Chapter 1
Nyla stared out of the narrow window as the prison van rattled forward.
Her wrists burnt inside cold metal.
Her ankles were chained.
Outside, people screamed.
Eggs splattered against the glass. Trash followed. Rotten things thrown by rotten mouths.
“Murderer!”
“Disgusting!”
“Rot in hell!”
The words sank deeper than the handcuffs.
She lowered her head.
She was a criminal now.
A murderer.
For a crime she didn’t commit.
Her mind dragged her back hours ago.
to the courtroom.
To her parents, their hands gripped her arms, not in comfort but in control.
Hard. Bruising.
As if she might run.
No one stood beside her.
No one said her name.
She was the second daughter of the Rayes family.
The lastborn.
The shadow.
The forgotten one.
She had been preparing for Harvard.
Packing her dreams neatly into suitcases.
Until Lena Rayes, the golden child, killed the vice chairman’s son.
Adrian Hale.
The memory wouldn’t stop replaying.
A few days ago.
Nyla had just finished packing.
Her bags sat by the door, waiting.
The driver was supposed to take her to the airport.
Then the door burst open.
Lena ran in, crying.
Blood soaked her hands.
Behind her stood Felix, her boyfriend, pale and shaking.
Nyla frowned. Felix was always with Lena. Always protecting her.
Nyla trusted her sister.
She shouldn’t have.
The living room smelt like blood and fear.
Lena stood in the middle of it, shaking, her hands red, her dress stained. She was crying so hard her shoulders jerked, like she might collapse any second. Felix hovered beside her, pale and frantic, running his hands through his hair.
Nyla stood frozen near the stairs.
“Lena?” her voice cracked. “Why are you bleeding?”
Lena didn’t answer her.
She ran straight to their father and fell to her knees.
“Dad,” she sobbed. “Please… please help me.”
Their mother rushed forward, cupping Lena’s face, already crying.
“My baby… my baby, what happened?”
Lena’s lips trembled. She swallowed hard.
“I killed him.”
The words landed wrong. Like a joke. Like something unreal.
“Killed who?” their father asked sharply.
“Adrian Hale,” Lena whispered. “The vice chairman’s son.”
The room went dead silent.
Nyla’s knees weakened.
“No,” she breathed. “Lena… that’s not funny.”
Felix started pacing.
“We were drinking,” Lena cried. “He started touching me. I told him to stop. I panicked. I didn’t know what I was doing…”
She broke down completely. “I stabbed him.”
Their mother screamed.
Their father grabbed the table to steady himself.
Nyla felt sick.
The golden child.
The perfect daughter.
A murderer.
“I can’t go to prison,” Lena sobbed suddenly, clutching her father’s legs. “I can’t. I’ll die there. Please, Dad. Please.”
Their mother nodded frantically.
“She’s right. She won’t survive even a day.”
Their father turned away, silent and deep in thought.
Nyla stepped forward.
“Dad… we should call a lawyer. We can explain—”
He turned on her so fast she flinched.
“Shut up.”
The word hit harder than a slap.
Felix stopped pacing. His eyes lifted slowly… and landed on Nyla.
A strange calm settled over his face.
“Nyla will take the fall.”
The room went quiet again.
Nyla laughed once, a short, broken sound.
“What?” she said. “That’s not funny.”
Her mother turned toward her, eyes sharp.
“Why not?”
Nyla’s smile died.
“You’re joking,” she whispered. “You’re all joking.”
Felix stepped closer.
“Lena has everything to lose,” he said coldly. “You don’t.”
Nyla’s chest tightened.
“I was accepted into Harvard,” she said softly. “I leave tomorrow.”
Her father scoffed.
“And what good has that ever done this family?”
Her mother’s face twisted with anger.
“For once in your useless life, do something right.”
Nyla shook her head, backing away.
“No. I won’t. I didn’t kill anyone.”
Her father crossed the room in two steps.
The slap was unexpected.
Her head snapped to the side.
Her ears rang.
“Don’t make this harder than it has to be,” he snarled.
Nyla tasted blood.
“I’m your daughter,” she cried. “I’m still your child!”
Her mother struck her next.
“Don’t you dare compare yourself to her!”
Nyla fell to the floor.
Nyla was trembling. She crawled to Felix as she held him by the leg.
“Please…Felix…help me.”
But Felix stared at her, his eyes cold.
“Just do it; don’t be selfish. Lena can’t survive in jail; she doesn’t know what hardship is.”
He yelled, looking at her like the most horrible human being on earth.
“It’s just a small mistake; just take the fall,” he finished, turning his gaze back at Lena, comforting her.
Nyla stared in shock.
“If it’s a small mistake, then why can’t you take the fall?” she screamed.
