Betrayed by the Spotlight

“Where am I?”

Chloe Bishop bolted upright, her head spinning with a sickening heaviness. The room was cold, sterile, and completely unfamiliar. She scrambled to get out of bed, her heart hammering against her ribs. She couldn't be here. Tomorrow was her wedding day—the day she would finally marry Liam Martin. She had waited six long years for this dream to come true. She couldn't let anything, or anyone, get in the way now.

Outside the door, Liam leaned against the hallway wall, the orange glow of a cigarette illuminating his icy, handsome face. He looked at the man standing before him with a terrifying lack of emotion.

"Go in," Liam said flatly, flicking a stray ash onto the expensive carpet. "Just don’t kill her."

The man hesitated, his voice trembling as he glanced at the heavy door. "Mr. Martin... are you sure? She’s the city’s top 'IT Girl.' She’s your fiancée! You’re supposed to stand at the altar with her in less than twenty-four hours!"

"Get in there," Liam repeated. His voice was smooth, like silk, but it carried a chill that bit deeper than ice. "Don’t make me say it a third time."

Seconds later, a blood-curdling scream tore through the door and echoed down the silent corridor.

"Who are you?! Stay back! What are you doing... Get off me! Help! Liam, help me!"

Standing in the hallway, Liam listened to Chloe’s desperate pleas for mercy. He remained unmoved. His mind was miles away, consumed by the image of another woman—a woman covered in brutal, jagged scars. Chloe, don’t blame me, he thought, exhaling a thick, grey cloud of smoke. You aren’t innocent. I don’t believe for a second that you were clueless about what your father did.

Only a few hours earlier, the world had looked very different. Liam had been standing in a high-security hospital wing when Brandon Jay approached him. "Liam, we found the monster who kidnapped Sara Jay," Brandon had said, his eyes bloodshot with rage.

"Who?" Liam asked, his tall silhouette casting a long shadow over the bed where Sara lay. She was skeletal, a ghost of the woman she used to be, her skin a map of deep purple bruises.

Brandon spat out the name with pure venom: "Charles Bishop."

Liam had frozen. Charles Bishop—the man who was about to become his father-in-law.

"I see," Liam had replied, his voice calm even as a storm of vengeance brewed beneath the surface. "You’re Sara’s brother. What do you want to do?"

"Kidnap Chloe," Brandon growled. "Every ounce of pain Charles inflicted on my sister, I want to collect from his daughter—tenfold. A hundredfold." When Liam didn’t answer immediately, Brandon’s voice rose in a snarl. "What, getting cold feet? Right, you’re marrying her tomorrow. You’ve probably gone soft for her, while Sara suffered hell because of you!"

"There will be no wedding tomorrow," Liam had replied icily. "I’ll give you and Sara justice."

From the moment Charles Bishop touched Sara, the years of gratitude Liam felt toward the Bishop family vanished. The man had crossed the only line that mattered.

Back in the present, inside the dark room, Chloe fought with everything she had, but her strength was failing. Her clothes were torn, her voice hoarse from screaming. "Save me... Liam, save me!" Tears soaked into her hair as she sobbed. Why? Why is this happening? I was supposed to be his bride tomorrow... Why?!