Chapter 1

The email confirmation glowed on Sarah Miller's laptop screen.

*Tiffany Vance. One-way, First Class. New York to Bali. Departure: Tomorrow, 08:00 AM.*

Attached was a polite but firm notification to Ms. Vance's "preferred wellness retreat" about her impending arrival for an extended, digitally detoxifying stay.

Sarah took a steadying breath.

Then, she systematically cancelled the supplementary credit cards linked to Ethan's accounts – the ones Tiffany flaunted.

It was a small act, a desperate pushback after months of quiet erosion.

Ethan Hayes, her husband, the tech mogul, wouldn't like it.

He wouldn't like it at all.

That was the point.

Her phone buzzed violently on the polished mahogany desk of their New York penthouse. Ethan's name flashed.

She let it go to voicemail, her heart thumping a frantic rhythm against her ribs.

A moment later, a video message pinged.

Her blood ran cold.

The shaky video showed a dimly lit, dilapidated barn.

Her mother, Mary, was tied to a wooden chair, her face pale with terror.

Her father, John, was bound to a post opposite her, his expression grim, his eyes darting around.

A large, red digital timer was prominently displayed between them, its numbers stark: 59:53.

59:52.

Ethan's voice, smooth and chilling, came through the phone's speaker, overlaying the video.

"Sarah, my love. A little game. Tiffany seems to have misplaced her travel itinerary. And her spending money."

The timer clicked down. 59:45.

"You have one hour to tell me where you sent her. One hour, Sarah. Or your parents... well, let's just say their retirement in Montana might end a bit more abruptly than planned."

The video ended.

Sarah's hands shook so violently she almost dropped the phone.

Her parents. He had her parents.

The phone rang again. Ethan.

She answered, her voice a choked whisper. "Ethan, please."

"The clock is ticking, Sarah," he said, his voice utterly calm, devoid of any emotion. Like he was discussing a business merger. "Fifty-eight minutes. Where is Tiffany?"

The casual cruelty of it stole her breath.

This was the man who had once sworn to protect her, to cherish her.

"They haven't done anything to you, Ethan. Please, they're good people. This isn't... this isn't right."

Her throat felt tight, words catching like burrs.

She could hear the faint, steady tick of a clock in the background of his call, a deliberate, torturous sound effect.

Ethan laughed, a dry, humorless sound. "Right? What's 'right,' Sarah? Is it 'right' for my wife to interfere in my... arrangements? Is it 'right' for her to try and dictate who I see?"

He paused, letting his words sink in. "You seem to have forgotten your place. Or perhaps, the importance of loyalty."

Importance. He used that word.

He'd once told her she was the most important person in his world.

He'd whispered it during late-night talks, shouted it from metaphorical rooftops during their whirlwind courtship.

"I love you, Sarah Miller. More than anything."

The memory felt like a shard of glass twisting in her gut.

His promises were cheap, meaningless.

The man on the phone was a stranger, a monster wearing her husband's face.

A tremor ran through her. "Ethan... would you really... hurt them?"

She needed to hear him say it, or deny it. Needed some anchor in this nightmare.

His voice dropped, becoming silkier, more dangerous.

"Try me, Sarah. Just try me."

The line went dead.

Tears streamed down her face, hot and furious. She choked back a sob.

He would. He absolutely would.

She remembered the early days, the grand gestures, the overwhelming intensity of his affection. He'd swept her off her feet, a Montana girl unused to the dizzying world of New York billionaires.

Her parents, John and Mary, had been cautious.

"He's a powerful man, Sarah," her father, the retired sheriff, had said, his brow furrowed. "Men like that... they're used to getting what they want. Be careful, honey."

Her mother had worried about the glitter, the sheer difference in their worlds.

But Sarah had been blinded by love, by the charm Ethan could deploy so effectively.

Tiffany Vance.

The name had first surfaced innocuously, a new "personal assistant" Ethan had hired.

"She's very efficient," Ethan had said, barely looking up from his tablet. "Handles my schedule, some PR stuff. Young, ambitious."

Sarah hadn't thought much of it. Ethan's world was full of young, ambitious people.

Then came the late nights, the unexplained trips.

The scent of a different perfume on his shirts.

One evening, during a rare dinner at home, he'd been talking about a gallery opening Tiffany had arranged.

"And then Tiffany... I mean, Sarah... God, I'm tired." He'd waved a dismissive hand.

But the slip was there. Tiffany. Not Sarah.

She'd confronted him.

He'd laughed it off. "Stressed, darling. You know how it is."

When she pressed, his eyes had hardened. "It's casual, Sarah. Everyone in our circle has arrangements. Don't be so... provincial."

Provincial. As if her expectation of fidelity was some quaint, outdated notion.

The affair became less hidden, more blatant.

Tiffany was suddenly at his side at "business" dinners, her hand lingering on his arm.

Photos appeared in gossip columns – Ethan Hayes and a "mystery blonde" at exclusive clubs.

