My wedding day. Five months pregnant, ready to marry the man I loved.
Then, two strangers burst in, dragging me out, darkness descending as a rough bag covered my head.
They held me a day and a night; I lost my baby, left in a field, my wedding dress torn and stained.
Waking in a hospital, I learned my fiancé, Mark Sullivan, had publicly called off our engagement, announcing his immediate marriage to my best friend, Tiffany Hayes.
Just when I thought I was utterly broken, Mark' s younger brother, Ethan, appeared like a savior, promising a future, showering me with love, building a fortress around my shattered life.
For three years, he was my everything, my protector, the man who wanted a family with me, even as fertility doctors said my body was too damaged.
But then, I overheard a conversation on the terrace, a quiet, chilling confession between Ethan and his friend.
"Remember how you arranged for her to be assaulted so Tiffany could marry the older brother?"
My blood ran cold.
"And you' ve been secretly giving her birth control pills all these years. It' s pretty messed up."
The man who saved me was the monster who ruined me.
He had orchestrated every single agonizing detail, all for Tiffany' s happiness, mocking my "tainted" body.
The man I loved, the man I married, had built my hell-and then trapped me in its gilded cage.
My world shattered, but in the silence of the grand library, a chilling clarity settled over me: if this was all a lie, I had nothing left to lose.
I would leave, and he would never see me again.