Chapter 1: The Night the Mask Fell
The first thing I tasted was blood.
The second was betrayal.
It sat warm and metallic at the back of my throat while the bedroom carpet scraped against my arm and the ceiling light hummed above me with the lazy indifference of a machine.
My husband, Adrian, stood over me with his sleeves rolled up and his breathing steady, as if he had knocked over a lamp instead of his wife.
And in that cold, terrible second, I finally saw the man I had married for exactly who he was.
Moonlight cut through the curtains, splitting his face into silver and black.
“You embarrassed me,” he said.
There was no rage in his voice. That was what frightened me most. Only control.
I pressed a shaking palm to my cheek. “Because I said no?”
His jaw tightened.
“Because my mother asked one simple thing.”
That was how Adrian described Marjorie Vale’s campaign to take over my life… Continue Reading ⬇️
