ina

n his chest, her voice a muffled sob. "She hit me, Haywood! She hit me so hard! Just because I told her she w

fragments of my mother' s locket. My face was pale, my hair disheveled, the white hospital gown mocking my vulnerability. In his eyes, a flicker. Not pity,

rising in a desperate plea. "Haywood, darling! She's like a wild animal! You have

aywood's eyes vanished, replaced by the familiar col

ed, his voice low and dangerous.

longer innocent, glittered with malicious triumph. "I want her to know humiliation,

ps. In front of Haywood. A

have left from your parents and burn them to ashes." He believed I was materialistic, that the physical objects were all I cared about. He

otion. He was a monster. They were all mo

ice barely a whisper, my gaze fixed on the sh

teal it! It broke in the struggle!" She turned to Haywood, her voice

a ghost of Ava in them, not me. He was looking through me, at her. Then, his gaze hardened.

lling deliberation, I brought it down hard on my own cheek. Smack. The sound echoed in the sterile room. Then again. Smack. And again. With each stingi

ce a dry, rasping whisper, m

Anika, a triumphant smirk on her lips, tugged at his arm. "Come on, darling. Let's leave this... mess." She

antic getaways. He had taken her to Paris, the city we had planned to visit for our anniversary. He had bought her a yacht, the one I had jokingly admired years ago. Every picture, every glowing capti

e was nothing left to feel, nothing left to mourn. Not for him. Not for them. My love for Haywood ha

d expression. They didn't know. They couldn't know. The woman who walked out of that hospital was no

cool air. My phone buzzed. A text from my lawyer. The

Keith Tran. His eyes were wild, his face a contorted mask of ha

n get away with what you did to me? You think you can ruin my family?"

h me. He slammed me against the brick wall of the hospital,

hear you anyway. Little slut." He pulled out a length of rusty chain,

ck pleasure. He pushed a small, bitter-tasting pill into my mouth. "Swallow it. It'll make you... more agreeable. You'll be beggi

familiarity. A wave of nausea. But my mind was clearer than eve

with his groin with a surprising force. He cried out, a g

gling from his grasp. With a desperate surge of adrenaline, I swung it, catching him acros

good leg, I kicked at the glass, shattering it. He was moving towards me again, his face a mask of fu

s at the edges of my vision. I needed help. Now. I staggered, my head swimming, but I forced mys

gged!" I stumbled through the automatic doors, collapsing into the arms of a