Chapter 1

The world was a blur of screaming metal and shattering glass, then nothing.

I woke up to a sterile, chemical smell that burned my nose. A rhythmic beeping echoed somewhere to my left. I tried to open my eyes, but a thick layer of bandages pressed against them, heavy and absolute.

Darkness.

Panic seized me, cold and sharp. I reached up, my fingers trembling as they touched the gauze.

"Chloe? You're awake."

Liam' s voice. My fiancé. Relief washed over me, so powerful it left me weak. He was here. He was safe.

"Liam," I croaked, my throat raw. "What happened? The car... our wedding is tomorrow."

His hand found mine, his touch warm and familiar. "Shhh, it's okay. There was an accident. But you're safe now. I'm right here."

I tried to sit up, but a wave of dizziness and a deep, aching pain in my abdomen pushed me back down. "I can't see, Liam. Why can't I see?"

He squeezed my hand. "The doctors said your eyes were badly injured. We just have to give it time, Chloe. You have to rest."

His voice was a soothing balm, but something felt wrong. A cold dread was beginning to seep through the cracks of my relief. I clung to his hand, the only solid thing in my new, black world.

"Just rest," he repeated softly. "I'll take care of everything."

He stayed for a while, murmuring comforting words, but eventually, the sound of the door clicking shut told me I was alone again. The beeping of the monitor was my only companion. I drifted in and out of a shallow, drug-induced sleep, the timeline of my life fractured. The crash. The darkness. Liam' s voice.

It was in one of these hazy moments that I heard voices outside my door. It was ajar, just a sliver, but sound traveled clearly in the quiet hospital corridor.

One voice was Liam's, low and urgent.

The other was a man's, hesitant and professional. "Mr. Miller, I understand the urgency, but a cornea transplant is a major procedure. We need a proper donor match, and even then-"

"You have a match," Liam cut in, his voice stripped of the warmth he used with me. It was cold, hard, and commanding. "Ashley Green. She' s been on the waiting list. The donation is coming from Chloe. It's a perfect match."

My blood ran cold. The donation... from me? But I was alive.

"Sir, we can't take the corneas of a living patient," the doctor, Dr. Evans, I presumed, protested weakly. "That' s unethical, it' s illegal. Ms. Davis is blind, yes, but the damage might not be permanent. With time-"

"There is no time!" Liam' s voice was a sharp crack. "Ashley' s condition is getting worse. She's an artist. She needs her sight. Chloe would want this. She loves Ashley, she mentored her. She would do anything to help her."

A bitter, choking laugh almost escaped my lips. He was using my kindness, my past generosity, as a weapon against me. Ashley, the timid, struggling artist I' d taken under my wing, who I' d supported and encouraged.

The doctor stammered, "But to condemn Ms. Davis to permanent blindness... I can' t."

"You can," Liam said, his tone dropping to a menacing whisper. "Or we can have a discussion about your son's medical school tuition. Or that little malpractice suit from a few years ago that my lawyers so kindly made disappear. You will do this, Doctor. You will file the paperwork. Irreversible damage from the accident. A tragic necessity. You understand."

Silence followed. It was a heavy, damning silence that confirmed the doctor's surrender. My world, already dark, collapsed into a black hole of betrayal. The accident wasn't an accident. It was a plan.

My mind raced, trying to piece it together. Liam's ambition. Ashley' s jealousy, which I had mistaken for artistic sensitivity. They wanted my eyes.

But then, the conversation continued, and the words I heard next shattered what little was left of my soul.

"And one more thing," Liam said, his voice casual, as if discussing a grocery list. "While she's under, I want her uterus removed."

Dr. Evans gasped. "What? A hysterectomy? Why? There' s no medical reason for that!"

"There is a personal reason," Liam said flatly. "Ashley... she gets emotional. She can' t have children. The thought of me and Chloe ever having a family... it would destroy her. I can't have any loose ends. I love Ashley. I am doing all of this for her. So, you will remove it. Consider it a preventative measure against future complications."

The floor beneath me, the bed I was lying on, the very air I was breathing-it all dissolved. This wasn't just about my sight. This was about my future. My womanhood. My ability to ever carry a child. He was scooping me out, leaving an empty shell, all for the comfort of another woman.

The man I was going to marry tomorrow, the man I had loved with every fiber of my being, was methodically, cruelly, taking my life apart piece by piece.

The voices faded as they walked away. The beeping of the monitor continued its steady rhythm, a mocking counterpoint to the violent storm raging inside me. The pain in my belly, the darkness behind my eyes-it all sharpened into a single, piercing point of clarity.

He thought I was a broken, helpless thing lying in this bed. He thought he had taken everything.

He was wrong.

He had taken my sight and my future, but he had given me something in return. A reason to live.

Revenge.

I lay perfectly still in the suffocating darkness, my heart pounding a new, cold rhythm. I will survive this. And you, Liam, you and Ashley, will pay for every single thing you have done to me.