Introduction

The jagged glass bit into Amelia Hayes' s cheek.

"Help me," she choked into the phone, but her husband, Ethan Caldwell, snapped: "Amelia, for God' s sake, I' m in a meeting."

A sharp blow, then darkness.

She awoke not in her blood-slicked car, but in her opulent master bedroom, the calendar marking three months after her wedding. Three months into a marriage that had already begun to kill her.

Ethan stood by the window, his voice softening, "Yes, Jessica, tonight sounds perfect." Jessica Thorne, his true love, the shadow over Amelia' s first life. The familiar ache in Amelia' s chest gave way to a chilling, new fury.

For seven miserable years, she had given Ethan desperate, unyielding devotion.

She endured his coldness, his brazen affairs, his emotional abuse, all for a flicker of his attention.

She had become a shell, a caricature, ridiculed by Ethan' s circle and condescended to by his family.

The profound injustice, the sheer blindness of his indifference, was a bitter pill. Her heart, once broken, now felt nothing but a hollow echo of unrequited love.

Then, at a gala, a cruel act involving Eleanor' s ashes, and Ethan, without hesitation, shoved Amelia, his accusations echoing: "You are a disgrace."

He comforted Jessica while Amelia' s head reeled from the impact. That was the final straw.

No tears, no anger. Just a cold resolve. She delivered a small velvet box to his penthouse. Inside: the wedding ring and a divorce decree.

"I. Want. You. Out. Of. My. Life. Forever," she stated, her voice clear. She was reborn to be free.