His Promise, Her Prison

His Promise, Her Prison

Gertrude

3.5
Comment(s)
234.5K
View
30
Chapters

The day I was released from prison, my fiancé, Don Ford, was waiting for me, promising our life would finally begin. Seven years ago, he and my parents begged me to take the fall for a crime my adopted sister, Kelsey, committed. She got behind the wheel drunk, hit someone, and fled the scene. They said Kelsey was too fragile for prison. They called my seven-year sentence a small sacrifice. But as soon as we arrived at the family mansion, Don's phone rang. Kelsey was having another one of her "episodes," and he left me standing alone in the grand foyer to rush to her side. The butler then informed me I was to stay in the dusty storage room on the third floor. My parents' orders. They didn't want me upsetting Kelsey when she returned. It was always Kelsey. She was the reason they took my college scholarship fund, and she was the reason I lost seven years of my life. I was their biological daughter, but I was just a tool to be used and discarded. That night, alone in that cramped room, a cheap phone a prison guard gave me buzzed with an email. It was a job offer for a classified position I had applied for eight years ago. It came with a new identity and an immediate relocation package. A way out. I typed my reply with shaking fingers. "I accept."

Protagonist

: Annamarie Salinas and Don Ford

His Promise, Her Prison Chapter 1

The day I was released from prison, my fiancé, Don Ford, was waiting for me, promising our life would finally begin.

Seven years ago, he and my parents begged me to take the fall for a crime my adopted sister, Kelsey, committed. She got behind the wheel drunk, hit someone, and fled the scene.

They said Kelsey was too fragile for prison. They called my seven-year sentence a small sacrifice.

But as soon as we arrived at the family mansion, Don's phone rang. Kelsey was having another one of her "episodes," and he left me standing alone in the grand foyer to rush to her side.

The butler then informed me I was to stay in the dusty storage room on the third floor. My parents' orders. They didn't want me upsetting Kelsey when she returned.

It was always Kelsey. She was the reason they took my college scholarship fund, and she was the reason I lost seven years of my life. I was their biological daughter, but I was just a tool to be used and discarded.

That night, alone in that cramped room, a cheap phone a prison guard gave me buzzed with an email. It was a job offer for a classified position I had applied for eight years ago. It came with a new identity and an immediate relocation package. A way out.

I typed my reply with shaking fingers.

"I accept."

Chapter 1

I remember the day I went to prison. It wasn't because of a judge or a jury. It was my own family.

Seven years ago, my adopted sister Kelsey Stephenson got behind the wheel, drunk. She hit someone and fled the scene. The person survived, but the crime was serious.

My parents, the Salinas family, sat me down. My biological sister, Joline, was there too.

"Kelsey isn't well," my mother said, her voice cold. "She can't go to jail. It would break her."

"Can you go for her?" my father asked, not looking at me. "It's just a few years."

I refused. I couldn't believe what they were asking. But one night, they bundled me into a car. It wasn't their car. It was a police car.

My fiancé, Don Ford, was there. He was a big deal in New York, a financial magnate who could make things happen. He arranged everything. He held my face in his hands, his own eyes filled with a pain I didn't understand.

"Annamarie, when you get out, I'll marry you," he promised. "Just bear with it for these seven years. It's the only way to protect you from a worse fate."

I didn't understand what worse fate he meant. I only understood the betrayal.

Now, seven years have passed. The heavy iron gate slid open, and I walked out into a world that felt too bright, too loud.

A sleek black car was waiting. Don Ford stepped out. He looked the same, impossibly handsome in his tailored suit, not a single hair out of place.

He opened his arms to hug me. I stepped back.

He looked hurt, his arms falling to his sides. "Annamarie."

I looked down at myself. My clothes were cheap, provided by the prison. My hair was dull, my skin pale. I was thin, all sharp angles and shadows. Seven years of prison food and hard labor had carved me into someone I didn't recognize. He, on the other hand, looked like he'd just stepped out of a magazine. The contrast was a physical blow.

"I'm here," he said, his voice soft. "I told you I would be. We'll get married. We'll start our life."

The promise felt hollow, an echo from a lifetime ago. I looked at him, really looked at him, and felt nothing. The love I once had, the desperate hope that kept me alive for the first few years inside, had turned to dust.

"Where are they?" I asked. My voice was rough from disuse.

Don's expression tightened. "Your parents... and Joline... they couldn't make it. Kelsey had another one of her episodes this morning. They had to rush her to the hospital."

Of course. Kelsey. It was always Kelsey. The fragile, sickly girl my parents had adopted years ago. She was their everything. I was their biological daughter, but I was just an afterthought, a tool to be used and discarded.

I remembered finding my birth parents, the Salinas family, full of hope. I was an orphan, and I thought I had found my home. But they already had their perfect daughter in Kelsey. I was just the inconvenient truth.

Don drove me back to the Salinas mansion. It wasn't my home. It was just the house where I used to live. The butler, a man who had known me since I was a teenager, looked at me with disdain.

"Mr. and Mrs. Salinas have instructed that you are to use the back room on the third floor," he said, his voice dripping with condescension. "They don't want you disturbing Ms. Kelsey when she returns."