“If the mistake is so small, why can’t she take the fall? She’s the one who committed the murder, not me."
Then a loud slap landed on her face.
Her ear went deaf for a few seconds.
She looked up to see Felix, her own boyfriend, hit her for the sake of her sister’s so-called mistakes.
His face was fuming in anger.
Lena was still crying, loud and broken, but through her tears, her eyes met Nyla’s.
And for a second…
She stopped crying.
Just long enough to smile.
A small, relieved smile.
Then she buried her face in their mother’s arms again.
“I’m scared,” Lena whimpered. “Please… I don’t want to go to prison.”
Felix knelt beside her.
“I won’t let them take you,” he promised. Then he looked at Nyla.
“She’ll do it.”
Nyla crawled back, shaking.
“Please,” she begged. “I’ll disappear. I’ll leave the country. I won’t say anything. Just don’t do this.”
Her father grabbed her by the hair and yanked her up.
“You owe us,” he hissed. “You were born to serve this family.”
Her mother leaned close, her voice cruel and calm.
“You were never loved like her,” she said. “You know that.”
Nyla broke.
Her sobs tore out of her chest.
No one stopped it.
No one defended her.
The decision was already made.
And as her father called their lawyer, Nyla understood something terrifying:
She wasn’t being punished for a crime.
She was being sacrificed.
And then she was taken away.
If not for her father’s influence, Nyla Rayes would have rotted in prison for twenty years.
But power bends justice.
Second-degree murder.
Reduced to six months.
Six months in hell.
The world didn’t care about the truth.
The world only knew one thing now.
Nyla Rayes was a murderer.
A name she would carry longer than any sentence.
Outside the courthouse, cameras flashed like gunfire.
Lena stood before them in white, shaking, tears falling perfectly down her cheeks.
“My sister was always kind,” she cried. “I still love her. I’ll pray for her every day.”
“Please don’t hate her; she’s too innocent for this world,” Lena sobbed loudly.
“I don’t know why she had to kill someone; my parents and I have always loved her. I wish I could switch places with her.”
The crowd swallowed it whole.
“You’re such an angel.”
“Don’t take the blame for that murderer.”
“She should rot in hell.”
The crowd screamed as Nyla passed. They threw trash at her, and an egg hit her on the face, breaking on her.
Nyla watched from between two officers as Felix stepped forward.
And kissed Lena.
Right there.
In front of everyone.
On the lips.
And Nyla’s eyes widened in shock.
Gasps. Whispers. Headlines are born.
Felix confirms a relationship with Lena Rayes after a tragic family betrayal.
The betrayal hit harder than the cuffs.
Her family stood together, united, grieving, clean.
Her sister she loved.
Her parents, who raised her.
Her boyfriend, who had been touching Lena’s body long before he ever touched hers.
They didn’t look at her.
Not once.
Then it hit her.
The late-night whispers that come from Lena’s room.
The time she took Felix’s phone and the way he yelled at her.
At dinner, he’s always sitting with Lena, and her parents always tease that Lena and Felix will make a good couple.
All the sneaking behaviour.
“I was so dumb,” Nyla whispers.
A single tear slipped down Nyla’s cheek as the van doors slammed shut.
No one inside showed pity.
No one believed in her innocence.
No one cared.
The van moved.
She cried until there was nothing left inside her.
Until her chest ached.
Until her eyes burnt dry.
Fear replaced tears.
What would her life be now?
The van stopped abruptly.
“Get up!” an officer shouted.
The doors opened.
Hands grabbed her roughly, dragging her out.
Her heart pounded so hard she thought it would tear free.
She was shaking.
Violently.
Then she saw it.
The prison rose before her like a curse carved into stone.
Tall.
Concrete.
Windowless.
The walls were stained dark, as if they had absorbed every scream ever trapped inside.
Barbed wire crowned the top like thorns.
The air itself felt wrong, heavy, cold, and suffocating.
This place didn’t hold people.
It devoured them.
Nyla’s knees weakened.
She lifted her head and froze.
BLACKMOOR PENITENTIARY.
Her breath hitched.
Her mind screamed.
She had read about this place.
Everyone had.
A prison for monsters.
Serial killers.
Men who murdered without remorse.
Men who enjoyed it.
A place where bodies disappeared, and justice never followed.
And then it hit her.
This wasn’t just a prison.
This was an all-men prison.
Her vision blurred.
The sun burnt her skin, but she felt cold…so cold.
She couldn’t hear the officers anymore.
The world tilted.
Her chest tightened.
She couldn’t breathe.
Her panic attack crashed into her like a wave.
And before anyone could catch her,
Nyla Rayes collapsed onto the concrete floor.
The gates of Blackmoor loomed above her.
Waiting.
.....
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