Chapter 1

I remember the day Liam Hayes proposed to me. He got down on one knee, holding a ring, and said with eyes full of sincerity, "Chloe Miller, I love you more than life itself."

I believed him. I married him. For three years, that sentence was the foundation of my world.

Now, that world was collapsing.

"Choose, Liam. Your wife or your childhood sweetheart," the man with the gun said, his voice flat and bored.

We were in a damp, abandoned warehouse. The air smelled of rust and decay. I was tied to a chair, and a few feet away, so was Olivia White.

Liam stood in the middle of the room, his face pale under the single swinging lightbulb. He looked from me to Olivia, his jaw tight with agony.

Olivia was weeping, her shoulders shaking. "Liam, I'm so scared."

I just watched him. I didn't cry. I didn't beg. My heart was beating a frantic rhythm against my ribs, but my mind was eerily calm.

"Choose her," I said to the kidnapper, my voice steady. "I have money. My family doesn't, but Liam's does. I can get you whatever you want. Let her go."

The kidnapper laughed, a harsh, ugly sound. "This isn't about money, sweetheart. This is about a choice."

He gestured with his gun toward Liam. "Time's up, buddy. Who walks out of here with you?"

Liam's eyes met mine. They were filled with a pain so deep it almost made me look away.

"Chloe," he whispered, his voice cracking. "I'm sorry."

He took a step, not towards me, but towards Olivia.

My breath caught in my throat. It felt like a physical blow.

"I owe her a life," he said, his words rushing out as he untied Olivia's ropes. "But I swear, I'll spend the rest of my life making it up to you."

The room was silent except for Olivia's soft sobs as Liam helped her to her feet.

I looked at the man I loved, the man who had promised me everything, and a bitter laugh escaped my lips. It sounded foreign and brittle.

"If you choose her, Liam," I said, my voice dangerously quiet, "there will be no 'rest of our lives' for us."

He froze, his back to me. For a long moment, he didn't move. I saw his shoulders tense. I thought, for one wild, hopeful second, that he would turn around.

He didn't.

He put his arm around Olivia and started walking towards the door. He didn't look back.

Tears finally streamed down my face, hot and silent. I smiled through them. So this was what it felt like to love someone more than life itself. It felt like being left to die in a cold, dark warehouse.

He had promised to protect me. He had promised to cherish me. He had promised me a lifetime.

All lies.

The kidnapper walked over to me, looking down with a strange sort of pity. "Tough break, kid."

"What do you want?" I asked, my voice hoarse.

"Nothing from you," he said, shrugging. "My business was with him. He made his choice. That's all I needed to see."

It was absurd. It was insane. My life was a pawn in some twisted game I didn't even understand.

"So you're just going to leave me here?"

"Nah," he said, pulling out a knife and cutting my ropes. "I'm not a murderer. Just a man who believes in consequences."

He walked to the door and paused. "For what it's worth, he's an idiot."

Then he was gone.

I sat there, free but frozen, staring at the empty doorway. My heart was a hollow, aching void. I closed my eyes and whispered a single prayer.

Please, God, let me never see Liam Hayes again.

Just then, the warehouse doors burst open. Bright lights flooded the dark space, and heavily armed police officers swarmed in.

And behind them, running towards me with a look of sheer terror on his face, was Liam.

He had come back.

He reached me and pulled me into his arms, holding me so tight I could barely breathe. "Chloe! Oh, God, Chloe! I'm here. It's okay. I'm here."

He was warm. He smelled familiar. It should have been comforting.

But I felt nothing.

My body was limp in his embrace, my mind a million miles away. His words were just noise, echoing in the vast emptiness inside me. The heart he had just shattered couldn't feel his embrace. It was just an empty shell.

"Chloe? Say something," he begged, his voice thick with tears.

I tried to speak, to tell him to let me go, but no sound came out. The shock, the betrayal, the sheer emotional whiplash was too much.

The world tilted, the bright lights blurred, and everything went black.