My Husband Locked Me in a Psych Ward

On Valentine's Day, I marched into the police station to report my husband, Cason West.

"I'm here to file a complaint—marital coercion."

The officer behind the desk, a woman with a tired, over-it expression, gave me a quick look before her gaze shifted to Cason, lounging across from me.

By now, everyone at the station knew the routine. It wasn't my first time dragging him here.

Predictably, Cason set his coffee cup down, flashing that annoyingly charming smile of his.

"Rosalina, did I actually hurt you last night, or are we just trying out a new game?"

I ignored him, slamming the hospital report onto the table. "This time, I've got solid proof."

He snatched it up and scanned it fast. Then, completely unfazed, he started unbuttoning his shirt right in front of everyone. His neck, his collarbone, his chest—they were all littered with marks from the night before. The deepest scratch still had a fresh scab.

He slid the report back to me. "Officer, if this was really coercion, how do you explain these love bites? They sure don't look like someone was forced, do they?"

Fury boiled inside me. Yeah, those injuries were my doing. The night before, I'd smashed an ashtray into him, slashed at him with a fruit knife, and sunk my teeth into his neck so hard I left an imprint. Yet, even that wasn't enough to break free.

The officer handed my documents back. "Marital issues are best handled at home."

Another dead end.

Three years of marriage, and this was my hundredth attempt at getting a divorce.

The first time, I packed my bags and tried to walk out. Cason had an entire shopping street flooded with flowers, diamonds, and designer bags to block my path. Then he dropped to one knee. "Mrs. West, have you cooled off yet?" I hurled the divorce papers at him. He didn't even glance at them—just tore them to shreds and pressed the house keys back into my palm. "Rosalina, without me, you wouldn't make it three months." I was so pissed I threw my heels at him. He caught them mid-air, and, with sickening tenderness, slipped them back on my feet.

The twenty-seventh time, I booked a flight overseas. Just as the plane was about to take off, the entire departure was delayed. Ten minutes later, Cason showed up at the aircraft door. "My wife has a mental condition. It's not safe for her to travel alone. Sorry for the trouble." That same night, I smashed his prized antique vase. So he froze all my bank accounts and hid my passport.

The fifty-third time, I tried climbing over the estate wall. I fell and broke my leg. Cason rushed me to the hospital and stayed by my side for three days, looking like absolute hell. When I woke up, I grabbed the IV needle and stabbed it into his arm. He flinched but held my hand tight. "Rosalina, do you really want to leave me this badly?" I looked him dead in the eyes. "Yes. I wish you were dead." All he did was bow his head, kiss the back of my hand, and say, "Funny enough, I feel the same. If you ever left, I'd lose my damn mind."

Later, I reported him for unlawful detention. When the police showed up at our door, he just pointed to the delicate chain around my ankle. "Just an intimate accessory between spouses. Bit of a misunderstanding." That night, desperate, I hacked at the shackle with a knife. Blood was everywhere, and I nearly severed a tendon. Cason stayed with me at the hospital, sleepless and doting. But all I wanted, staring at that loving mask, was for him to vanish.

In one moment of pure desperation, I drove the sharpest knife I could find straight into his chest. Blood soaked his shirt. Yet Cason only squeezed my hand harder, forcing a smile. "It's okay. Doesn't even hurt."

None of it worked. Nothing could beat Cason West, the ace lawyer.

The policewoman walked me out, still offering her clueless comfort. "Mr. West really does care about you, Miss Reed. You should treasure what you have and try to work things out."

I laughed, tears streaming down my face. Since the day he sent my brother to prison, whatever twisted affection had existed between us was gone.

Back then, his so-called muse, Jessie Rose, came back hoping to rekindle their old flame. Cason flat-out rejected her, insisting I was the one he loved. That night, Jessie left in tears. By morning, she was at the police station, disheveled, accusing my brother, Charles, of assaulting her—with evidence to back it up. The police opened a case immediately. My brother was taken away, and my father, unable to handle the shock, had a heart attack and died that same day.

I went on my knees and begged Cason to defend my brother in court. He agreed. But on the day of the trial, he stood firmly on the other side—as Jessie's lawyer! In front of everyone, every word he spoke was calculated and ruthless. He made damn sure my brother got a six-year sentence.

Afterward, I confronted him. "Cason West! That's my brother! Do you have any idea what you've done?!" He looked at me with that cold, detached professional mask. "Rosalina, I'm a lawyer first, your husband second. If your brother did something wrong, he deserves to pay. I'm just upholding justice." He didn't see a single thing wrong with his actions. He even had the nerve to add, "Besides, Jessie got tangled up in this because of me. I had to handle her case." I nearly collapsed from crying. "And what about me? Don't I matter?!" He sighed, wrapping his arms around me with that fake tenderness. "Rosalina, one thing at a time. Your brother is paying for his mistakes, but I'll be here to get you through this."

Finally, I made the choice I could never undo. I terminated the pregnancy Cason had wanted so badly. I put the tiny, undeveloped embryo in a box and delivered it to him myself. For a split second, I saw pure rage flash in his eyes. But he pulled himself back and patted my head. "It's okay. We're young. There'll be other kids." As he said that, he turned around and texted his associates. Together, they crushed Reed Corporation, throwing my mother into a debt crisis she couldn't escape. Harassed and surrounded by creditors, she couldn't take it anymore and ended her life by jumping from a building.

And just like that, the fate of the Reed family was rewritten entirely.