Chapter 1

For five years, my celebrated surgeon husband was my hero, my devoted caregiver through a brutal battle with cancer. I thought our love was a blessing.

Then a different hospital revealed the truth: I was perfectly healthy. I overheard him confess to his assistant, Brianna. My illness, the dozens of surgeries, the constant pain-it was all a monstrous, calculated lie.

They had kept me sick to keep me dependent. They even performed an unnecessary hysterectomy, stealing my ability to have children as a twisted "compensation" for his mistress's obsession.

His final betrayal was bringing a pregnant Brianna into our home, expecting me to raise their child. He truly believed I was so broken I would just accept it.

But he made one mistake. He forgot the love letter he signed before our wedding, a promise that if he ever betrayed me, I would be free. When he sent me to the market for his mistress, I walked out of that gilded cage and never looked back.

Chapter 1

Alaina POV

My husband, Gregory Murphy, was a celebrated surgeon. Everyone in Boston thought I was the luckiest woman alive. For five years, I battled a rare, aggressive cancer, or so I thought. I endured over a dozen surgeries, each one a testament to my supposed fragility, and to Gregory' s unwavering strength. He was my rock, my devoted caregiver, a pillar of comfort in my broken body. I truly believed our love was a divine blessing, a gentle hand guiding me through unimaginable suffering.

Then came the dizzy spell, the sudden blackness, the unfamiliar emergency room. Not Murphy Medical Group, but St. Jude' s. The doctor, a kind woman with tired eyes, held my new medical report. She told me I was perfectly healthy. The words hit me like a physical blow. My breath hitched. Perfectly healthy. What did that even mean?

My world spun, not from dizziness, but from the brutal whiplash of her words. Five years of pain, fear, and invasive procedures. All for nothing? A cold dread seeped into my bones, a terrifying suspicion gnawing at the edges of my mind.

I clutched the report, my hands trembling as I drove to Gregory' s office. My heart hammered against my ribs, a frantic bird trapped in a cage. I pushed open the door to his inner office, ready to demand answers, but a soft murmur of voices stopped me.

It was Gregory. His voice, usually so controlled, was low, almost pleading.

"I had to, Brianna," he said. "You know how much I love Alaina. I couldn't just let her go."

Brianna Coleman, his Physician's Assistant, scoffed. Her voice, usually so saccharine, was now sharp, edged with malice. "Love? You let me make her sick to keep her! Her initial appendicitis? I turned it into a terminal diagnosis for you, Gregory. All to 'compensate' me for a decade of unrequited obsession. And those surgeries? 'Minor procedures' you performed yourself, just to appease me. To keep her dependent on you."

My fingers dug into the doorframe, knuckles white. The words registered slowly, then hit me with the force of a tidal wave.

The air left my lungs in a burning rush. My stomach churned, a sickening kaleidoscope of betrayal. Those countless nights I cried myself to sleep, the agonizing pain, the fear of leaving him... it was all a lie. A monstrous, calculated lie.

I heard a soft rustling then, a sound that made my skin crawl. Brianna' s voice, now a purr. "She's so weak, so broken. She'll never leave you, not now. Not after everything."

A bitter laugh escaped my lips, choked and raw. Broken. Yes, I was broken. But not by cancer, not by fate. Broken by the man I loved, the man who swore to protect me.

I pressed my ear closer to the door, desperate for more, for any shred of understanding. I needed to know the depth of this depravity.

Gregory sighed. It wasn't a sigh of regret, but of weary resignation. "She's my wife. My Alaina. She needs me."

"And what about my needs, Gregory?" Brianna' s voice was sharper now, a venomous edge. "After all these years, after everything I've done for you? I deserve more than just being your secret. She can't even give you children, and I can."

My breath hitched again. The hysterectomy. The one he insisted was "necessary" after my last surgery. Was that also a lie? A cold sweat broke out on my forehead. My body felt like a foreign entity, violated and betrayed at every level.

"Don't push it, Brianna," Gregory warned, his voice low, but with a dangerous undercurrent. "Alaina is my wife. And she will remain my wife. She will never leave me."

His words, meant to reassure Brianna, struck me with a chilling clarity. He wouldn't let me go. Not if he thought I was healthy. He wouldn't let me leave this gilded cage he had built around me. He was not my devoted husband; he was my captor. And I was trapped.

A strangled sob tore through me. I stumbled backward, the polished office floor suddenly too slippery beneath my feet. My legs gave out, and I crumpled to the ground, pulling my knees to my chest. The world was spinning, blackening at the edges. Not from illness, but from the sheer, overwhelming weight of betrayal.

I buried my face in my hands, hot tears streaming down my cheeks, though I felt numb. Five years. Five years of my life, meticulously stolen, piece by agonizing piece. My identity, my health, my trust. All gone.

But then, a flicker. A tiny spark in the suffocating darkness. He said I would never leave him. He believed I was dependent, broken. That was his mistake. He underestimated the woman he thought he had crushed.

My hands still shook, but a new kind of resolve settled deep in my gut. I would leave him. I would reclaim myself. And he would never see it coming.

I pulled out my phone, my fingers fumbling. There was only one person who could help me navigate the labyrinth of the Murphy family, someone who also had reasons to want me gone, albeit for different reasons.

I dialed Eleanor Wong' s number. Gregory' s mother. The matriarch who looked at my "illness" with thinly veiled contempt. The woman who despised my inability to produce an heir.

"Eleanor," I whispered, my voice raw, "I'm ready to leave Gregory. And I promise you, I will never set foot in Boston again."

A long silence stretched before she replied, her voice as sharp and cold as ever. "Good. It's about time, Alaina."

My conversation with Eleanor was brief, clinical, and devoid of warmth. She agreed to my terms, her pragmatism overriding any semblance of familial loyalty to Gregory, or sympathy for me. It was purely transactional. She wanted me out, and I wanted out.

The office door creaked open, and Gregory' s voice, now devoid of the earlier intimacy, cut through my daze.

"Alaina? What are you doing here?" he asked, his tone laced with concern, a master performance. "You shouldn't be out of bed."

I quickly wiped my face, trying to compose myself. I couldn't let him see the truth in my eyes, not yet. He would cage me, truly.

"I just wanted to surprise you," I lied, my voice wavering. "I was feeling a little better."

He rushed to me, his hands reaching to help me up. His touch, once a comfort, now felt like a brand. His eyes, full of feigned worry, were a sickening reflection of his deceit.

I forced a weak smile, leaning into his embrace as I subtly slipped the medical report into my purse. He couldn't know I knew. Not yet. Not until I was truly ready to vanish.

"Let's get you home, my love," he murmured, his breath warm against my hair. "You need rest. I'll take care of everything, always."

His words, once a promise, now sounded like a threat. A cage. And I was determined to find the key. The prenuptial agreement. It was somewhere. I just had to find it.