seized, and I had collapsed into a fit of violent coughing. Alex had turned pale with terror, instantly hurling the multi-hundred-dollar bouquet into a street dump bin before scooping me into his arms and speeding to the nearest emergency room. After the doctor stabilized me and scolded us for being careless, Alex had sat by my hospital bed, his hands clammy and shaking, tears of sheer panic in his eyes. "Sienna, why didn't you tell me you were so severely allergic?" he had whispered, his voice trembling. "If anything happened to you, I wouldn't want to live. I can't lose you." I had forced a weak, reassuring smile. "I just... I didn't want to ruin your surprise." He had pulled me into a fierce, suffocating embrace, burying his face in my neck. "Nothing in this world is more important than you, Sienna. Nothing." From that day on, real flowers were banned from Alex's life. He spent weeks watching tutorials online, learning how to fold intricate origami flowers out of crisp hundred-dollar bills, assembling them into stunning, sterile bouquets just so I could have them. "Other girls get flowers, so my Sienna gets them too," he had beamed, handing me a shimmering bouquet of crisp paper cash. "Even if you can't touch real flowers, I’ll make sure you feel like the luckiest girl in the world." Back then, my heart had melted with profound gratitude. I had thanked God a thousand times for sending me a man who loved me so deeply. Now, those sweet memories were nothing more than heavy, brutal slaps across my face. "Are you crying?" Gwen giggled, snapping a few more photos. [Look guys, the pig is crying now!] This time, Alex didn't reply in the chat. Instead, heavy footsteps echoed down the hallway, and the bedroom door burst open. Alex rushed inside, his face pale with concern. He dropped to his knees by the bed, reaching out to wipe my tears. "Sienna, what’s wrong? Why are you crying?" Gwen’s smile vanished, and she gave him a sharp, angry shove. "What are you doing here? You promised me I could have my fun today! Get out, I’m not done playing with her!" "That's enough, Gwen!" Alex growled, closing his eyes and drawing a long, exhausted breath. He grabbed Gwen’s wrist, firmly steering her toward the door, then turned back to me with an apologetic expression. "Gwen just likes to joke around. She doesn't mean any real harm. You promised me you'd be understanding with her, Sienna. You're not going back on your word now, are you?" Looking at his careful, tiptoeing demeanor, a sudden, bitter laugh burst from my chest. I wiped my wet eyes, raised my right hand, and delivered a ringing slap straight across his jaw. SMACK. Alex’s head snapped to the side. The redness bloomed across his cheek immediately. He didn't flinch, nor did he hit back. He just stared at me with a complex, heavy sigh. "Sienna, stop talking nonsense," he said softly, reaching out to tuck a strand of hair behind my ear. "Who divorces someone right after the wedding? You're just exhausted from the past few days. Get some sleep, and you'll feel better." I turned my face away to avoid his touch. He merely smiled with forced patience. "Rest up, Sienna," he murmured, kissing my forehead despite my resistance. "I promise, I’ll just let Gwen blow off steam for a couple more days. Once she’s not angry anymore, we’ll start our normal life together." The moment the door shut behind him, I pulled out my phone and typed with trembling fingers: [Please, come get me now. I can't spend another second in this house.] Perhaps my sudden hostility had rattled Alex, because half an hour later, he forced Gwen back into the room to apologize. "Gwen, at the end of the day, Sienna is your sister-in-law," Alex grunted, standing in the doorway with his arms crossed. "You went too far these past two days. She’s stuck in bed because of you. Apologize nicely." Gwen sneered, stepping forward with a cup of piping hot tea in her hands. I reached out to push the tray away, but before my fingers even touched the ceramic, Gwen abruptly tilted her hands. The scalding water splashed directly across my forehead and face. I shrieked in pain, scrambling backward on the mattress. Taking advantage of my confusion, Gwen lunged forward, grabbed my arm, and yanked me off the bed with vicious force. I tumbled to the floor with a heavy crash, my temple slamming directly against the sharp edge of the mahogany nightstand. A blinding, searing pain exploded behind my eyes. "Are you insane?!" Alex roared. He lunged across the room, shoving Gwen so hard she stumbled backward into the wall. He scooped me into his arms, his face flushed with genuine panic. "Gwen, if anything happens to Sienna, I swear to God I won't let this go!" Gwen froze, her eyes instantly filling with furious tears. She stomped her foot, her voice rising into an ear-splitting shriek. "You’re yelling at me?! Alex, you're actually yelling at me for this woman?! Have you forgotten who matters most to you?! How could you do this to me?!" Her tears welled up, spilling over her mascara-stained cheeks. "Fine! If you don't want me anymore, I’ll leave right now and never come back!" Her distress instantly broke Alex's resolve. He let out a long, helpless sigh, his tone instantly softening. "I’m not yelling at you, Gwen... Come on, help me get Sienna to the hospital first. If something serious happens to her, it’s going to be a nightmare for you, too." On the drive to the emergency room, Gwen complained nonstop from the back seat, claiming I was dramatic, fragile, and couldn't even take a simple joke. "If she’s really this pathetic, why don't you two just get a divorce?" Gwen sniffled, crossing her arms. "Sienna was never good enough for you anyway. Getting married was a mistake—you should just fix it now." Alex kept his jaw tight, staring straight at the road without saying a word. I pulled my lips into a bitter, silent smile, turning my head toward the window, refusing to look