His Unwanted Wife, Her Tortured Soul

I had loved Kade Cordova for ten years, but our marriage was a transaction he despised. He hated me, flaunting his affair with his lover, Kendall, for the world to see.

Then, Kendall framed me for corporate espionage. Blinded by hatred, Kade didn't even question it. He had me thrown into a pre-trial detention center.

In the cold visitation room, he gave the guards a simple, chilling order.

"Teach her a lesson."

They ripped my clothes open and violated me as he watched, his eyes filled with disgust. But that wasn't enough. Kendall faked a miscarriage and blamed me. Enraged, Kade forced himself on me, vowing to use my body as a vessel to replace the child I had "murdered."

The final blow came when Kendall went to my ailing mother and cruelly detailed every humiliation, causing a heart attack that killed her.

I had lost everything. My love, my dignity, and now my mother. All because of lies I couldn't disprove and a man who refused to see the truth.

Standing on a bridge with nothing left to live for, I let go. But I didn't die. I woke up with no memory, saved by a kind stranger. For five years, I lived a new, happy life. Until the day the man who destroyed me found me again.

Chapter 1

Aria Moore had loved Kade Cordova for ten years. A decade of her life dedicated to a man who looked at her with nothing but ice in his eyes.

Their story wasn' t a romance; it was a transaction, signed and sealed by their grandfathers.

Aria's father, a brilliant but unassuming engineer, was the true mind behind Cordova Tech's revolutionary core technology. He was a man of loyalty, not ambition. On his deathbed, he signed away the patents to Kade's grandfather, Harden Koch. In return, Harden gave his word of honor: he would ensure Aria's family was cared for, always.

Harden was a man who valued legacy and honor above all else. After Aria's father died, that debt weighed on him. To settle it, and to secure the brilliant legacy of Aria's father within his own family's bloodline, he made a decision that would shatter three lives.

He forced his grandson, Kade, to marry Aria.

Aria, caught in the whirlwind of her unrequited love, had naively hoped this forced union might be a chance for Kade to finally see her. She was wrong.

Kade, the arrogant and brilliant CEO of Cordova Tech, resented the marriage with every fiber of his being. He saw it as a cage, a betrayal of his own freedom, and he saw Aria as the embodiment of that cage.

His resentment was a fertile ground for his ambitious lover, Kendall Figueroa, to plant her poison.

On their wedding night, a night that should have been a beginning, Kendall orchestrated an end. She drugged Kade. He stumbled into the bridal suite, his mind a fog, and in that haze, he and Aria were intimate for the first and only time. While he was passed out, Kendall had him moved to her own room across the hall.

Kade woke up next to Kendall, his head pounding, a fabricated story whispered in his ear. He was told Aria had found him repulsive, had thrown him out, and that he had sought comfort with the only woman who truly wanted him.

He believed the lie.

That belief ignited a deep, simmering hatred for Aria. It confirmed every resentment he felt. He saw her not as a wife, but as a deceitful, scheming woman who had trapped him and then humiliated him.

From that day forward, his cruelty knew no bounds.

He flaunted his affair with Kendall, parading her in public, making sure every tabloid captured their passionate embraces. He wanted the world to see how little his wife meant to him. Aria became the laughingstock of the city, the unwanted Mrs. Cordova.

But public humiliation wasn't enough for Kendall. She saw Aria as a persistent obstacle, a reminder of her own tenuous position. With cold calculation, she framed Aria for corporate espionage, planting false evidence that made it look like Aria was selling Cordova Tech's secrets to a rival.

Kade, blinded by his hatred and Kendall' s lies, didn't even question it. The accusation fed his narrative of Aria as a traitor. He didn't wait for a trial. He used his immense power to have her thrown into a pre-trial detention center, a place where rules were suggestions and brutality was a currency. He gave a simple, cold order to the guards.

"Teach her a lesson."

And they did.

"Do it."

Kade Cordova' s voice was devoid of any emotion, a flat, dead command that echoed off the cold concrete walls of the visitation room. It was a sound colder than the steel table separating him from Aria.

The pre-trial detention center was a place stripped of warmth and humanity. The air smelled of disinfectant and despair, a scent that clung to Aria' s clothes and skin since the moment she' d been shoved through its gates. The fluorescent lights hummed overhead, casting a sickly, greenish pallor on everything, making the world look like a developing bruise.

Two guards stood behind her, their presence a heavy, menacing weight. They were large men, with thick necks and hands that looked like they were made for crushing things. Their faces were impassive, but their eyes held a chilling eagerness. They were the executioners, and Kade had just given them their mandate.

Aria sat on a metal stool, her body trembling. The small, windowless room felt like a tomb. She was trapped, a mouse cornered by predators, and the man she had loved for a decade was the one who had led them to her. She was accused of corporate espionage, a crime so absurd, so contrary to her very being, that she could barely comprehend it.

"Kade, please," she whispered, her voice cracking. The words were a fragile plea in the oppressive silence. "It wasn't me. I would never betray you. I would never betray Cordova Tech."

He didn' t even look at her. His gaze was fixed on a point on the wall just above her head, as if she were too insignificant to merit his direct attention.

