After I left, my crazy husband
begged for forgiveness on his
knees.
Chapter 1
I’d just been recognized by the wealthy Hayes
family when I was forced to become a stand-
in bride for the real heiress, Sarah.
Her fiancé, Peter Knight, had been in a car
accident on their wedding day, leaving him
blind and quadriplegic.
The doctors gave him a slim chance of
recovery.
Two years later, Peter made a full recovery.
Then Sarah reappeared, sobbing that I’d
somehow schemed to steal her wedding.
<
Peter believed her, vowing revenge.
He claimed his eyes hadn’t fully healed and
pressured me to donate a cornea.
After the surgery, while my vision was still
blurry, he dragged me to a flashing, throbbing
nightclub.
He was thrilled when I started crying tears of
blood from the sensory overload.
Friends urged me to leave, but I stayed.
Until he ignored my three–month pregnancy
and took me bungee jumping.
I miscarried. Peter complained about the
smell of blood.
<
After I was discharged, I took a legal
document to Peter’s uncle, Patrick: “The three
years are up. Please honor our agreement
and let me go.”
Patrick took the agreement, tossed it aside,
and kept reading his own papers: “Sign for
another three years. I’ll add another three
hundred thousand to your foster mom’s
medical fund. That way, if she needs a kidney
transplant, you won’t be so stressed.”
Patrick, head of the Knight family, was a
businessman through and through.
I needed money, but I needed out more.
“No. The deal was three years with him and
く
“No. The deal was three years with him, and
then I’m free.”
My voice was firm. Patrick finally looked up.
“Peter’s been giving you a hard time again,
hasn’t he? He lost his parents, then the
accident… it changed him. He’s better these
past three years. Don’t be too hard on him.”
He picked up the phone and called his
assistant.
The assistant appeared with a signed check.
“If you stay, fill in any number you want.”
The slip of paper felt heavy in my hand.
I thought of my foster mom in the hospital. I
<
Then my phone auto–answered. Peter’s cruel
voice filled the room.
“Summer, where the hell are you? Skipping
out on your hospital room? Guess I haven’t
taught you your lesson yet.”
“Actually, I found a new bungee spot. We’ll
have to try it sometime.”
Sarah giggled in the background. “Peter,
you’re so awful! She was pregnant with your
baby! Oh, wait, she lost it…”
“You complained about the smell, remember?
You didn’t see how ugly she looked crying. I’d
have killed myself if I were her, not just hang
around being an eyesore.”
<
More laughter erupted from the phone.
“Summer, you’re so good at taking it, why
don’t you come down to the club and play
clown for my friends? Give everyone a laugh.”
My hands clenched. The check crumpled in
my fist.
I fumbled to end the call, meeting Patrick’s
sharp gaze.
“I don’t want the money. I just want to leave.”
Patrick took off his glasses and pinched the
bridge of his nose. “Peter’s gone too far. I’ll
talk to him. Think it over.”
Before I could refuse, the hospital called.
<
I rushed there. My foster mom was in surgery.
I collapsed onto a chair in the hallway, staring
at the red light above the operating room.
door, feeling utterly alone.
Why was the world so cruel? I’d never hurt
anyone. Was I going to lose the only person.
who loved me?
The elevator dinged.
Medics rushed a pregnant woman toward the
- OR.
Moments later, the doctor came out. Stillbirth.
The family’s wails tore through me. They cried
for the doctors to save the mother.
く
I touched my stomach, grief welling up.
There had been a life there, connected to me.
Even if his father was a monster, I’d wanted
him.
I’d even started to accept a life with Peter, for
O
the baby’s sake.
But the accident had broken more than his
body.
Peter believed Sarah. He saw me as a gold digger.
So he took me to the bungee platform, as
revenge.
His men held me down. He strapped me into
the harness himself.
He saw my tears, heard my pleas. It just
fueled his excitement.
He didn’t push me right away. He poked my shoulder, relishing my screams.
Despair washed over me. I felt like I was
losing my mind.
I begged him. “There’s a baby! Please don’t
do this!”
His eyes flashed. He shoved me off the
platform.
The world dropped away. Pain ripped through.
my abdomen.
く
They pulled me up after the blood started
flowing down my legs.
I was white as a sheet, numb with shock.
Peter waved his hand in front of his face. My blood was offending his delicate sensibilities.
Sarah leaned against him, snapping pictures. “Smile for the camera, sis!”
I passed out.
As I slipped away, I saw flashes of my past.
Five years old, my mom took me to the
carnival. I was snatched away, sold for a
thousand bucks.
Eight years old, I ran away, ended up in an orphanage, finally had a full meal.
Ten years old, my foster mom adopted me.
She couldn’t have kids of her own and treated me like I was hers. I finally had a home.
Fifteen years old, my birth parents found me, paid my foster mom, and took me back.
I knew my foster mom was sick, needed the money. I didn’t complain.
