Mind-Link's Lie: Love's Cruel Deception

Mind-Link's Lie: Love's Cruel Deception

JESSICA KIRK

5.0
Comment(s)
6K
View
20
Chapters

For seven years, my husband Kerr Chapman' s every cruel word and cold shoulder was translated by a mysterious "Mind-Link Notification" as a twisted expression of love. It told me his dismissals were "tests of obedience," his neglect a sign of "profound commitment." I believed it, sacrificing my dignity and self for a love I thought was just hidden. Then, after he kicked me out late one night, I crashed my car. Lying injured in the hospital, I expected him to finally break. Instead, he arrived with my university rival, Gina Parker, who openly mocked me and claimed Kerr had been with her. Kerr stood by, defending Gina, even as she deliberately broke a cherished drawing of my deceased mother and then fabricated a story that I attacked her. He carried her out, leaving me alone, his words echoing: "It's a thing, Chloe. You hurt a person over a thing." The Mind-Link notification flashed, trying to justify his betrayal as "a test of my unconditional love." But for the first time, its words felt like a monstrous lie, a sick justification for his cruelty. I stared at the blue box, the words blurring through my tears. The love it described wasn't love. It was a cage. And I finally, finally saw the bars. I had to get out.

Mind-Link's Lie: Love's Cruel Deception Chapter 1

For seven years, my husband Kerr Chapman' s every cruel word and cold shoulder was translated by a mysterious "Mind-Link Notification" as a twisted expression of love. It told me his dismissals were "tests of obedience," his neglect a sign of "profound commitment." I believed it, sacrificing my dignity and self for a love I thought was just hidden.

Then, after he kicked me out late one night, I crashed my car. Lying injured in the hospital, I expected him to finally break. Instead, he arrived with my university rival, Gina Parker, who openly mocked me and claimed Kerr had been with her.

Kerr stood by, defending Gina, even as she deliberately broke a cherished drawing of my deceased mother and then fabricated a story that I attacked her. He carried her out, leaving me alone, his words echoing: "It's a thing, Chloe. You hurt a person over a thing."

The Mind-Link notification flashed, trying to justify his betrayal as "a test of my unconditional love." But for the first time, its words felt like a monstrous lie, a sick justification for his cruelty.

I stared at the blue box, the words blurring through my tears. The love it described wasn't love. It was a cage. And I finally, finally saw the bars. I had to get out.

Chapter 1

"Get out."

Kerr Chapman' s voice was flat, without a trace of emotion. He didn't even look at Chloe. His eyes were fixed on the stack of financial reports on his mahogany desk.

Chloe froze, her hand still on the book she had just moved. It was a collection of poetry she' d thought he might like. She had placed it on the corner of his desk, a small, hopeful gesture.

"What?" she asked, her own voice barely a whisper.

"I said, get out," he repeated, finally lifting his gaze. His eyes were a cold, piercing gray, like a winter sky. "I need to work. I don't want you here tonight."

Shock, cold and sharp, washed over her. "Kerr, where am I supposed to go? It's late."

He just stared at her, his expression unreadable.

Then, something only she could see appeared in the air before her. A translucent blue box, like a pop-up on a screen.

[Mind-Link Notification: Kerr is testing your obedience. A man of his stature needs a partner who understands his need for solitude without question. Complying will increase his affection by 5%.]

Chloe' s breath hitched. For seven years, these notifications had been her secret translator, the key to understanding her enigmatic husband. They turned his cruelty into complex expressions of love.

The notification gave her a strange sense of relief. It wasn't random cruelty. It was a test. A strange, painful test, but one with a purpose.

She nodded, the fight draining out of her. "Okay."

She turned and walked out of his study, her movements robotic. She didn't grab a coat, just her purse and keys.

Kerr didn't say another word. He had already returned his attention to his work, the set of his shoulders rigid and dismissive.

