Introduction

My father was jailed, our family disgraced.

To save my dying mother, I married Ethan Blackwood, the CEO who ruined us.

Our cold wedding; Ethan instantly declared it no love match.

My father died a week later.

I begged for mercy, but Ethan revealed my father drove his own to suicide-now I was his prisoner, his gilded cage.

For five years, I lived as a beautiful facade, a tormented shadow.

Ethan's relentless abuse, and his mistress Isabelle, a venomous fixture.

Pregnant, a faint hope stirred.

But Isabelle faked illness, accusing me of poison.

Ethan believed her.

He forced an injection, and I lost our child.

My world shattered.

That last glimmer of light extinguished.

My mother' s pact became a cruel joke.

He made me swallow contraceptives, then burned the small memorial I made for our son.

"He was your son too!" I screamed.

"How could you?"

Truly nothing left.

I walked out and climbed to the Starlight Observation Deck, ready to jump.

Ethan appeared, frantic, revealing our son' s actual ashes were safe.

Too late.

"I'm tired, Ethan. So tired," I whispered, then jumped.

I survived, but my will to live was gone.

Ethan finally saw the monster he' d become, his revenge's devastating price.

He begged for atonement.

But as snow fell, my last words: "If there's a next life, let's not meet."