Vengeance Her Ultimate Puzzle

I married Edwardo Steele out of a debt of honor, secretly loving the man who treated me like a contaminant. For three years, he weaponized his severe OCD against me, recoiling from my touch while I walked on eggshells in our cold, sterile mansion. My foolish hope for love died the night I saw him at a hotel fire, holding his mistress, Cassie, with a tenderness I had never known.

He didn't just cheat; he destroyed me. He framed my brother, leaving him permanently disabled, all to protect her. Then, at Cassie's birthday party, he played our private video for everyone to see, a final, public humiliation.

The man I sacrificed everything for had chosen a liar over me, and I was left with nothing but shame and a broken family.

But in the depths of my despair, I discovered two things.

First, I was pregnant with his child. Second, my brother had found a secret that could bring Edwardo's empire to its knees.

I made an appointment to end the pregnancy. Then, I planned to use that secret to end my marriage.

Chapter 1

The day I married Edwardo Steele, I wasn't just walking down the aisle towards a man I secretly loved, but towards a life sentence, sealed by my father's dying wish and a debt of honor. I signed away my future, hoping my heart would somehow find its way through the contract, only to have it ripped to shreds before the ink even dried on our marriage certificate.

My father, a brilliant but financially reckless man, had once saved the Steele empire. He developed a security algorithm that was revolutionary. Now, he was terminally ill. His medical bills were astronomical, and the Moreno family was sinking. Grafton McDonald, Edwardo' s grandfather, held the key to our survival. He proposed the marriage. A strategic alliance, he called it. A sacrifice, I knew it was. But deep down, a foolish part of me, the part that had harbored a secret crush on Edwardo since we were teenagers, dared to hope. He was always so distant, so focused, but even from afar, his brilliance, his sharp mind, captivated me. I thought, maybe, if I was close enough, he would finally see me. He would finally feel something.

The wedding night was a bitter prelude to the three years that followed. Our sprawling mansion, usually a beacon of cold, sterile perfection, felt colder that night. I stood at the threshold of his bedroom, a room I would rarely enter without an invitation, my heart hammering against my ribs. I wore a silk robe, the delicate fabric doing little to hide my trembling. He was already there, standing by the floor-to-ceiling window, his back to me. His silhouette was sharp against the city lights.

"Don't come any closer," His voice was a low, precise command, slicing through the quiet.

I froze. My breath hitched.

He turned then. His eyes, usually a piercing blue, were flat, devoid of any warmth. "You are not to touch anything in this room without my explicit permission. Especially not me."

The words hit me like a physical blow. My cheeks burned. "Edwardo, it's our wedding night." I tried to inject some softness into my voice, some appeal.

He looked at me as if I were a particularly unpleasant scientific specimen. "This marriage is a transaction, Blair. Nothing more. We have an agreement. You uphold your end, and your family remains solvent. Do you understand?"

"I... I understand." The air was sucked out of the room. My foolish hope shriveled and died.

"Good." He walked to a glass cabinet, pulled out a small, sterilized bottle of hand sanitizer. He squeezed a generous amount onto his palm, rubbing his hands together with a meticulous, almost violent intensity. "My OCD is severe. My contamination phobia, even more so. You will respect it."

He didn't just respect it. He weaponized it.

For three years, I walked on eggshells in my own home. Every surface was a potential threat. Every touch, a violation. He set rules, strict and unyielding. The bedrooms were separate, of course. My bathroom was not to share a single towel, a single bar of soap, with his. Our meals were served by staff who wore gloves, and only after he had meticulously inspected his cutlery and plate. He never ate anything I had prepared, even if I swore it was untouched.

I tried, in the beginning. I truly did. I left small, thoughtful notes on his desk. They went unread, or, perhaps worse, were found crumpled in the waste bin. I cooked his favorite dishes, leaving them for the staff to serve, hoping the gesture might soften him. The dishes would often return untouched.

Once, I saw him struggling with a complex code, frustration etched on his face. He' d been up for days. I brought him a cup of coffee, just placed it gently on his desk, a safe distance away.

He looked up, his eyes narrowed. "Did you touch the rim of the cup?"

"No, I was careful."

He picked it up with a tissue, carried it to the sink, and poured it down the drain. "Don't bother me with trivialities."

The rejection was a cold, constant companion.

One night, desperate for any flicker of human connection, I wore a new, low-cut silk nightgown. I stood in the doorway of his study, where he worked late, as always. The soft light from the desk lamp illuminated me. My heart thumped.

He didn't look up from his screen for a full minute. When he did, his gaze swept over me, then quickly away, a flicker of something that looked like disgust. "What are you doing?"

"I just thought… maybe tonight…" My voice trailed off, embarrassingly hopeful.

He pushed his chair back, the screech of metal on wood jarring. He stood, his expression utterly repulsed. "Get out. Now. I can't work with... that." He gestured vaguely at me, as if I were an unsightly stain.

I stumbled back, tears stinging my eyes. He immediately went to the dispenser and aggressively sanitized his hands, rubbing them raw. The smell of antiseptic filled the air, choking me. That was the night I stopped trying. I retreated, a ghost in my own marriage, adhering to his rigid rules, my heart hardening with each passing day. My only comfort was the misguided belief that at least he was loyal. Cold, yes, but loyal.

My sister-in-law, a well-meaning but gossipy socialite, once mentioned over coffee, "Have you seen Edwardo with that Cassie Shields? The influencer? They're everywhere these days."

I laughed, a hollow, brittle sound. "Darling, Edwardo barely tolerates my presence. He'd never be caught dead with anyone. You know his… quirks."

She raised a perfectly sculpted eyebrow. "Well, he doesn't seem to have any quirks around her."

I dismissed it, telling myself it was just gossip. Edwardo was a public figure. People talked. He was too meticulous, too sterile for a casual affair. He couldn' t even stand my touch.