As she closed the heavy front door behind her, the cold night air hit her. The manicured lawns of their estate were dark and silent. It started to drizzle, a cold, miserable rain that soaked through her thin sweater almost instantly.

She got into her car, her hands trembling slightly as she started the engine. She had nowhere to go. Her friends lived an hour away, and calling them this late to explain why her billionaire husband had kicked her out was too humiliating.

She started driving aimlessly, the windshield wipers struggling to keep up with the rain. Her mind drifted back to when it all began.

She had met Kerr Chapman in college. He was the silent, brilliant heir to a tech fortune, always surrounded by people but never a part of them. She was a hopeful art student, drawn to the sadness she saw in his eyes.

She pursued him relentlessly. Her friends warned her.

"Chloe, he's a block of ice," her best friend, Maya, had said over coffee. "He doesn't talk, he doesn't smile. What do you see in him?"

"I see someone who's lonely," Chloe had replied, full of a naive confidence. "I can reach him."

But she couldn't. He rebuffed every attempt, his coldness a solid wall. She was about to give up, heartbroken, when the first notification appeared.

She' d been sitting on a campus bench, watching him walk away, when the blue box shimmered into existence.

[Mind-Link Notification: Kerr Chapman is pathologically shy. He is overwhelmed by your directness but secretly captivated. His rejection is a defense mechanism.]

It was shocking, surreal. But it gave her a sliver of hope. The next day, another notification popped up.

[Mind-Link Notification: Kerr spent three hours last night researching your favorite artist. He is trying to find a way to connect with you.]

Chloe, full of renewed determination, had found an old, worn-out painting in her style at a flea market. She saw Kerr in the library and walked past his table, "accidentally" dropping the painting.

He picked it up. He looked at it, then at her. For the first time, she saw something other than indifference in his eyes. A flicker of interest.

She knew then that the notifications were real. They were her guide.

They eventually started dating, if one could call it that. His displays of affection were nonexistent. But the notifications explained everything. A canceled date was a test of her patience. A cruel comment was a hidden compliment, a way to push her away to see if she would fight to stay.

She was the one who proposed. On their wedding day, he stood at the altar looking more like a man at a funeral. She cried in the bathroom afterward, her heart aching.

[Mind-Link Notification: Kerr is overwhelmed by his love for you. His emotional stunting prevents him from expressing joy conventionally. His solemnity is a sign of the profound weight of his commitment.]

So she had stayed. For seven years, she had endured the coldness, the silent treatments, the public humiliations. The notifications were her constant comfort, the only proof of the profound, possessive love she believed lay beneath his icy exterior.

A sudden blare of a horn snapped her back to the present. Headlights blinded her. She swerved instinctively, the tires screeching on the wet pavement. The car spun out of control, slamming into a guardrail with a sickening crunch of metal.

Her head hit the steering wheel, hard. The world went fuzzy, black spots dancing in her vision. The last thing she felt was a sharp, searing pain in her arm.

She tried to stay awake, her mind screaming for Kerr. Maybe this would be it. The moment the wall came down. He would hear about the accident, rush to her side, his carefully constructed composure finally breaking.

Her vision blurred. She felt herself losing consciousness. Just before she blacked out, a thought, laced with a familiar, bitter hope, echoed in her fading mind.

He' ll come for me.

She woke up to the sterile white ceiling of a hospital room. A dull ache throbbed in her head, and her left arm was in a cast, propped up on a pillow.

She turned her head, expecting to see Kerr in the chair by her bed.

The chair was empty.

A nurse came in, her expression sympathetic. "Oh, you're awake. How are you feeling, Mrs. Chapman?"

"Where... where is my husband?" Chloe's voice was raspy.

The nurse's smile tightened. "He called earlier. He said he had an important meeting he couldn't miss. He sent his assistant to handle the paperwork."

Chloe felt a cold pit form in her stomach. An important meeting.

Then, a woman' s laughter echoed from the hallway. It was a familiar, grating sound.

