Chapter 2

AVA DODSON POV:

Killian' s dismissive laughter echoed in my ears, even after he' d passed out on the study floor. "No. It was Isabel. My Isabel." His words were a physical blow, a final, brutal rejection of my sacrifice, my truth. I stared at his unconscious form, the lines of his face slack with alcohol and misplaced devotion, and a profound weariness settled over me. There was no point in arguing with a man who actively erased me from his memory, replacing me with a carefully constructed fantasy.

His words triggered a torrent of memories, sharp and painful, of that day two years ago.

The news had blared it: "Tech Billionaire Killian Rutledge Missing After Rock Climbing Accident." Panic had seized me. He was out there, alone, injured, in a whiteout blizzard in the treacherous Sierra Nevada mountains. The rescue teams were struggling, conditions too severe. But I couldn't wait. I knew his favorite, secluded climbing spot, a place he' d once, in a rare moment of openness, shared with me.

I packed a small bag, ignoring the frantic calls from his security detail, and drove through the raging storm. The snow was a thick, unforgiving blanket, swallowing the roads, blurring the lines between earth and sky. I abandoned my car miles from the base, strapping on snowshoes and a headlamp. The wind howled like a banshee, tearing at my clothes. Every step was a battle against the elements, against the fear that gnawed at my insides.

I found him huddled beneath an overhang, semiconscious, his leg twisted at an unnatural angle. His face was pale, lips blue, his body trembling uncontrollably. My heart shattered. I wrapped him in my emergency blanket, chafing his cold hands, murmuring reassurances against the wind. I force-fed him high-energy gels, tried to stop the bleeding on his leg with strips of my own clothing. For what felt like an eternity, I was his only defense against the mountain' s icy embrace.

I flagged down a distant rescue helicopter, waving my bright orange emergency tarp until my arms burned. It landed, its rotors whipping up a furious blizzard of snow. They airlifted Killian out first, his face still pale, his eyes barely open. I was too exhausted, too frozen to go with him. I had to wait for the ground team, who found me hours later, half-buried in a snowdrift, suffering from severe hypothermia. I spent a week in the hospital, my body ravaged by the cold, my lungs burning, fingers and toes numb from frostbite.

When I finally recovered enough to come home, limping and frail, Isabel was already there. She was holding Killian' s hand, sitting beside his bed, a picture of angelic concern. Her elaborate story of finding him, of her heroic rescue, had already been woven into his consciousness. He looked at me with cold, distant eyes, as if I were an unwelcome intruder. His mysophobia, already pronounced, seemed to intensify around me. He treated me like a carrier of disease, a contaminant. And Isabel, with her perfectly manicured nails and pristine clothes, became his pure savior.

I tried to tell him, to explain, but his gaze was vacant, his mind already made up. Isabel' s version was simpler, cleaner, perhaps more palatable. She was the beautiful, untainted angel. I was... well, I was just Ava. The wife he' d married for business.

I saw the way Isabel looked at me then – a sly, triumphant smirk when Killian wasn' t looking. She knew. She knew my truth, and she reveled in his delusion. And I, battered and broken, realized he would never believe me. He only trusted her.

The sound of the luxury car' s engine roaring to life jolted me back to the present. Killian and Isabel were gone. They had left me standing on the street, penniless, without my own car, just as they had left me with a fractured truth and a broken heart two years ago. I had hailed a taxi with the last few dollars in my purse, but it only took me halfway. The rest of the journey I had to walk. My ankle, still weak from that hypothermia, throbbed with every step. The strap of my high heel had snapped, leaving me to hobble on one shoe.

By the time I reached the mansion, the grand facade seemed to mock me. My fingers fumbled with the key, the cold seeping into my bones. The door swung open, revealing a horrifyingly domestic scene.

Isabel was sprawled on the living room sofa, her head propped on Killian' s lap, a delicate porcelain teacup in her hand. Her hair, now perfectly styled, cascaded around her. Killian was kneeling on the floor beside her, his head bowed, gently massaging her feet. His mysophobia, the crippling fear of contamination that dictated every aspect of his life, had vanished. For her.

"Oh, my poor baby, your feet must be so sore from all that walking," he cooed, his voice thick with concern.

Isabel sighed dramatically. "They really are, Killian. That horrible police station floor was just... ugh. And then having to walk to the car!"

Walk to the car. The car that had picked them up right at the station exit. My vision swam. This was the man who had stood inches from me at our wedding, unable to meet my eyes, unwilling to touch my hand. This was the man who had recoiled from my touch, deemed me "unclean." This was the man who now treated another woman' s "dirty" feet as if they were sacred.

A porcelain vase on a nearby end table wobbled precariously. In my daze, my elbow brushed against it. It crashed to the floor, shattering into a thousand pieces, the sound echoing through the cavernous space.

Killian' s head snapped up. His face, which had been so soft, so tender just moments before, hardened into a terrifying mask of fury. His eyes, usually cool and distant, now burned with an icy rage I knew well.

He immediately shoved Isabel behind him, shielding her with his body as if I were a venomous snake. "Ava! What have you done?" he snarled, his voice a low growl. "Are you trying to hurt Isabel?"

"No," I stammered, my voice barely audible. "I... I didn' t mean to."

His gaze dropped then, not to the broken vase, but to my feet. Specifically, my one remaining high heel and my mud-stained bare foot. His face contorted in disgust.

"Look at you! You' re filthy!" he spat. "You track dirt into my house, you break my things, you menace Isabel. Get out! Get out of my sight!"

Before I could utter another word, two burly security guards materialized from the shadows. They grabbed my arms, their grip bruising, and dragged me towards the front door.

"Killian, wait!" Isabel called out, her voice a theatrical wail. "Her feet... they' re so dirty! Please don' t let her contaminate the house!"

Killian' s eyes, devoid of any pity, narrowed. "Take her out. And make sure she doesn' t come back tonight."

As the guards practically threw me onto the cold, stone driveway, I heard Isabel' s triumphant little laugh from inside. "Oh, Killian, you' re so good to me. My feet are still a little dirty, though. Will you clean them for me?"

Through the open door, I saw Killian kneel again, his head bowed in adoration, wiping her feet with a pristine white cloth. He, the man who despised anything impure, was cleaning another woman' s feet with a tenderness he had never once shown his own wife. My head felt light, my vision swam. The irony was a cruel, crushing weight.

I was discarded over a dirty shoe. Over mud on my feet. While Isabel, the queen of his heart, could be as messy as she pleased, and he would worship the ground she walked on. It was then, lying on the cold stones, my ankle throbbing, my heart hollowed out, that I knew. My love for Killian was not just dead; it was annihilated. There was nothing left but dust and echoes. And I would bury it for good.