The guards moved in unison, their heavy boots scuffing against the dirty floor. One grabbed her left arm, the other her right, their grips like iron vices. The sudden, rough contact sent a jolt of pure terror through her.

"No!" she cried, a raw, desperate sound. She tried to wrench her arms free, her feet scrabbling for purchase on the smooth concrete. She kicked and twisted, her body a blur of panicked motion, fighting with the primal instinct of a cornered animal.

But it was useless.

With a single, brutal motion, one of the guards ripped her thin prison-issue shirt open. The sound of tearing fabric was loud and violent in the small room. A wave of cold air hit her exposed skin, followed by a tidal wave of shame and horror.

She screamed, a high, thin sound of pure terror, as she struggled against their hold, trying to cover herself. Her hands were pinned. She was utterly exposed, her dignity stripped away under the cold, indifferent lights and the colder, more hateful gaze of her husband.

She was nothing against their brute strength. They forced her arms back, arching her spine painfully. One guard held her down while the other' s rough hands began to roam her body, a vile, invasive exploration that made her soul recoil. His touch was a brand of filth, marking her, defiling her.

"Kade! I' m your wife!" she shrieked, the words torn from her throat, laced with desperation and disbelief. "How can you do this to me? How can you let them do this?"

For the first time, his eyes met hers. There was no pity, no conflict, only a deeper, more profound disgust. It was the look one might give to a piece of garbage they had just stepped in.

"Your wife?" he repeated, his voice a low, venomous sneer. "That title means nothing when it belongs to a treacherous whore."

His words hit her harder than any physical blow. The hope she had desperately clung to, the foolish belief that his love for Kendall was a temporary madness, that underneath it all he still saw her as human, shattered into a million pieces.

He turned to the guards, his voice dropping to a chilling whisper. "I want her to remember this day for the rest of her miserable life. Make sure she understands the price of betrayal."

"No... no, please, Kade, no!" Aria' s pleas became frantic sobs. She thrashed wildly, a desperate, final surge of resistance.

But they were too strong. She felt like a lamb on a sacrificial altar, her struggles only tightening the ropes that bound her. There was nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.

"Kade, look at me!" she begged, her voice raw with tears. She fixed her eyes on him, trying to find a flicker of the man she thought she knew, the boy she had fallen in love with all those years ago. "Please..."

He just stood there, a silent, handsome statue carved from ice. His expensive suit was immaculate, a stark contrast to the filth of the room and the ugliness of the act he was presiding over. He watched as the guards' hands continued their violation, his expression unreadable but his stillness a clear signal of his consent.

A single tear traced a path through the grime on her cheek, a hot line of despair. It was over. Everything was over. The ten years of silent devotion, the secret sketches of his face she kept hidden in her art studio, the foolish dreams of a shared future-all of it had been a lie she told herself.

He had never loved her. He had only ever hated her.

He watched for a moment longer, a cold satisfaction flickering in the depths of his dark eyes. He wanted to see her broken. He wanted to ensure the humiliation was complete.

Then, he spoke, his voice dripping with condescending judgment. "You see, Aria? This is what happens when you overreach. Did you really think you could steal from my company and get away with it?"

He looked down at her, his lips twisting into a cruel smirk. "You disgust me."

His gaze was a physical weight, pressing down on her, crushing what little spirit she had left. In his mind, she was the villain. He remembered the wedding night, the bitter taste of rejection he felt when Kendall told him Aria had thrown him out. He remembered the sting of being forced into this marriage by his grandfather, a constant reminder of his lack of control.

All that resentment, expertly stoked by Kendall' s whispers, had found its target. He saw Aria as the source of all his frustration, the architect of his humiliation.

"I didn' t do it," she sobbed, the words barely audible. "Kade, she' s lying to you. Kendall is lying."

Her heart broke with the realization that he would never believe her. He had already chosen his truth, a convenient fiction where she was the monster and Kendall was the victim. For ten years, she had loved him from afar, her affection a quiet, constant flame. And for all those years, he hadn't even seen her.

Now, he saw her only as a liability to be punished.

He leaned down, his face close to hers, his breath a cold whisper against her skin. He grabbed her chin, his fingers digging into her flesh, forcing her to look at him.

"Don' t you dare speak her name," he hissed. "You' re not worthy."

He questioned her character, her entire existence. "How much did they pay you? Was it worth it, selling out the family that took you in?"

"I' m innocent," she choked out, her body trembling with a mixture of fear and defiance.

Kade let out a short, humorless laugh that sent a shiver down her spine. It was a sound more terrifying than any shout.

"Innocent?" he mocked. "Then confess. Confess what you did, and maybe I' ll tell them to go easy on you."

He let go of her chin and straightened up, his shadow looming over her. He gestured to the guards as if presenting a gift.

"She' s all yours," he said, his voice casual, as if he were discarding a piece of trash. "Enjoy the present from the Cordova family."

Aria was a cornered animal, the scent of her fear thick in the air, exciting the predators that circled her.

"Kade, no! Don' t leave me here!" she screamed, her voice raw with terror. "Kade!"