The door pushed open and Gina Parker walked in, a smug smile on her perfectly made-up face. She was Chloe's old university rival, a woman who had made it her life's mission to torment her.

"Chloe, darling," Gina cooed, her eyes scanning the room with faux concern. "I heard what happened. How dreadful."

Kerr appeared behind her. He stood in the doorway, his expression as cold and remote as ever. He wasn't even looking at Chloe. He was looking at Gina, a flicker of something-annoyance? indulgence?-in his eyes.

"Kerr," Chloe whispered, her heart cracking.

He glanced at her, his gaze dismissive. "The doctor said you'll be fine. A minor concussion and a broken arm."

Gina sidled up to him, placing a perfectly manicured hand on his arm. "Kerr was so worried, weren't you, honey? He was just telling me how clumsy you can be."

Chloe stared at them, at Gina' s possessive hand on her husband's arm, at Kerr's silent acceptance of it. The pain in her head was nothing compared to the agony ripping through her chest.

[Mind-Link Notification: Kerr is using Gina to test your reaction. He wants to see if you will fight for him. Your jealousy is the ultimate proof of your love.]

For the first time, the notification didn't bring comfort. It felt like a lie. A sick, twisted justification for a betrayal so blatant it stole her breath.

Gina leaned in, her voice a poisonous whisper only Chloe could hear. "He was with me last night, you know. After he threw you out."

Chloe flinched as if struck.

Gina smiled, a triumphant, cruel curve of her lips. She offered Chloe a peeled apple, the knife she'd used still in her other hand. "Here, have some fruit. You look so pale."

Chloe stared at the apple, then at the knife. An image flashed in her mind: the knife plunging into Gina' s smiling face.

She shoved Gina's hand away. The apple fell to the floor. The knife clattered beside it.

"Get out," Chloe said, her voice shaking with a rage she hadn't felt in years.

Gina stumbled back, a look of theatrical shock on her face. "Oh my! Kerr, did you see that? She tried to attack me!"

Kerr' s eyes narrowed, finally focusing on Chloe. But there was no concern, no understanding. Only cold, sharp disapproval.

"Chloe, that's enough," he said, his voice cutting. "Apologize to Gina."

Apologize? The word was so absurd, so monumentally unjust, that Chloe could only stare at him in disbelief.

He took a step forward, his shadow falling over her bed. "Did you hear me? You're making a scene."

He took Gina by the arm, his touch gentle in a way he had never been with Chloe. "Let's go, Gina. She's clearly not in her right mind."

He turned and walked out, pulling a crying Gina with him. He didn't look back.

The door clicked shut, leaving Chloe alone in the silent, white room.

[Mind-Link Notification: A brilliant tactical retreat. Kerr is punishing you for your public outburst. He is teaching you that his love requires composure. This is for your own good.]

Chloe stared at the blue box, the words blurring through her tears. For the first time, she didn't just question the notification.

She hated it.

The love it described wasn't love. It was a cage. And she finally, finally saw the bars. She had to get out.

