Chapter 3 Chapter 3

Heather Smith POV:

The world was a blur of pain and noise. I don't remember the exact moment of my escape, only fragments. A momentary lapse in their vigilance. A desperate, primal surge of adrenaline. The smell of stale fear and my own blood. I just remember running. My legs, raw and bleeding, carried me through the darkness. My mind had shut down, leaving only the animal instinct to survive.

I ran until my feet were numb, until the raw wounds on my body screamed in protest, until my lungs burned with the last vestiges of air. My vision tunneled. I was going to collapse. I was going to die.

Then, a faint sound, carried on the wind. Music. A child's choir, singing a cheerful, off-key tune. It was a lifeline in the suffocating darkness, pulling me forward. I pushed past the pain, past the exhaustion. Survival. Just survive.

I stumbled out of the thick brush, my naked body covered in dirt, blood, and fresh tears. My hair was matted, my skin a roadmap of bruises and cuts. Dignity was a distant memory. All that mattered was the light, the sound, the promise of human contact.

And then I saw him. Derek.

He was standing on a makeshift stage, bathed in the soft glow of floodlights. A crowd of villagers, many of them children, clapped politely. Krystal was by his side, her perfect smile a stark contrast to my ravaged face. They were hosting a charity event, a benevolent display of corporate generosity. Cutting ribbons. Shaking hands. Accepting praise.

The irony was a bitter taste in my mouth. He had eighty million dollars to invest in some new project, to parade around in front of cameras, but not a single penny to save me. He had time for photo ops and public relations, but no time to answer my frantic calls.

He was soaking up the adoration, the accolades, completely oblivious to the horror that had just stumbled into his carefully constructed narrative. And I? I stood there, naked and broken, a grotesque apparition in his pristine world.

All eyes turned to me. The clapping stopped. The smiles vanished. The cheerful music died. The spotlights, one by one, swiveled, blinding me, illuminating every single one of my wounds, every raw inch of my flesh. I was a spectacle. A freak show.

Derek' s face, which a second ago had been radiating charm, went cold. His eyes widened, a flicker of something ugly passing through them. Annoyance. Disgust.

He walked towards me, not with concern, but with a stiff, formal gait. "Heather? What are you doing?" His voice was sharp, laced with an irritation that cut deeper than any physical blow.

My mind reeled. What was I doing? I was escaping hell. I was running to him. To my fiancé. My supposed protector.

I wanted to scream. I wanted to tell him everything. But the words caught in my throat. My pain, my suffering, my near-death experience-it was all an inconvenience to him. Less important than an organized charity event. Less important than a carefully maintained public image.

Tears, fresh and hot, streamed down my face. I launched myself at him, my arms flailing, my voice a strangled sob. "Derek! Why didn' t you come for me? Why? We were getting married! I' m your fiancée!"

He flinched. He actually flinched. Then, his hands came up, pushing me away. Hard.

I stumbled back, the raw skin on my feet scraping against the rough ground. The pain was inconsequential. The rejection, in front of all those cameras, all those staring eyes, was everything.

"Heather, calm down!" he hissed, his voice low but venomous. "What are you talking about? Krystal has been negotiating with the kidnappers. We were going to pay the ransom. What is wrong with you? Don't you know how to be quiet? How to be discreet?"

Discreet? I was being tortured, Derek. My body was a ruin. And he was blaming me for not being discreet.

"You think this is an act?" I choked, pointing at my broken body. "Who would stage this? Who would do this to themselves?"

He just stared at me, his eyes devoid of warmth, of pity, of recognition. The boy I had loved. The man I was supposed to marry. He was gone. Replaced by a stranger with cold, calculating eyes.

I cried until my eyes were dry, until my throat burned. He remained impassive. His gaze drifted to the now-disrupted crowd, the flashing cameras. His charity event. My appearance had ruined it.

A heavy blanket was thrown over me. Strong hands, not his, pulled me away. Away from the lights, away from the cameras, away from him. I was bundled into a waiting car, my humiliation complete.