From Ruin to Radiance

On the night of their third wedding anniversary, Nora Payne and Ethan Stanley ended up in a police station.

He had been partying with women at a club until after midnight, and Nora had caught him red-handed.

Inside the mediation room, Nora's lips trembled. "Ethan, do you even care about me?"

Ethan lounged back, the skin of his neck smeared with lipstick prints. "After all these years, you still don't know who I am?"

Nora's eyes reddened. Of course she knew.

In the capital's social circles he was the most notorious playboy, drifting from woman to woman, day and night. No respectable family wanted their daughter married to a man so dissolute.

Yet the Ethan she had once known had not been like this. She had personally witnessed the depth of his love for another woman.

Even after that woman died, and Nora became his wife, he treated her with courtesy, granting her every dignity due the Mrs. Stanley.

Then, in the second year of marriage, Ethan suddenly began to indulge every appetite, turning cold toward Nora. She pleaded, argued, raged, but nothing altered his course.

The memory of earlier tenderness kept a small hope alive inside her that he might change.

One day he abandoned the fleet of luxury cars in his garage and began riding the city bus to work.

Before she could rejoice, she received photographs of Ethan and the female driver entwined on the back seat.

When she looked closely, the woman shocked her she bore a striking resemblance to his first love, a woman dead for years yet still living in his heart. Rosalyn Harper.

"Ethan, get off that bus!" Nora stood in front of the windshield, the stinging sunlight nothing beside the pain of seeing him pressed against another woman. "Come down or I'll report you for misusing public property!"

The door hissed open and a disheveled Ethan stepped down, his usual careless smile gone, mouth set in a hard line.

His almond eyes narrowed, anger barely leashed. "Nora! If you want to die, don't do it in front of me! I bought this bus. You have no authority here." Nora tried to look inside, but he seized her collar and pulled her away.

Impatience flared in his gaze.

"Keep this up and I'll have you arrested." The vehicle was empty except for the driver, who now adjusted her uniform and descended.

For the first time Nora saw the woman's face clearly.

Panic flickered through her, but she forced it down. "Ethan, snap out of it. She isn't Rosalyn!"

The driver, Lilah Harper, eyes wide, pointed at Nora. "Ethan, is that Miss Payne? I remember my sister met her the day she jumped."

At those words Ethan's eyes turned bloodshot. He stared at Nora like a maddened beast.

"So it was you!"

Shock washed through Nora, all her fury collapsing into bitter hurt. For years Rosalyn's name had been forbidden, yet he condemned her on the strength of a single sentence. Her voice cracked. "Because she looks like Rosalyn, you believe her?

Rosalyn has been dead ten years!"

The slap rang out like a gunshot.

Ethan's palm sent her sprawling, her skull striking the metal door with a hollow clang. The blow shattered every scrap of pride she still wore.

He had never raised a hand to her, no matter how fierce their fights.

Today he did, on nothing more than a wild accusation.

Nora curled on the ground, agony leeching her strength, consciousness slipping.

She heard sirens, and in the haze she remembered the past.

She and Ethan had grown up together.

He was the heir groomed by the Stanley family, brilliant and dazzling, while she, raised by a stepmother, had been spoiled and naive.

Back then she found him cold and dull.

A kidnapping changed everything.

When the kidnappers threatened them, Nora wept in terror, yet Ethan stayed calm, even comforting her. "Don't be afraid. I'll get us out."

Later he carried her on his back through the freezing night, shielding her from the wind.

A girl's heart was easily ignited.

On her eighteenth birthday she overcame her shyness, presented a homemade cake, and handed him a love letter.

For an instant he looked startled, then replied with distant politeness. "I'm sorry, I already have a girlfriend."

The words stabbed her pride.

She had never seen another girl beside him; she believed the smile he gave her was unique.

Tears blurred her vision, the cake toppled to the floor. "Ethan, I won't pester you. Don't invent excuses to push me away."

She fled, sobbing.

After weeks of inquiry she finally saw the girl he spoke of.

Even through jealousy she had to admit that when Rosalyn Harper smiled, starlight seemed to pool in her eyes.

Ethan gazed at her with a tenderness Nora had never received.

Nora's throat burned; she turned and stumbled away.

Just as she prepared to bury her love, Rosalyn jumped from the university rooftop.

Some said depression, some said family ruin.

From that day Ethan looked hollow, a living ghost.

For ten years Nora followed him, silent, caring.

When the Stanley family proposed marriage, she believed her devotion had moved him and accepted at once.

After the wedding he remained restrained, yet granted her every privilege of his name.

She told herself he was simply built that way, and if she could stay beside him, it would be enough.

Overnight everything changed. He turned ice cold, flaunted his loathing, and cycled through mistresses.

The ache of loving without being loved gnawed at her until she doubted the worth of her persistence.

Now, as paramedics lifted her onto a stretcher, Nora lifted her aching head.

Ethan stood cradling the white dressed woman, never once glancing her way.

Pain flooded every vein, and darkness finally claimed her.