Continue Reading

Other books by JESSICA KIRK

More
The Dormant Wolf: Rejected By My Alpha Husband

The Dormant Wolf: Rejected By My Alpha Husband

Werewolf

5.0

I took a silver bullet for my fated mate, Derek, and fell into a coma for five years. When I finally opened my eyes, I wasn't greeted as a hero. I was handed a deportation order. Because I had burned out my wolf spirit to save his life, I was now "human" and useless to the pack. My marriage had been annulled years ago without my consent. I dragged my atrophied body to our home, only to find Derek with Anjelica, a woman I once called a friend. She was wearing my jewelry and carrying his heir. But the knife in my heart wasn't seeing them together. It was my son. My five-year-old boy, Errol, didn't run to me. He screamed in terror and sprayed me with a bottle of liquid he had been hiding. It hissed against my skin. Wolfsbane. "Go away, monster!" he sobbed, pointing the bottle at me like a weapon. "Mommy Anjelica said this burns the bad things!" I had lost my wolf, my husband, and my child. But they weren't done taking from me. When Anjelica faked a medical emergency, Derek signed a general proxy form. I was dragged into surgery, not as a patient, but as a harvest. I heard the doctor whisper, "She wants her dry." They thought draining my blood would kill me. They didn't know that my "human" shell was just a cocoon for something ancient. I escaped the hospital that night. Standing by the ocean, I threw my wedding ring into the waves. "I, Catherine, reject the bond." Miles away, Derek fell to his knees, vomiting blood as the connection snapped. He thought I was dead. He didn't know the White Wolf had just awakened.

You'll also like

Flash Marriage To My Best Friend's Father

Flash Marriage To My Best Friend's Father

Madel Cerda

I was once the heiress to the Solomon empire, but after it crumbled, I became the "charity case" ward of the wealthy Hyde family. For years, I lived in their shadows, clinging to the promise that Anson Hyde would always be my protector. That promise shattered when Anson walked into the ballroom with Claudine Chapman on his arm. Claudine was the girl who had spent years making my life a living hell, and now Anson was announcing their engagement to the world. The humiliation was instant. Guests sneered at my cheap dress, and a waiter intentionally sloshed champagne over me, knowing I was a nobody. Anson didn't even look my way; he was too busy whispering possessively to his new fiancée. I was a ghost in my own home, watching my protector celebrate with my tormentor. The betrayal burned. I realized I wasn't a ward; I was a pawn Anson had kept on a shelf until he found a better trade. I had no money, no allies, and a legal trust fund that Anson controlled with a flick of his wrist. Fleeing to the library, I stumbled into Dallas Koch-a titan of industry and my best friend's father. He was a wall of cold, absolute power that even the Hydes feared. "Marry me," I blurted out, desperate to find a shield Anson couldn't climb. Dallas didn't laugh. He pulled out a marriage agreement and a heavy fountain pen. "Sign," he commanded, his voice a low rumble. "But if you walk out that door with me, you never go back." I signed my name, trading my life for the only man dangerous enough to keep me safe.

No Longer Mrs. Cooley: The Architect's Return

No Longer Mrs. Cooley: The Architect's Return

Xiao Xiaosu

I went to the City Clerk’s office for a routine copy of my marriage license to finalize a trust fund audit. I expected a simple piece of paper, but the clerk’s pitying look told me my entire life was a lie. "The license was never finalized, Ms. Oliver. In the eyes of the state, you are single." The three-hundred-guest wedding at the Plaza and the Vogue features meant nothing. My husband, Gray Cooley, had intentionally filed the documents with a "procedural defect" so he could discard me without a legal divorce. Moments later, an iCloud invite titled "Our Little Secret" popped up on my screen. It was a photo of my best friend, Brylee, holding a positive pregnancy test at our Hamptons estate. Gray’s text to her was the final blow: "Happy anniversary, babe. This baby is the best gift. Once the trust unlocks today, we’re done with the charade." I soon discovered they were even stealing my career, reassigning my architectural masterpiece to Brylee while preparing my eviction notice. Gray's mother called me a "barren mule" in a leaked recording, mocking the infertility I suffered after saving Gray’s life in a construction accident. I wasn't a wife; I was a three-year placeholder used to secure his inheritance. How could the man I bled for treat me like a disposable prop? How could my best friend carry his child while pretending to comfort me through my darkest moments? The betrayal burned until it turned into a cold, hard stone of fury. I didn't cry. Instead, I walked into the penthouse of the Barretts, the Cooleys' most powerful rivals. I signed a marriage contract with Kane Barrett, the man the tabloids called the "Beast of Wall Street." "I want a wedding," I told his father, my voice steady and lethal. "Bigger than the one I had with Gray." If they wanted me gone, they would have to watch me become the woman who owns their world.

