They brought her a phone.
Not to call for help.
Just to remind her what she could never touch.
It sat there on the table near the bars, screen lit, her last message still unsent. Her fingers itched for it. Her eyes burned. But it was always just out of reach — like everything else in this house.
Serene didn't cry anymore.
She laughed.
It was bitter. Quiet. The kind that scared even herself.
---
She had counted three cameras.
One in the ceiling corner, one behind the mirror, and one cleverly tucked into the air vent.
She smiled at them sometimes. Just to unsettle the watchers.
She knew she was being watched constantly.
The cage wasn't a metaphor anymore.
---
That afternoon, Greta — or maybe it was Elise — returned with a tray of food. The same bland nonsense every day. Rich people food that tasted like ash.
Serene didn't touch it.
"I want to speak to a lawyer," she said calmly.
Elise rolled her eyes. "You're not in court."
"You kidnapped me. That's a felony."
"You're his wife."
"I'm not."
Elise didn't even flinch. "You wore a dress, didn't you?"
Serene stood.
"I know my classmates recorded it," she said. "Him dragging me from school. Storming into a classroom like a lunatic. All those phones—someone's going to post it. And when they do, the police will come."
Elise's smirk faded for just a second.
Serene stepped closer to the bars.
"They'll come," she repeated, voice shaking. "They'll see me. They'll rescue me."
But even she didn't believe it.
Not fully.
Because she'd seen the look on their faces. The way those students had hesitated — too stunned or too scared or maybe just too indifferent. And she knew what it meant.
They were white.
She was not.
Roman was powerful.
She was not.
Hope didn't feel like hope.
It felt like waiting to be disappointed.
Elise leaned in. "Even if someone posts that video… do you think they'll care? A rich European father pulling his wife out of school? People will assume you're crazy. Or ungrateful. Or worse…"
Serene's voice cracked. "I'm not his wife."
"Then why were you smiling in that wedding dress?"
"I was never in a wedding dress!"
"Weren't you?"
Elise's lips curved.
"Maybe you just forgot."
---
She didn't sleep that night.
Not because of the cameras.
Not even because of the locked door.
But because her mind played tricks on her — inserting flashes of white lace, soft music, a little girl's hands clapping.
Memories she knew weren't hers.
She whispered to herself, again and again: "That didn't happen. That's not real."
And yet…
The image of her, smiling beside Roman, wouldn't fade.
---
She grabbed the nearest object — a glass of untouched water — and hurled it against the mirror.
It shattered.
But not the way she hoped.
The mirror cracked, just enough for her reflection to split in two. Two Serenes now: one silent, one screaming. Both equally trapped.
From behind the walls, someone was watching.
And smiling.
---