His Betrayed Bride

My wedding to the brilliant surgeon, Dr. Kason Ortiz, was postponed again. For the fifth time. This time, it was a car accident, a suspicious one, just like all the others.

Then, I overheard Kason and his ambitious resident, Jaye Hinton, talking. The "accidents" weren't accidents at all; they were meticulously planned acts of sabotage by Kason to avoid marrying me.

He was doing it to repay a debt: his father's debt to mine, who took the fall for his family's legal scandal. Kason, the man I loved, was systematically hurting me, hoping I'd break and call off the wedding myself.

The betrayal cut deeper than any physical injury. My father, who sacrificed his freedom for the Ortiz family, had unknowingly bound me to my tormentor. Kason even used my father's life as leverage, leading to his death in prison.

He then allowed Jaye to "accidentally" destroy my father's ashes and deliberately damage my vocal cords during surgery, leaving me voiceless and broken.

Why was he so cruel? Why did he hate me so much? What kind of man would destroy everything I held dear just to escape an obligation?

But I wouldn't be his victim. I would not be his debt. I would be free.

Chapter 1

The wedding between me and the brilliant surgeon, Dr. Kason Ortiz, was postponed again. For the fifth time. This time, it was a car accident. A suspicious one, just like all the others.

I lay in the sterile white hospital bed, the scent of antiseptic filling my nose. My left leg was in a cast, a dull, throbbing pain radiating from the freshly set bone. It was a clean break, they said. Lucky.

Lucky was a strange word for it.

The doctors and nurses fluttered around me, their voices a low murmur. They were all Kason' s colleagues. They treated me with a gentle, pitying respect. The fiancée of the great Dr. Ortiz.

I tried to sit up, a sharp pain shooting up my spine. My body was a roadmap of clumsy accidents. A fall down the stairs a month before our first wedding date. A kitchen fire that burned my hands just before the second. Food poisoning before the third. A boating mishap before the fourth.

And now this. A car that swerved into my lane on a clear, dry day.

Each time, Kason was the perfect, concerned fiancé. He would rush to my side, his handsome face tight with worry. He would oversee my care, his touch professional and cool. He never seemed to resent the delays. He would just calmly reschedule everything, his voice a soothing balm.

"We have a lifetime, Alicia," he'd say. "Your health is what matters."

I believed him. I loved him so much that his concern was all I saw.

My fingers ached to hold my guitar. I was an indie singer, a songwriter. My music was my life, second only to Kason. But my hands were still stiff from the burns, and now my leg was useless.

I needed some air. The room felt suffocating. I managed to get myself into a wheelchair and pushed myself out into the quiet hallway. It was late, and the corridor was mostly empty, lit by the cold, fluorescent lights.

I rolled past the nurses' station, heading towards a small balcony at the end of the hall. As I neared Kason' s office, I heard voices from inside. The door was slightly ajar.

"You can't be serious, Kason. Another accident?" The voice was light, musical, but laced with an undeniable edge. I recognized it. Dr. Jaye Hinton, Kason' s ambitious resident.

"It's handled," Kason's voice was low, devoid of the warmth he used with me. It was flat and cold.

A wave of nausea washed over me. I stopped the wheelchair, hiding in the shadows of an alcove.

"Handled? She has a broken leg. The wedding will be postponed for months," Jaye sounded impatient. "How much longer are you going to keep this up?"

My breath caught in my throat. What were they talking about?

"As long as it takes," Kason said. He sounded tired. Bored, even.

"What is so special about her anyway?" Jaye' s voice dripped with disdain. "Why do you have to marry this fragile, accident-prone singer?"

There was a long pause. I held my breath, my heart hammering against my ribs.

"It' s a debt," Kason finally said, his voice heavy with resentment. "My father' s debt. Her father took the fall for him, a legal scandal that would have ruined our family. He' s rotting in prison so my father could walk free. This marriage is the payment."

The world tilted. The words didn't make sense. A debt? Payment?

"So you don't love her?" Jaye' s voice was soft now, seductive.

"Love her?" Kason let out a short, bitter laugh that cut me deeper than any physical injury. "Jaye, you know who I love."

My vision blurred. The pain in my leg was nothing compared to the crushing weight in my chest. It was hard to breathe.

"Then why go through with this farce?" Jaye pressed.

"My father is a man of honor. He insists. And the Poole family has nothing. He thinks this is the only way to take care of her, to repay the favor."

"So you'll just keep... arranging these little incidents until she gives up? Or until your father dies?"

"Something like that," he said, his tone casual.