The Monster in My Husband

My family keeps an ancient power, trading years of our lives for unbreakable promises. It was always a debt of the soul, always collected.

When the powerful Scott family owed us, I, Sabrina, was forced to marry their heir, Ethan.

But on my wedding day, his charming younger brother, Caleb, took his place, declaring his undying love.

I was a naive mountain girl, completely out of my depth, and I fell for him.

A year later, pregnant and blissful, I truly believed I had the perfect life.

Then, my world shattered. My entire hometown, all one hundred residents, were massacred.

The official story called it an accident, but a private report revealed they were ritually murdered.

As I recovered from a near-miscarriage, Caleb, my devoted husband, seemed my only comfort.

Until I found his emails. He orchestrated the massacre.

It was all for Jennifer, Ethan's fiancée, to "channel their life force" to save her. Caleb even planned to use our unborn child as a sacrifice.

My loving husband was a monster, his grief a cruel charade.

Trapped, pregnant, and horrified, I knew I had to make a choice.

The life of a Pact Keeper is not something you take for free. A soul for a soul. One hundred souls for one hundred souls. It was time to collect.

My family are the Pact Keepers. For generations, we have lived secluded in the Appalachian mountains, holding a secret power. We can trade years of our own life force for a single, binding promise from another. It' s a debt of the soul, and it is always collected.

The powerful Scott family, a political dynasty from New England, owed my family a life debt from my grandfather's time. They promised to repay it with a marriage. An agreement was made, and I, Sabrina Chavez, was to marry their heir, Ethan Scott. It was a matter of honor, a pact to unite our families and settle the old debt.

But on my wedding day, everything changed.

A massive political scandal involving Ethan exploded across the news. He had to disappear from the public eye immediately to manage the crisis. The wedding, however, could not be stopped. It was too public, too important for the Scott family's image.

So, his younger brother, Caleb Scott, took his place at the altar.

He was handsome, with a kind smile that seemed to reach his eyes. When he lifted my veil, he dropped to one knee right there in front of everyone. His voice was thick with emotion.

"Sabrina, I have been in love with you since the first moment I laid eyes on you. Marrying you today is not a duty. It is the luckiest day of my life."

I was a naive girl from the mountains, completely out of my depth. I believed him. I fell in love with the man who knelt before me and promised me the world.

A year later, I was pregnant. Our life together had been a dream. Caleb was attentive, loving, and treated me like a queen. He was overjoyed about the baby. I thought it was time for him to meet my parents, to see where I came from.

We drove to my secluded hometown in Appalachia. The visit was perfect. My parents, the elders of our community, were charmed by Caleb. He was respectful and seemed genuinely interested in our ways.

We left after a few days, with promises to return soon with their grandchild.

Two days after we got back to the Scott estate in New England, the news broke. A meth lab explosion, the reports said. A fire that followed. My entire town, all one hundred residents, was gone.

The official story was a tragic accident.

But the private report the Scotts received was different. My parents had not died in the fire. They were found brutally murdered, their bodies desecrated in a way that spoke of a dark ritual.

The shock sent me into a physical collapse. I started bleeding, the doctors screaming about a miscarriage. Caleb never left my side. He stayed with me day and night, his eyes red and raw from lack of sleep. He held my hand, fed me, and nursed me back to health with a devotion that seemed absolute. He was my rock in a world that had crumbled to dust.

While I was recovering, I sorted through the few belongings of my parents that had been salvaged and sent to me. Among them was a small, leather-bound book of my mother' s herbal remedies. I found a recipe for an eye strain poultice, a mix of chamomile and eyebright. I remembered Caleb' s red-rimmed eyes, the way he squinted at his phone in the dim hospital light. I wanted to do something for him, anything to repay his care.

I prepared the remedy and took it to his study late one night. He wasn' t there. His laptop was open on the desk, the screen glowing. I was about to leave the poultice on his desk when I saw the open email chain.

It was between him and his brother, Ethan.

My blood ran cold. I couldn't stop myself from reading.

"Caleb, Jennifer is getting better. Your plan to sacrifice the Pact Keeper town to channel their life force to her was a stroke of genius. Jennifer and I will never forget this."

My breath hitched in my throat. I kept reading, my hands shaking so badly I had to grip the edge of the desk.

"I'd do anything for Jennifer. I know she can never be mine, but as long as she's happy, I'll walk through fire. Her congenital heart condition was getting worse. That's why I insisted on marrying the Pact Keeper's daughter in the first place."

The words blurred. Jennifer. Ethan' s fiancée. The beautiful, frail socialite I' d met a few times. The woman Caleb was supposedly just polite to.

The final email made me want to vomit.

"It's an honor for the Pact Keepers to die for Jennifer."

The loving husband, the sleepless nights, the red eyes. It was all a lie. His grief wasn't for me. It was the strain of his monstrous act. He hadn' t been nursing me back to health out of love. He was protecting his investment.

I stumbled back to my room, my mind a black void of horror. My mother, before I left home for my wedding, had given me a small, hidden pouch of herbs. "For emergencies," she had said, her eyes serious. "When you need to make a hard choice." I knew what they were for.

I took one of the bitter pills from the pouch and swallowed it with water. Then, I packed a small bag with cash and the few pieces of my mother' s jewelry I owned.

It was time to collect a debt. The life of a Pact Keeper is not something you take for free. A soul for a soul. A hundred souls for a hundred souls.