The Ghost Wife's Billion Dollar Tech Comeback

The Ghost Wife's Billion Dollar Tech Comeback

Huo Wuer

Today is October 14th, my birthday. I returned to New York after months away, dragging my suitcase through the biting wind, but the VIP pickup zone where my husband's Maybach usually idled was empty. When I finally let myself into our Upper East Side penthouse, I didn't find a cake or a "welcome home" banner. Instead, I found my husband, Caden, kneeling on the floor, helping our five-year-old daughter wrap a massive gift for my half-sister, Adalynn. Caden didn't even look up when I walked in; he was too busy laughing with the girl who had already stolen my father's legacy and was now moving in on my family. "Auntie Addie is a million times better than Mommy," my daughter Elara chirped, clutching a plush toy Caden had once forbidden me from buying for her. "Mommy is mean," she whispered loudly, while Caden just smirked, calling me a "drill sergeant" before whisking her off to Adalynn's party without a second glance. Later that night, I saw a video Adalynn posted online where my husband and child laughed while mocking my "sensitive" nature, treating me like an inconvenient ghost in my own home. I had spent five years researching nutrition for Elara's health and managing every detail of Caden's empire, only to be discarded the moment I wasn't in the room. How could the man who set his safe combination to my birthday completely forget I even existed? The realization didn't break me; it turned me into ice. I didn't scream or beg for an explanation. I simply walked into the study, pulled out the divorce papers I'd drafted months ago, and took a black marker to the terms. I crossed out the alimony, the mansion, and even the custody clause-if they wanted a life without me, I would give them exactly what they asked for. I left my four-carat diamond ring on the console table and walked out into the rain with nothing but a heavily encrypted hard drive. The submissive Mrs. Holloway was gone, and "Ghost," the most lethal architect in the tech world, was finally back online to take back everything they thought I'd forgotten.

Chapters
Read Now
Download Book
Mind-Link's Lie: Love's Cruel Deception Mind-Link's Lie: Love's Cruel Deception JESSICA KIRK Sci-fi
“For seven years, my husband Kerr Chapman' s every cruel word and cold shoulder was translated by a mysterious "Mind-Link Notification" as a twisted expression of love. It told me his dismissals were "tests of obedience," his neglect a sign of "profound commitment." I believed it, sacrificing my dignity and self for a love I thought was just hidden. Then, after he kicked me out late one night, I crashed my car. Lying injured in the hospital, I expected him to finally break. Instead, he arrived with my university rival, Gina Parker, who openly mocked me and claimed Kerr had been with her. Kerr stood by, defending Gina, even as she deliberately broke a cherished drawing of my deceased mother and then fabricated a story that I attacked her. He carried her out, leaving me alone, his words echoing: "It's a thing, Chloe. You hurt a person over a thing." The Mind-Link notification flashed, trying to justify his betrayal as "a test of my unconditional love." But for the first time, its words felt like a monstrous lie, a sick justification for his cruelty. I stared at the blue box, the words blurring through my tears. The love it described wasn't love. It was a cage. And I finally, finally saw the bars. I had to get out.”
1

Chapter 1

04/08/2025

2

Chapter 2

04/08/2025

3

Chapter 3

04/08/2025

4

Chapter 4

04/08/2025

5

Chapter 5

04/08/2025

6

Chapter 6

04/08/2025

7

Chapter 7

04/08/2025

8

Chapter 8

04/08/2025

9

Chapter 9

04/08/2025

10

Chapter 10

04/08/2025

11

Chapter 11

04/08/2025

12

Chapter 12

04/08/2025

13

Chapter 13

04/08/2025

14

Chapter 14

04/08/2025

15

Chapter 15

04/08/2025

16

Chapter 16

04/08/2025

17

Chapter 17

04/08/2025

18

Chapter 18

04/08/2025

19

Chapter 19

04/08/2025

20

Chapter 20

04/08/2025