The back room was a glorified storage closet, dusty and forgotten. It was where they had always put me, out of sight and out of mind.

Don looked uncomfortable. "I'll talk to them, Annamarie. This isn't right."

But then his phone rang. "It's your mother," he said, his face creasing with worry. "I have to go to the hospital. Kelsey is asking for me."

He chose her. Again. Of course he did. He always chose her.

I nodded, feeling nothing but a profound emptiness. "Go."

He left. I stood alone in the grand foyer, a ghost in my own family's house. I walked up the back stairs to the small, cramped room that was meant for me.

The door was ajar. I could hear my parents talking in the main living area downstairs.

"Is she settled?" my mother's voice, sharp and annoyed.

"Yes, ma'am. She's in the storage room," the butler replied.

"Good. Keep her there. We can't have her upsetting Kelsey. Don is on his way to the hospital. He knows what's important."

My heart, which I thought had turned to stone, felt a cold, sharp pain.

I closed the door to my little room and sat on the lumpy mattress. My phone, a cheap burner phone given to me by a kind prison guard, buzzed. It was an email.

The subject line read: "Classified Position - National Research Institute."

It was an offer. A job in a classified art restoration department, a position I had applied for eight years ago, before my life was stolen from me. It came with a new identity and a relocation package.

A way out.

I typed my reply with shaking fingers.

"I accept."

Continue Reading

Other books by Gertrude

More
The Alpha Signed Away His Fated Mate

The Alpha Signed Away His Fated Mate

Werewolf

5.0

I stood center stage at my own art exhibition, surrounded by the Pack elite who looked at me with nothing but pity. My husband, the Alpha Prime, was missing. Then someone pointed at the TV. There was Dante, live on the news, shielding another woman—a leggy Beta named Isabella—from the rain with his own body. While I stood alone, treated like a defect because I couldn't shift, he was playing the perfect gentleman to his mistress. That night, I walked into his office with a stack of boring gallery logistics paperwork. Buried deep on page four was a Severance Bond—an archaic law declaring a mate unwanted property. Dante didn't even read it. He was too busy laughing with Isabella to notice he was legally signing away his wife. I took the folder, packed a bag, and vanished into the night, taking the secret of his unborn heir with me. When he finally tracked me down in the Swiss Alps during a blizzard, he expected a submissive wife ready to return. Instead, he found a woman who looked him in the eye and said, "You are not needed here." I thought I was free, until a year later, when our daughter’s blood began to burn her alive from the inside. Her powerful Alpha bloodline was at war with her body, and my magic wasn't enough to save her. Trembling, I dialed the number I swore I’d never call again. "Dante," I sobbed. "It's Luna. She’s dying." The man who once treated me like a resource tore through mountains to save us. But this time, the Alpha Prime didn't come to conquer. He came to kneel.

Reborn Heiress: Dragging Traitors To Hell

Reborn Heiress: Dragging Traitors To Hell

Mafia

5.0

The world was a symphony of agony, played on the strings of my own body. I was tied to a chair in a damp basement, the metallic tang of blood filling my mouth as my fingernails were ripped from their beds by a pair of rusty pliers. My best friend, Corrine, stepped into the flickering light wearing my favorite Chanel suit and the engagement ring that was supposed to be mine. Beside her, my fiancé Aldo held the pliers, his voice smooth and cultured as he demanded I sign over my entire inheritance to them. As I struggled, a news report flashed on an old TV in the corner: Hunter Gallagher, the man I had treated like dirt but who had always tried to protect me, was dead in a horrific car explosion. Corrine laughed, whispering in my ear that they had lured him to his death using a fake kidnapping tip. He died trying to save me from a trap set by the people I trusted most. They didn't just want my money; they wanted to erase me. They plunged a needle full of heroin into my neck, watching with cold, mocking eyes as my heart hammered against my ribs and finally seized into nothingness. I died in that basement, a blind, spoiled girl who had let her true protector be murdered. As the darkness closed in, my soul burned with a single, silent vow: If I ever get another life, I will drag you both to hell with me. Suddenly, I gasped for air, my lungs fighting against a weight that wasn't there. I wasn't in the basement; I was in my own bed, my fingernails intact and my skin unbroken. I checked my phone, and my heart stopped—it was May 20th, exactly one year before my death. Hunter was still alive, and this time, I wasn't the prey.

