Chapter 4

Audrey Wallace POV:

I woke up to the distant hum of the house, a sterile quiet that felt wrong. The blinding white ceiling of my bedroom stared down at me. My body ached with a dull, persistent throbbing, but the blood was gone. Someone had cleaned me up. Jake. It had to be Jake.

Jake stood at the foot of my bed, his face pale, eyes shadowed. He had dismissed his fleeting suspicion, I knew. Elliot? Nonsense. A hallucination from pain. He' d always dismissed anything that didn't fit his narrow, amnesiac view of the world. He preferred to believe Jada's carefully crafted narrative, the one where I was the villain.

His gaze was cold again. "You are my legal wife, Audrey. A contractual obligation. Nothing more, nothing less. And you will remain so." His voice was flat, devoid of the earlier confusion. "Don't ever mention that name again. Or any other name from a past that doesn't exist for me."

He paused, a calculated glint in his eyes. "Behave, and your family's logistics empire, the one I've been investing in and subtly expanding for you, will continue to thrive. Disobey, and you will lose everything. Understood?"

I turned my head away, my jaw clenched. I wouldn't give him the satisfaction of a response. My silence was my only weapon now.

My heart clung to a single, burning hope: the car my father had arranged would be here soon. My escape. Real. Imminent.

Five years. Five years of this living hell. The casual cruelty, the dismissive words, the physical and emotional abuse. Each passing day had chipped away at my spirit, eroding the vibrant woman I once was. The pain was a constant companion, a dull ache that never truly subsided. I had endured it all, clinging to the phantom of a love he couldn't remember.

But that phantom was gone. Replaced by a monster.

I was done. Utterly, irrevocably done.

Suddenly, Jake's phone rang. He glanced at the screen, a soft smile touching his lips. It was Jada. He answered, his voice immediately softening.

"Jakey, darling!" Jada's voice, shrill and tearful, cut through the phone. "The baby! Something's wrong! She's bleeding! Audrey must have done this! She's always been so jealous!"

Jake's face hardened. He slammed the phone down. His eyes, now blazing with a terrifying rage, fixed on me. "You demon!" he roared. He yanked me from the bed, my still-tender skin screaming in protest. "What did you do?!"

He dragged me, half-dressed, out of the house and shoved me into his car. He drove like a maniac, tires screeching, leaving a trail of rubber on the pavement. The silence between us was thick with his fury, and my own growing despair.

We arrived at the retreat in moments. Jada rushed out, her perfectly made-up face streaked with feigned tears. Her eyes, however, were triumphant as they met mine.

"You monster!" she shrieked, her hand flying to my face. Her nails raked across my cheek, leaving angry red marks. "How could you hurt my baby?!"

"I didn't do anything!" I cried, trying to push her away. "Check the surveillance cameras! I was in my study!"

Just then, a young woman, one of my employees, stumbled forward, her face pale and trembling. She dropped to her knees before Jake, sobbing. "Mr. Foster! It's true! I saw her! Ms. Wallace... she told me to do it!"

My blood ran cold. Betrayal.

"She said... she said she was so jealous of Ms. Floyd and her beautiful children," the employee wailed, her voice cracking. "She offered me a large sum of money to... to hurt the baby, just a little. To make it look like an accident. She said Ms. Floyd needed to know her place!"

My world spun. This was a nightmare. A carefully orchestrated, malicious nightmare. "That's a lie!" I screamed, my voice hoarse. "She's lying! I would never!"

But no one was listening. A crowd of customers, drawn by the commotion, had gathered. "Monster!" someone yelled. "How could she?!" Another shouted, "I want my money back! I can't believe I trusted her with my baby!"

Someone was live-streaming the whole thing. My phone buzzed with notifications. My retreat's social media accounts were being flooded with hate. Calls for boycotts. My business partner, the one who had just confirmed the transfer, called, his voice tight with panic. He was backing out. The deal was off. My escape route, my future, was crumbling before my eyes.

Jake, his face a mask of primal fury, gently took the injured baby from Jada's trembling arms. The infant's lip was swollen, a small cut visible. He stared at me, his eyes burning with an inferno of hatred. "You call yourself a woman?" he growled, his voice a chilling whisper. "You call yourself human?"

"She deserves to be punished, Jakey!" Jada cried, clinging to his arm. "She tried to hurt our baby!"

"Oh, she'll be punished," Jake said, his eyes never leaving mine. His voice dropped to a terrifying calm. "Bring me a needle and thread."

My blood ran cold. Dread, a suffocating blanket, descended upon me. "No," I whimpered, shaking my head. "Please, Jake, no."

But he wasn't listening. A security guard, always silently obeying, appeared with a needle and thick, black thread. Jake watched, his eyes devoid of mercy, as the guard grabbed my head, forcing my chin up. The first stitch. The needle pierced my lip, a sharp, excruciating pain. I screamed, but no sound came out. Only a ragged, tearing noise. Another stitch. And another. The thread wove through my flesh, pulling my lips together, sealing them shut. Tears streamed down my face, hot and agonizing. My mouth was a raw, bloody mess. My cries were reduced to guttural mumbles.

Blood bloomed on my pure white dress, a stark contrast against the fabric.

Jake watched, his expression unyielding. "Still not enough," he muttered, his voice cold. "She needs to see nothing. Hear nothing. Say nothing." He turned to the guard. "The eyes. The ears. Stitch them too."

My body convulsed, a silent scream trapped within my stitched lips. The guard hesitated, a flicker of horror in his eyes.

"Do it!" Jake roared, his voice cracking with fury. "She tried to hurt my child! She needs to understand that she will never speak, never see, never hear again if she dares to cross me! This is for trying to destroy my family! This is for trying to hurt my baby!"

A choked, gurgling sound escaped my stitched lips. It was a laugh. A broken, hysterical laugh. I thought of my past choices. My blind love. My foolish hope. My unwavering loyalty to a man who had forgotten me, replaced me, abused me.

I loved the wrong man. I loved him with everything I had. And he had broken me. Utterly. Completely.