

All because I talked to a girl from school, my parents decided I was too young to date and sent me to a behavioral correction camp over winter break. I spent 14 days there before they came for me. When Mom reached for my backpack, I flinched and dropped to my knees. "Mom, I'm sorry. I'll carry my own things. Please don't touch me. You're the opposite sex." Her expression soured. "I told you to watch out for girls out there, not treat your own mother like one of them." I kept my head down and said nothing, because responding to the opposite sex was also a violation. On the drive home, Dad noticed me sitting rigid and perfectly still. He laughed, pleased. "Look at him. He's so well-behaved now." "It worked even better than I expected. We'll have our family dinner tonight and send him back in the morning. They need to straighten him out for good." I said nothing. I just turned and looked out the window. There would be no tomorrow. Tonight was my farewell gift to them.

Erin marries Kane, the heir to a powerful mafia family, and they have a daughter named Lily. However, Lily becomes seriously ill and needs a bone marrow transplant. When the second bone marrow donation is unexpectedly canceled, five-year-old Lily does not live long enough for a new donor to be found. Carrying her daughter’s ashes and a drawing Lily made, Erin goes to find her husband, only to catch Kane having an affair with Chloe, the donor. Erin also learns that Kane allowed Chloe to withdraw from the donation.Erin decides to divorce Kane, but Chloe frames her for a car accident, and Kane has her locked inside one of the mafia family’s factories, where she is tortured. As soon as Erin is released from the factory, she goes to Kane’s mother, Victoria, and signs the divorce agreement. To fulfill her daughter’s final wish, Erin takes Lily’s drawing to Chloe’s birthday party. However, Chloe deliberately humiliates her. Erin is then burned with sulfuric acid and imprisoned in a basement. During her captivity, the fractures in her hand, her burns, and her previous injuries become severely infected because they are left untreated. After Victoria removes her from the basement, Erin leaves Kane for good.It is not until Kane learns of Lily’s death and discovers what Chloe and Victoria did to Erin that he realizes his own actions have driven his wife and daughter away.After escaping, Erin collapses outside an airport and is rescued by Noah, her former high school classmate. Following nearly three months of treatment and recovery, Erin lays her daughter to rest, finds work, and begins rebuilding her life. Kane tracks her down, publicly admits his wrongdoing, and uses a dangerous car collision to beg her to reconcile with him. Erin firmly rejects him.In the end, the police take Kane in for questioning in connection with Chloe’s death. Erin builds a new life with Noah and receives a confirmation letter approving her return to Bay University.