Deserted Wife, Billionaire's Regret

Deserted Wife, Billionaire's Regret

Modern

5.0

My anniversary flight was about to board when my husband' s assistant, Chloe, appeared, tears streaming down her face, begging for my ticket because her mother was supposedly dying. It was absurd, but I told her to find another way, unaware of the trap I was walking into. When I arrived home, my husband, Liam, confronted me, accusing me of abandoning Chloe. He then offered me a glass of water, which, unbeknownst to me, was drugged. I woke up alone, stranded in a scorching desert, the sun a blazing inferno above me. A helicopter appeared overhead, and I saw Liam with Chloe, who was holding a phone, livestreaming my torment with the hashtag #AvaWalksTheDesert. They boasted about my family' s supposed bankruptcy and ordered me to apologize to Chloe. When I refused, Liam' s bodyguards took my shoes, leaving me barefoot on the burning sand, where rusty nails were then dumped in front of me. I forced myself to walk, nails piercing my feet, leaving a trail of blood. The doctor on board screamed that I was losing too much blood, but Liam was unconcerned. Then, a sack of highly venomous desert vipers was dumped in my path, preying on my deepest fear. I stood frozen, paralyzed by terror, as one viper slithered toward me and bit my calf. The doctor cried out for antivenom, but Chloe "accidentally" knocked the vial, shattering it. Liam, more concerned with his pride and the livestream than my life, demanded I apologize to Chloe and the camera for his "show." "Never," I rasped, refusing to give him the satisfaction. Just as Liam' s bodyguards forced me to my knees, a military-grade helicopter descended from the sky.

You'll also like

Secret Triplets: The Billionaire's Second Chance

Secret Triplets: The Billionaire's Second Chance

Roderic Penn
4.5

I stood at my mother’s open grave in the freezing rain, my heels sinking into the mud. The space beside me was empty. My husband, Hilliard Holloway, had promised to cherish me in bad times, but apparently, burying my mother didn't fit into his busy schedule. While the priest’s voice droned on, a news alert lit up my phone. It was a livestream of the Metropolitan Charity Gala. There was Hilliard, looking impeccable in a custom tuxedo, with his ex-girlfriend Charla English draped over his arm. The headline read: "Holloway & English: A Power Couple Reunited?" When he finally returned to our penthouse at 2 AM, he didn't come alone—he brought Charla with him. He claimed she’d had a "medical emergency" at the gala and couldn't be left alone. I found a Tiffany diamond necklace on our coffee table meant for her birthday, and a smudge of her signature red lipstick on his collar. When I confronted him, he simply told me to stop being "hysterical" and "acting like a child." He had no idea I was seven months pregnant with his child. He thought so little of my grief that he didn't even bother to craft a convincing lie, laughing with his mistress in our home while I sat in the dark with a shattered heart and a secret life growing inside me. "He doesn't deserve us," I whispered to the darkness. I didn't scream or beg. I simply left a folder on his desk containing signed divorce papers and a forged medical report for a terminated pregnancy. I disappeared into the night, letting him believe he had successfully killed his own legacy through his neglect. Five years later, Hilliard walked into "The Vault," the city's most exclusive underground auction, looking for a broker to manage his estate. He didn't recognize me behind my Venetian mask, but he couldn't ignore the neon pink graffiti on his armored Maybach that read "DEADBEAT." He had no clue that the three brilliant triplets currently hacking his security system were the very children he thought had been erased years ago. This time, I wasn't just a wife in the way; I was the one holding all the cards.

Chapters
Read Now
Download Book
His Promise, Her Prison His Promise, Her Prison Gertrude Romance
“The day I was released from prison, my fiancé, Don Ford, was waiting for me, promising our life would finally begin. Seven years ago, he and my parents begged me to take the fall for a crime my adopted sister, Kelsey, committed. She got behind the wheel drunk, hit someone, and fled the scene. They said Kelsey was too fragile for prison. They called my seven-year sentence a small sacrifice. But as soon as we arrived at the family mansion, Don's phone rang. Kelsey was having another one of her "episodes," and he left me standing alone in the grand foyer to rush to her side. The butler then informed me I was to stay in the dusty storage room on the third floor. My parents' orders. They didn't want me upsetting Kelsey when she returned. It was always Kelsey. She was the reason they took my college scholarship fund, and she was the reason I lost seven years of my life. I was their biological daughter, but I was just a tool to be used and discarded. That night, alone in that cramped room, a cheap phone a prison guard gave me buzzed with an email. It was a job offer for a classified position I had applied for eight years ago. It came with a new identity and an immediate relocation package. A way out. I typed my reply with shaking fingers. "I accept."”
1

Chapter 1

15/07/2025

2

Chapter 2

15/07/2025

3

Chapter 3

15/07/2025

4

Chapter 4

15/07/2025

5

Chapter 5

15/07/2025

6

Chapter 6

15/07/2025

7

Chapter 7

15/07/2025

8

Chapter 8

15/07/2025

9

Chapter 9

15/07/2025

10

Chapter 10

15/07/2025

11

Chapter 11

15/07/2025

12

Chapter 12

15/07/2025

13

Chapter 13

15/07/2025

14

Chapter 14

15/07/2025

15

Chapter 15

15/07/2025

16

Chapter 16

15/07/2025

17

Chapter 17

15/07/2025

18

Chapter 18

15/07/2025

19

Chapter 19

15/07/2025

20

Chapter 20

15/07/2025

21

Chapter 21

15/07/2025

22

Chapter 22

15/07/2025

23

Chapter 23

15/07/2025

24

Chapter 24

15/07/2025

25

Chapter 25

15/07/2025

26

Chapter 26

15/07/2025

27

Chapter 27

15/07/2025

28

Chapter 28

15/07/2025

29

Chapter 29

15/07/2025

30

Chapter 30

15/07/2025