Chapter 1
The day my family went bankrupt, the loan sharks dragged me to the clock tower in the center of the financial district, tore off my clothes, and strung me up for the whole city to gawk at.
They lashed my bare skin with leather belts, brutalizing me until I signed a contract to pay off the astronomical debts.
Below me, the crowd went wild. Dozens of smartphones were out, flashes blinding me as pictures of my naked body went viral.
Just when I thought I had hit rock bottom, a girl whose college tuition I had funded for years stepped forward to the press, falsely claiming I had bullied and tormented her my whole life.
The world had turned its back on me. My older brother, despite his frail heart, shielded me with his life until he was beaten to death by loan sharks beneath the clock tower.
As I prepared to take the leap and end it all, Matthew Foster descended like a god. He was the ruthless billionaire heir to the Foster family.
With a snap of his fingers, he paid off my debts, shielded me behind his broad shoulders, and promised me a lifetime of safety and luxury.
Six months into our marriage, I brought something for his hangover to his study, only to pause at the cracked door. Inside, his best friend was laughing.
"Matthew, that move was seriously savage. You bankrupted her family and dragged her reputation through the mud, all just to clear the way to bring your illegitimate sister back into the Foster family? Wasn't the price a little steep?"
"Not at all," Matthew replied. "The Foster family has strict rules. Vivian could only be officially inducted and given her shares if the position of my official wife was left open. Isabelle had been my fiancée for way too long."
He added, "The only way my grandfather would ever allow me to break the engagement was if Isabelle was completely ruined. Trading one woman's life to secure my sister's rightful place was a bargain."
*****
The sliver of light spilling through the crack in the study door felt like a serrated blade, slicing every last shred of my heart to pieces.
Trading my life to secure his sister's rightful place? It was a bargain?
Matthew's voice was deep and magnetic. The voice I had fallen in love with a thousand times over was now the gavel sealing my death sentence.
My hands shook violently. The heavy glass sliding out of my grip splashed the freezing cold smoothie all over my wrists, but I didn't feel a thing.
All along, my so-called salvation was just a carefully orchestrated shove into the abyss.
The husband I worshipped as my savior was actually the architect of my hell. He was the monster who had me stripped and humiliated on that clock tower.
I bit down on my lip so hard that I tasted copper, desperately forcing back a scream.
I couldn't go in.
I absolutely could not go in.
Matthew's mind was a labyrinth of lethal schemes. If he realized I had overheard the truth, I wouldn't make it out of this estate alive.
Like a wandering ghost, I drifted back to our master suite. I dumped the rest of the drink into the sink and let the running water drown out my muffled sobs.
I had to get out of here.
The thought took root and spread like wildfire.
I stripped off my expensive silk loungewear, shoved myself into a plain black tracksuit, and grabbed my ID along with a stash of emergency cash I had hidden in the back of my closet.
Using the cover of darkness, I slipped out through the service door near the staff quarters.
The winter wind in the city cut like glass.
I didn't dare call an Uber because it would leave a digital trail. Instead, I sprinted down the narrow, unlit service roads, praying I could avoid the security cameras.
If I could just make it to the old industrial district on the west side and find Leonard Wise, my father's old head of security, I might actually survive this.