The Woman Who Saved Him Twice

The poison in my veins had two years left, just like me.

Two years I' d spent trapped in a gilded cage by Ethan Lester, the man I once loved.

He believed I betrayed him, orchestrated his family' s slaughter, a lie I carried to protect him from a truth that would have led him to self-destruction.

I endured his hatred, the scars, the daily degradations, all while my life slowly ebbed away.

Then came the night Sabrina, his new woman, a viper wearing a sweetheart's smile, orchestrated the unspeakable.

She lured my little brother, Andrew, the only innocent left in my world, to the compound.

She planned to drain his blood for a twisted art project.

I found him, strapped down, and I screamed for her to take me instead.

But Ethan, blind with rage and manipulated by Sabrina' s lies, saw my reaction as defiance.

He threatened Andrew, trying to extract a "confession" from me.

My truth would kill him; my silence guaranteed my brother's fate.

He offered me everything I' d ever wanted – a future, marriage – if I just confessed.

I couldn't.

Sabrina, with a subtle push, guided his hand, and the blade sliced across Andrew' s throat right before my eyes.

My world shattered as I watched him die, Ethan' s hand, bloodied, still on the knife.

As I lay dying beside my brother's cooling body, my last words shattered Ethan' s delusions, revealing the true traitors.

Now that it' s all over, all I want to know is: Can a man who destroyed everything he claimed to love ever atone for the irreparable damage he caused?

The poison inside me is a quiet fire, a slow burn that has been my constant companion for two years. Now, it's reaching its end, and so am I.

Two years. Two years in this gilded cage, this fortified compound belonging to Ethan Lester.

The man I grew up with. The man I loved. The man who now holds me captive.

He believes I betrayed him. He thinks that on the day we were supposed to run away together, I led a rival gang to his home, that I watched as they slaughtered his adoptive family.

He's wrong. But the truth would destroy him, so I stay silent.

Tonight, he' s putting on a show. A party. And I am the main attraction. He drags me from my basement cell into the opulent living room, filled with his men and his new woman, Sabrina Chavez.

"Show them, Maria," Ethan's voice is cold, a stranger's voice. "Show them the trick you taught me."

He presses a cold, familiar knife into my hand. The knife-throwing trick. Our trick.

My hands tremble, not from fear, but from the poison's relentless advance. I take a deep breath, aim at the wooden target across the room, and throw.

The knife misses the bullseye. It wobbles in the air and clatters to the floor.

A wave of laughter ripples through the room.

"She's lost her touch, boss," one of his men sneers.

Sabrina, draped over Ethan' s arm, gives a delicate, pitying smile. "Don't be so hard on her, Ethan. Look at her. She can barely stand."

Her words are meant to sound kind, but they are gasoline on his fire. His eyes, once full of warmth for me, are now black with hate.

"Again," he commands, his voice low and dangerous.

He forces me to do it again. And again. My vision blurs. On the fifth throw, my arm gives out completely. The knife flies wild, slicing through the air and nicking Sabrina's perfect cheek.

A tiny drop of blood appears.

Sabrina gasps, a theatrical hand flying to her face. "She... she tried to kill me."

The room falls silent.

Ethan' s face twists into a mask of pure fury. He moves so fast I don't have time to react. He grabs me by the hair, yanking my head back.

"You never learn," he hisses, his face inches from mine. He thinks this is another assassination attempt, another betrayal.

He nods to two of his men. They hold me down. He takes another knife, its edge gleaming under the chandelier lights.

"A scar for a scar," he says, his voice devoid of all emotion.

The blade cuts deep into my face, a searing line of pain from my temple to my jaw. He stops just short of my eye. The world goes white, then red.

He lets me go, and I collapse onto the marble floor.

"Throw her back in the cellar," he orders, his voice distant.

As his men drag me away, I see him rush to Sabrina's side, his touch gentle, his voice full of concern.

Back in the darkness of my cell, the pain from the gash is nothing compared to the fire flaring in my veins. The poison. It' s accelerating.

I press my hand to my stomach, feeling the internal agony.

Two days. The doctor on my last mission told me it was undetectable, untreatable. A parting gift.

I have two days left to live.

The heavy steel door of my cell groans open. Ethan stands there, silhouetted against the dim hallway light.

He yanks me to my feet and drags me up the stairs to his private interrogation room. The room is cold, sterile, and smells of bleach and fear.

He shoves me into a metal chair, my hands cuffed behind my back.

"Who were you working for?" he demands, his voice echoing in the small space. "That night. It wasn't just a gang hit. It was too clean. Who gave the order?"

He' s always suspected something more. He' s not stupid.

But I can't tell him. I can't tell him his "family" were informants for a rival agency, planning to use him as a pawn and then kill him. I can't tell him my DEA team had to take them out to save his life. Knowing that truth would send him on a suicidal path of revenge.

So I stay silent. I just look at him, my face a bloody mess.

My silence infuriates him. "Talk!" he roars, his fist slamming onto the metal table between us.

He turns to the equipment in the corner. I close my eyes, bracing myself. The shocks come in waves, jolting through my body, making my teeth rattle and my muscles seize. Still, I say nothing.

He' s about to start again, his face a storm of frustration and rage, when the door bursts open.

It' s one of Sabrina' s aides, his face pale with panic.

"Boss! It's Sabrina! Her face... it' s swelling up! It' s turning black!"

Ethan freezes. The anger drains from his face, replaced by pure panic. He shoves past the aide and sprints out of the room, leaving me shackled to the chair.

Hours later, he comes back. His face is grim.

He tells me they're at Sabrina' s mansion. A doctor, one on his payroll, is there.

"The doctor says it's a rare poison," Ethan says, his voice dangerously low. "He thinks you coated your fingernails with it before the party. That the cut from the knife was just a delivery system."

It' s a lie. A perfect, vicious lie from Sabrina.

"He has an antidote," Ethan continues, his eyes locking onto mine. "But he needs to test it. To make sure it works."

My blood runs cold. I know what's coming.

His men hold me down. They pry my mouth open. Ethan stands over me, holding a vial of dark liquid.

"Swallow it," he commands.

They pour the "antidote" down my throat. It burns. It' s not an antidote. It' s another poison.

My body convulses. I double over, vomiting blood onto the pristine floor. The dark, thick liquid is a stark contrast to the white tiles.

Ethan looks down at me, his expression hardening. For him, this is proof.

"So it was you," he says, his voice full of disgust. "You really are a monster."

He turns and walks away, leaving me choking on the floor.