Chapter 1

The sleek invitation for our fifth-anniversary dinner lay on the polished mahogany table. Five years. Ava Miller, architect, and Ethan Knight, CEO of a private equity firm. It sounded like a power couple, a success story. I planned to introduce him to my parents tonight, a step I' d put off, a step that now felt like a guillotine blade hovering.

The first "gift" arrived before dessert. Not a velvet box, but a news alert pinging on everyone' s phone. "Renowned Surgeon Dr. Miller Suspended Amidst Malpractice Scandal." Falsified documents, leaked with surgical precision, painted my father as a monster, responsible for the death of Ethan' s father years ago. His career, his reputation, incinerated in an instant. I saw the blood drain from my father' s face.

The second "gift" was more insidious. My mother, her mind already a fragile lace of early-onset Alzheimer' s, relied on a home care nurse. The nurse suddenly, inexplicably, became unavailable. Ethan, ever so helpful, had been at their house earlier. He' d "accidentally" left the garden gate unlatched. Mrs. Miller, my gentle mother, wandered onto a busy street. A delivery truck. The screech of tires. Silence.

My father, already a ghost from the public shaming, watched the life bleed out of his wife. He heard Ethan' s voice, cold and triumphant, finally revealing his true face, his true intent. "This is for my father, for my mother' s suicide. Five years, Ava. Five years I' ve waited to give you this." The words were hammer blows. Dr. Miller clutched his chest. A massive stroke. He collapsed, his eyes finding mine, filled with a question I couldn' t answer, before they glazed over. Dead.

I knelt on the blood-flecked pavement, the rain starting to fall, a macabre baptism. Ethan stood over me, a dark angel of vengeance. His father' s botched surgery, his mother' s subsequent suicide from grief. He believed Dr. Miller was the architect of his family' s ruin. He' d spent five years meticulously planning ours. My love for him, a five-year charade he' d orchestrated.

My own secret burned in my chest, a literal ache. Years ago, after a near-fatal car accident, Ethan needed an emergency heart transplant. I was a match. An anonymous donation. My heart beat in his chest. I lived with an advanced artificial heart, a marvel of technology, but it was failing. The doctors gave me days, maybe a week. I' d kept it hidden, a final, futile shield.

Ethan knew nothing of this. He believed Chloe Vance, a former nurse at the hospital, was his savior. She' d "miraculously" found the anonymous donor. He kept her close, a confidante, a symbol of his second chance at life, a life he was now dedicating to destroying mine.

He dragged me to his remote estate, a gilded cage. "We' ll torment each other until we' re old and gray, Ava," he' d sneered. Ninety-nine times I tried to escape, to end it. Ninety-nine times his guards, his cameras, his sheer oppressive presence, thwarted me. Each failure was a fresh twist of the knife.

I returned from another grim doctor' s appointment. Seven days. The countdown was loud in my head. I walked into the living room. Ethan was there, a smirk playing on his lips. And with him, three women. My cousin, Sarah, whose college tuition I' d paid when her family was struggling. My childhood best friend, Emily, whom I' d supported through a messy divorce and a stint in rehab. And a former colleague, Jessica, a bright young architect I' d mentored. They were dressed provocatively, their eyes fixed on Ethan, hungry.

"A little game," Ethan announced, his voice smooth as poison. "Whoever makes Ava cry first gets an exclusive contract with Knight Industries. Or, if you prefer, becomes my personal assistant."

Sarah stepped forward first. Her hand cracked across my face, once, twice, three times. I remembered her tearful gratitude, the desperate hugs when I' d handed her the tuition check. "Thank you, Ava, you saved me." Now, her eyes were cold, calculating.

Emily dragged me to the kitchen. She shoved my face into a bowl of ice water, the shock of it stealing my breath. Then she added hot sauce, the fumes burning my eyes, the liquid scalding my skin. "Remember all those nights I cried on your shoulder, Ava? Payback' s a bitch." She laughed, a harsh, ugly sound. I' d held her hand through detox, celebrated her sobriety.

Jessica, the quiet one, the one I' d seen so much promise in. She went to my small suitcase, the one I' d been allowed to bring. She pulled out the lacquered box, my parents' mementos. My father' s vintage watch, its ticking a faint echo of his life. My mother' s favorite silk scarf, still holding her faint, familiar scent. A small, framed family portrait, all of us smiling, a lifetime ago. One by one, she destroyed them. The watch smashed against the marble floor. The portrait torn to shreds.

I held myself together, a fortress of grief. But then, Jessica took the silk scarf. My mother' s scarf. She ripped it, the sound tearing through me. A sob escaped, raw and broken. I cried. Jessica had won.

Ethan waved a dismissive hand. "Get out. All of you. Anyone associated with Ava Miller disgusts me." He watched them slink away, their fleeting triumph turning to ash.

Then, he turned back to me, a cruel smile twisting his lips. He gestured to the doorway. Chloe Vance stood there, radiant, triumphant. "Ava, meet my fiancée, Chloe," Ethan said, his voice dripping with malice. "The woman who found the heart that saved my life three years ago. The woman who made all this possible."

The irony was a physical blow. My heart, beating in his chest, enabling his revenge against me. My artificial heart, failing, counting down my last days. I was shattered, but I said nothing. What was there to say? The truth was a currency I no longer possessed.