at either of them. When we arrived at the clinic, Alex went to the front desk to handle the admissions and insurance forms, leaving Gwen and me alone in the private recovery room. Gwen paced around my bed for a moment, then pulled out her phone and slid it right in front of my face with a dark, triumphant grin. "Do you know where Alex and I had our very first session?" she asked, her voice dripping with venomous joy. I didn't answer, but she burst into a high-pitched giggle anyway. "Right outside that basement door, darling! While you were screaming your lungs out and banging on the wood, Alex was driving me wild right against the wall. He couldn't care less about your screaming—he was too busy trying to lose himself inside me." The explicit photos on the screen flared against my eyes, burning into my retinas. My heart, which had felt completely numb, throbbed with a sudden, agonizing wave of nausea. "Why?" I rasped, forcing myself to sit up despite the dizziness pounding in my skull. "Why drag me into your twisted little game? He and I were legally married! You're disgusting, Gwen." Instead of being angered by my insult, Gwen laughed out loud. Her face hardened into an ugly mask of rage. She lunged forward, grabbed a handful of my hair, and slammed my head back against the pillows before dragging me off the bed and shoving me into the adjoining bathroom. She turned on the faucet and shoved my face directly under the icy, rushing water. I choked, thrashing frantically as cold water rushed up my nose and into my lungs. "You're the one who's disgusting!" Gwen hissed into my ear, holding me down with all her weight. "Alex and I were built for each other! You squeezed your way into our lives! If he didn't think I lacked the 'wife material' look for his corporate image, do you really think you'd ever have a chance?!" In a desperate bid for air, I thrashed my legs, my heavy shoe catching her hard in the side of the knee. Gwen gasped in pain, stumbling back. But instead of attacking me again, a chilling, psychotic smile spread across her face. She raised her own hand and delivered a brutal, crushing slap straight to her own cheek. Then, she burst into loud, wailing tears and ran out of the bathroom. I lay on the cold tile, gasping for breath, my body trembling uncontrollably. I didn't bother chasing her. I limped back out and dragged myself onto the bed, staring blankly at the ceiling. A moment later, the door slammed open. Alex rushed in, holding Gwen tightly behind his back, his brow furrowed with deep disappointment. "Sienna, how could you be so petty?" Alex snapped, his voice sharp with judgment. "How could you actually lay a hand on Gwen? She’s my oldest friend! Have you forgotten everything I told you? You really disappoint me." I stared at him, a manic, breathless laugh bubbling up from my throat until tears streamed down my cheeks. "I hit her?" I gasped out, my voice raspy and broken. "Alex, are you completely insane?!" I glared at him, swallowing down the suffocating humiliation that had built up over years. "Who has been tormenting whom this entire time?! Do you really not know? Or is your heart just so twisted that you'll cover for her no matter what she does?!" Alex’s brows pinched tighter. "That’s not what I mean." He dragged Gwen forward, pointing to the angry red welt swelling on her cheek. Gwen sniffled pitifully, burying her face in his shoulder. "Alex, I told you! Sienna hit me, and now she’s lying about it!" Looking at the red mark, the last trace of hesitation vanished from Alex’s eyes. He looked at me sternly. "She couldn't have slapped herself this hard, Sienna. Be honest." "It wasn't me," I whispered, turning my face toward the wall. "I’m sick. Get out. Take her and get out." Alex stood his ground, unmoving. After a long silence, he let out a heavy, solemn sigh. "Sienna, I can't let you keep acting like this without consequences. You hit her, so you need to take a slap in return to make things right." He stepped toward the bed, his hand lifting into the air, his eyes filled with a terrifying, self-righteous resolve. "Just one slap. It’ll be over quickly." I stared at him in utter shock. The memory of the rooftop slap flashed violently in my mind. I shoved him with all the strength I had left, screaming at the top of my lungs. "Don't you touch me! Touch me again, Alex, and I swear to God I’ll file police charges against you!" "You won't," Alex said with absolute certainty. He gave Gwen a quick nod, and she instantly rushed forward, grabbing my wrists and pinning my shoulders to the mattress. "When you do something wrong, Sienna, you have to face the consequences," Alex instructed calmly, his shadow towering over me. "I’m doing this to help you. Be good. Close your eyes, and it’ll be over in a second. Do you really want to become the kind of toxic person who refuses to own up to her mistakes?" His hand cut through the air, the wind rushing toward my face. The sheer terror of the imminent blow paralyzed my muscles. My body went into complete shock; I couldn't move, couldn't breathe, couldn't even scream. At that split second, the heavy door of the private room was violently kicked off its hinges with a deafening BANG. A thunderous voice echoed through the hallway: "I dare you to lay a finger on her!" A tall figure stalked into the room, flanked by four imposing, suit-clad security guards. Before Gwen could even react, a heavy boot struck her viciously in the side, sending her flying across the room to collapse on the floor, groaning in pain. In the same breath, a large, calloused hand clamped around Alex’s throat, slamming his upper body against the drywall with terrible force. Alex choked, his eyes bulging as he struggled to breathe. He looked up, his face turning ghostly pale the moment he recognized the man holding him. "You..." Alex gasped, his voice trembling with pure disbelief. "Weston Cole?! How... how are you here?!"