Sarah's protests were met with cold dismissal, then irritation.

"You're making this unpleasant, Sarah."

"Don't be a shrew."

"This is how things are. Accept it."

Her heart had splintered a little more each time.

The decision to send Tiffany on an involuntary vacation had been born of months of swallowed pain, a desperate, last-ditch effort to reclaim some sliver of her marriage, her dignity.

A foolish, naive act, she saw now. It had only poked the bear.

The timer on the video image on her phone read 42:17.

Her parents.

She couldn't let him hurt them.

Her fingers, slick with sweat, fumbled as she dialed Ethan back.

He answered on the first ring. "Decided to be reasonable?"

"Bali," she choked out. "She's on a flight to Bali. A wellness retreat. I... I booked it."

There was a pause. She could hear him typing.

"Ah, yes. First class. Very thoughtful of you, Sarah." His voice was mocking. "I'll have my people intercept her. Don't worry your pretty little head about her comfort."

"My parents, Ethan. Where are they? Are they okay?"

"Upstate," he said, his tone now bored, dismissive. "An old hunting lodge my family owns. Near Black Lake. You know the one. They're fine. For now."

He didn't look at the camera, didn't offer any reassurance. Just cold, hard facts.

He hung up.

Sarah didn't hesitate.

She grabbed her keys, her purse, and ran.

Black Lake was a three-hour drive, if she broke every speed limit.

The lodge was remote, dilapidated, miles from anywhere.

She pushed her car, a sleek sedan Ethan had gifted her – another symbol of his possessive generosity – to its limits, the engine roaring in protest.

Her mind raced, a torrent of fear and self-recrimination.

How could she have been so stupid? How could she have underestimated his cruelty?

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, she saw the turn-off, a barely visible dirt track leading into dense woods.

The lodge came into view, a decaying structure silhouetted against the fading light.

No cars. No sign of Ethan's security.

She slammed the car to a halt, jumped out, and sprinted towards the building.

"Mom! Dad!"

The front door hung crookedly on its hinges.

She burst inside.

And then the world tilted.

A deafening crack, the groan of tortured wood.

The floor beneath her feet buckled.

She saw her father lunge, pushing her mother and her towards the doorway, his face a mask of desperate effort.

"John!" her mother screamed.

Then blackness, dust, and the sickening thud of impact.

Sarah coughed, her lungs full of dust.

Pain shot through her arm.

She blinked, trying to focus.

She was half-buried in debris, a heavy beam lying across her legs.

Her mother was a few feet away, dazed but seemingly conscious.

"Mom?"

"Sarah... John... oh God, John!"

Sarah twisted, her heart seizing.

Her father lay partially trapped under a collapsed section of the roof, his face contorted in pain, one leg at an unnatural angle.

But he was alive. He was looking at them.

"Get... out..." he gasped.

The structure groaned again.

Sirens wailed in the distance. Ethan must have called them after all, his sick game reaching its conclusion.

Later, in the sterile brightness of a hospital emergency room, the doctor's words were a blur.

Her mother had cuts, bruises, a mild concussion.

Sarah had a fractured wrist and deep lacerations.

Her father... her father had a severely broken femur, three fractured ribs, and possible internal injuries. He was being prepped for surgery.

"He shielded us," Mary whispered, her voice trembling as she clutched Sarah's good hand. "He saved us, Sarah."

Sarah nodded, tears welling. Guilt gnawed at her. This was her fault. Her stupid, impulsive action had led to this.

"I'm so sorry, Mom. Dad... I'm so sorry."

Her father, pale but conscious on a gurney before they wheeled him away, managed a weak smile.

"Not... your fault, sweetheart." He coughed, wincing. "That man... Ethan... he's... something else."

Then his eyes focused on her, a flicker of his old sheriff's resolve.

"Sarah," he said, his voice raspy but firm. "The agreement. Remember the agreement."

The agreement?

Then it hit her. The prenuptial agreement.

The one her parents, with their small-town wisdom and unexpected foresight, had insisted upon. The one Ethan, in his arrogant certainty that she would never leave, that he could control everything, had signed without much fuss, eager to claim his Montana bride.

It was ironclad. Her father had made sure their lawyer, a shrewd old friend, had seen to that. Infidelity, proven by her, meant immediate dissolution. And a settlement so vast it would cripple a lesser man. It included several properties, outright.

Ethan had been unfaithful. Blatantly. For months.

Tiffany was the proof.

A small, cold kernel of determination began to form amidst the fear and guilt.

Ethan wanted to play games.

Fine.

But this game was about to change.

As soon as her father was out of surgery, as soon as she knew he was stable, she was calling a lawyer.

Not just any lawyer. The best damn divorce lawyer in New York City.

The process for new identities, new citizenship somewhere far away – that would start tomorrow too.

Ethan thought he had all the power.

He was about to find out how wrong he was.