Chapter 3

Two bodies tangled together on the screen. Samuel's eyes burned with a desire I'd never once seen directed at me.

"Samuel, stop, not there..."

Jessica whimpered and started to cry, and the moment her tears fell, his heart melted.

"Shh, I'll be gentle."

She shook her head. "I just feel so bad about the baby. I wronged Mrs. Bennett first. I don't deserve to be a mother."

Samuel tilted her face toward him and kissed her tears away.

"You've done more than enough. She's the one being unreasonable. Every time I used to think about her leg, it made me physically sick. Jessica, you're perfect."

It hit me like a blow. His words shattered my heart into a thousand pieces.

Right after I'd lost my leg, I'd spent countless nights wanting to swallow sleeping pills and slip away without a sound.

He was the one who'd bandaged my wounds and cleaned the raw flesh.

No wonder I'd always heard him vomiting in the bathroom. Every time he came out, his hands looked like he'd scrubbed off a layer of skin.

The very things that had moved me to tears were the things that disgusted him the most.

First thing in the morning, Jessica stood over my bed with her hands on her hips.

A basin of cold water splashed across my face. Her expression was twisted and vicious.

"Enjoy the show last night? Let me tell you the truth. When your leg was rotting away, Samuel was slipping sleeping pills into your water. He told me I was the only reason he could keep going.

"And that same day, he personally filed the accident settlement. He's got evidence that you extorted me. Looks like you're the one who belongs behind bars."

My lips and teeth chattered. Tears crashed down all at once.

I said nothing and turned off the recording.

Her face changed in an instant. She grabbed the baby and stabbed a hairpin into the child's skin.

I lunged forward to stop her, but the baby fell hard to the floor just as Samuel burst through the door.

The next second, a slap landed across my face so hard the room spun.

Jessica scooped up the wailing baby, tears streaming down her face like a portrait of wounded innocence.

"Mrs. Bennett, punish me however you want. I'm begging you, just stop going after the baby. He's so small. He can't fight back the way you can."

Jessica grabbed the hairpin and aimed it at her own chest. One look was all it took for something inside Samuel to snap. He pulled her into his arms, teeth clenched with fury.

"Olivia, I warned you. I promised I'd protect them. You're so vicious you can't stand to let anyone else exist!

"Fine! Someone get in here!"

I watched in horror as a group of hulking bodyguards walked in carrying rope.

"Samuel, it wasn't me! What are you doing? I can't stand sharp things, you know that!"

He hesitated for a split second, but Jessica's gut-wrenching sobs drowned out everything else.

"If anything happens to this baby, I'd rather die! What, you're telling me I would ever hurt my own child?"

"Olivia, you honestly think Jessica would hurt her own child?" Samuel spat, his voice ice-cold. "Get her."

The bodyguards stripped me down to my underwear and strapped me to a helicopter that flew over the entire city.

My eyes went wide. Broken screams tore from my throat, tears and vomit blending together.

The man who'd once filled an entire memo app with reminders about me had completely forgotten my crippling phobia of sharp objects and my severe fear of heights.

Someone like me would never have gone near anything that sharp.

My humiliation became the latest joke in their circles.

In the end, they arrested me for disturbing the peace.

The officers called Samuel again and again. On the hundredth try, he finally picked up.

Heavy, intimate panting filled the line. The officers exchanged uncomfortable glances.

Overwhelmed by the trauma, I curled up shaking, my voice shredded.

"Samuel, you promised you wouldn't abandon me in a place like this, not like my dad did! Just check the surveillance footage, please. I'll die in here."

I gripped the phone so tight my breath came out in tremors.

But all that came from the other end was, "My wife is suspected of harming a child. I'm requesting a full investigation."

Those words dragged me straight to hell.

I laughed in the darkness. I laughed until the tears fell.

Suddenly, I thought about the past.

"Samuel, you'd never let me end up in a place like this, right?"

"Olivia, I can barely stand seeing you upset. Why would you even think that?"

I'd believed him. God, I'd really believed him.

Now, every last beautiful promise he'd made had twisted into a blade and run me through.

During the days I endured that inhuman torment, all it took was Jessica saying something tasted good, and he'd eaten an entire mango ice cream despite his allergy.

All it took was her saying something looked pretty, and he'd canceled a billion-dollar deal to fly overseas and buy her a million-dollar pink diamond.

The day they released me, I went home and burned everything in the safe. Then I spotted something on the floor that had been missed, and my mind went blank.