Introduction

My wife, Victoria, laughed too brightly with Julian Thorne, her hand lingering on his arm, a public display of the affair I'd endured for months.

My father's company was gone, my mother frail from a stroke, and Victoria's funding kept her alive.

I was just her husband, a ghost.

Then, impulsively outbidding Julian for a priceless patent sparked her cold fury.

She drove me to a derelict warehouse, revealing my sick mother's hospital bed precariously close to a sheer drop.

"Give Julian the patent," she hissed, "or Sarah will have a terrible accident."

My heart hammered, knowing she'd do it.

She didn't just threaten; she "demonstrated" by plunging a dummy from the bed, watching my agony with a cruel smile.

Julian, a venomous presence, further destroyed my father's memory and framed me for violence.

Victoria, blinded by him, deleted my evidence and let me be brutally slapped.

The final blow: she announced her pregnancy-a child I never thought possible-and Julian threatened to destroy it if I exposed him.

How could the woman who once "saved" me, who funded my mother's life, become this monstrous, manipulative queen, ruling through fear and humiliation?

Why did I allow myself to be trapped in this gilded cage?

What hidden truth transformed my life into this twisted nightmare?

No more.

As I picked up the platinum card she tossed at my feet, I snapped it in half.

My mother's desperate eyes fueled a cold fury.

I called my old mentor, ready to embrace Project Chimera.

It was time for a new plan, a way out, for both of us.