Chapter 1
The day after my husband's lover accused me of pushing her down the stairs, my husband, Asher Cameron, and two kids dangled me over a 300-feet cliff. I suffer from severe acrophobia.
I was shaking all over, my voice trembling as I begged him to spare me.
"Do you know what you did wrong?" he asked.
Asher stood off to the side, his gaze cold as ice, staring at me with utter indifference.
What did I even do wrong?
Chloe fell by herself!
"I've told you already. Even if Chloe comes back, I'm not divorcing you. But you shouldn't have hurt her," Asher said.
"I didn't hurt her. She tumbled down on her own," I cried, tears streaming down my face.
I shook my head. I'd repeated this over and over since yesterday, but nobody believed me.
"Mom's lying! I saw her push Chloe down!" Alex, my son, defended Chloe.
"Dad, raise Mom higher with the crane. That way she'll be scared, and she'll finally understand how terrified Chloe was when she fell down the stairs," Lily, my daughter, said.
She glared at me and tugged on Asher's sleeve.
"No!" I screamed.
But no matter how much I pleaded, they were hell-bent on getting justice for Chloe.
"When you finally admit you're wrong and agree to apologize to Chloe, I'll let you go," Asher said, his voice icy.
He turned and left, taking the kids with him.
"Sophia, how does it feel? You spent ten years by Asher's side, but in the end, you still couldn't win against me," Chloe Hart said.
She appeared out of nowhere, then pressed the remote in her hand.
Suddenly, I was dropped from a few feet above, slamming hard into the ground.
*****
When I woke up, I was already in the hospital.
Everything that had just happened kept replaying in my mind. Chloe had done it on purpose. She made sure I was dropped headfirst toward the rocks, then had me plummet straight down.
Just a little further, and I would've gone over the edge.
Right before I blacked out, the abyss below seemed to open its jaws, ready to swallow me whole.
Even now, the memory left me shaken.
Chloe did it on purpose. She was trying to kill me!
I wasn't about to let this go. I called the police right away and reported everything that happened.
After I hung up, I felt completely hollow inside.
During the days I was unconscious, Asher and the kids never came to see me.
My heart twisted with hurt.
Asher wasn't important.
But the two kids, they were the ones I carried for ten months, the ones I nearly died to bring into this world. And now, all they wanted was Chloe, like she was their real mom.
Every word out of their mouths was full of disgust and contempt for me, like I was a stepmom.
Fine, I barely survived, and I finally saw them for who they really were.
If they didn't want me, then I didn't want them either.
The moment I got home, I headed straight to my room and started packing.
I wasn't going to keep suffering just to please them. I was leaving for good.
I was only halfway through packing when suddenly the door was kicked open.
Asher stormed in, his face twisted with rage, and he grabbed my wrist in a vice-like grip.
"Why did you call the police with a false report? Why are you framing Chloe?" he shouted.
I scoffed at his accusation, a cold laugh slipping out.
"She had me dropped from way up there. I nearly went over the edge. She tried to kill me," I yelled.