She curled into herself, a pathetic attempt to shield her body from their leering gazes. Even one of the guards, the younger one, seemed to flinch, a flicker of unease in his eyes before he hardened his expression again. He couldn' t bear to look at the scene unfolding.

But Kade was unmoved. He stood by the door, a silhouette of absolute power against the dim light of the hallway.

"You brought this on yourself, Aria," he said, his voice a cold echo from the doorway. "Perhaps you should have thought about the consequences before you decided to play spy."

With that, he turned and walked away.

The heavy steel door slammed shut behind him, the sound of the lock clicking into place a final, deafening sentence. It was the sound of her last hope extinguishing, leaving her in absolute darkness.

With Kade gone, the guards' pretense of restraint evaporated. Their grins were predatory, their eyes filled with a brutish hunger.

"Well, well," the older one grunted, his voice a gravelly rumble. "Looks like it' s just us, pretty thing. The boss wants us to teach you a lesson. We' re gonna be very good teachers."

Aria scrambled backward on the filthy floor, her bare feet slipping. She pushed herself away from them, her mind screaming. She crawled towards the door, her fingernails scraping against the cold, unyielding steel. She would rather die than let these men touch her again.

"I' d rather die!" she sobbed, her body wracked with a pain that was deeper than physical. It was a soul-deep agony, a confirmation of her complete and utter worthlessness in the eyes of the man she loved.

One of the guards laughed, a harsh, ugly sound. He grabbed her by the ankle, his grip merciless, and dragged her back to the center of the room.

The pain from her ankle was a sharp, biting fire, but it was nothing compared to the fire of humiliation and despair that consumed her. She was a broken doll, tossed about by cruel hands.

In that moment of absolute degradation, something inside her snapped. The fear gave way to a hollow, chilling calm. If this was her end, she would not give them the satisfaction of her tears. She would not beg.

Suddenly, just as the guard' s hand reached for the waistband of her pants, the lock on the door rattled again.

The door swung open with a loud creak, and Kade stood there once more. He was a looming, terrifying monolith, his presence filling the small space, sucking all the air from her lungs.

Aria' s breath hitched. She looked at him, her eyes wide with a desperate, pathetic flicker of hope. He had come back. Maybe he had a heart after all.

"I confess," she whispered, the words tumbling out of her in a frantic rush. The fight had drained from her. "I did it. It was all me. Just... please, make them stop. Please, Kade."

She reached for him, her hand trembling, trying to grab the hem of his perfectly tailored pants as if he were a god who could grant her salvation.

The sight of her, so utterly broken and defeated, seemed to affect him. A flicker of something unreadable passed through his eyes. But before he could react, the overwhelming stress, the pain, and the terror finally took their toll. Her vision swam, the room tilted, and the world went black. Aria collapsed onto the cold concrete floor, unconscious.

When she awoke, the sterile smell of antiseptic had replaced the stench of the detention center. She was in a private hospital room, the sheets clean and white. Through the haze of her returning consciousness, she heard voices from outside the partially open door.

"Kade, have you lost your mind?!" It was Harden Koch, his voice a low, furious roar. "She is a Cordova! Your wife! How dare you subject her to such... degradation! The daughter of the man who built our fortune!"

"She' s a traitor who sold company secrets," Kade' s voice was clipped and cold, utterly defiant.

"And you have absolute proof? Or did you just take the word of that social-climbing tramp, Kendall?" Harden' s voice was laced with contempt. "I warned you about her. I warned you this marriage was a bond of honor. If you bring shame upon the Cordova name by mistreating Aria, I will strip you of everything. You will be left with nothing, do you understand me?"

The sound of a heavy cane striking the floor punctuated his threat. Then, footsteps receded down the hall, followed by the angry slam of a door.

A moment later, Kade entered her room. He saw that her eyes were open.

His face was a mask of cold fury. "Don' t think for a second that this changes anything," he snarled, his voice low and dangerous. "My grandfather can protect you for now, but he won' t be around forever. The next time you step out of line, I will make what happened today look like a mercy."

Aria' s heart, which had just started to piece itself back together, shattered again. The pain was a physical thing, a tight band around her chest that made it hard to breathe.

"Why?" she whispered, the single word filled with the weight of her suffering. "Why won' t you believe me, Kade? I have loved you for ten years. For ten years, my world has revolved around you. How could I possibly betray you?"

The mention of their shared history, of the decade she had spent pining for him, only seemed to irritate him more. His jaw tightened.

"Don' t talk about the past," he snapped. "It' s meaningless."

She was tired of this. So incredibly tired. The constant accusations, the endless cycle of his hatred. She was innocent, and she would not let him forget it.

"It' s not meaningless to me," she said, her voice gaining a sliver of strength. "And I didn' t do it. I am innocent."

Kade' s lips twisted into a cruel smile. "You know, Aria, I' ve often wondered why I could never bring myself to be near you. Even before all this, the very idea of you touching me was... repulsive."

He leaned closer, his voice a venomous whisper. "It's because you reek of lies. You are the most calculating, disingenuous woman I have ever met. And I am sick of the sight of you."