30 days for Vengeance

ve-loneliness, lovelessness, and a marriage that felt more like a prison sentence than a partnership. But nothi

eckenham

had felt...off. Maybe it was the way he had left his phone carelessly on the marble counter, screen glowing with a new message.

had be

she scrolled, her eyes

s you,

edible. I can't stop

ll you l

that didn't include her. Hitler had saved the number under the name Polar Bear, and at fi

ot with the wife he barely ackn

r lips, her vision blu

Hitler Beckenham-the man in these me

er wanted, my love. I can'

tightened

She had spent years tiptoeing around Hitler's moods, enduring his coldness, his complete disregard for her existence. H

as. A devoted love

the phone so tightl

shake-it was the fact that she had waste

, she dropped the phone onto t

get out of t

d her own phone, her fingers moving automatic

fa

nce. Twice. Thre

s it, C

p, impatient. No w

dam

first tear slipped down her ch

le

d to be a good wife. I thought maybe-maybe he would change. That maybe with time, things would get better. Bu

ind out he's been cheating on me.

and for a moment, she thought-hoped-he might

th

S

e froze

what if he hates you? What d

ed. "Daddy, I

N

o firm, that it took her

m miserable. I-I don't care how it happens

"Free? Free to do what, Caroline? W

I don't know, but anyth

you make things harder than they have to be. Wh

ch twiste

verything. And what do you do? Complain. Cry. Run awa

he air had been suck

point you," she whispered.

hen my business was crumbling? When I was drowning in debt? When people whisp

ne fli

you think my company would have survived? He pulled us out of the dirt, Carol

's not just a few bad years. I can't breathe aro

nother sigh, like sh

ys been a pa

pped down

mething for me? Something

sharp breath.

t. "You are the reason you

orld

till be here. But no-you decided to come into this worl

blade, deeper and sharper than an

ave done for you. Stay in that marriage. Be happy. A

ne wen

lipped from

the floor, her body wr

est, gasping for ai

she gott

er life b

. Swallowed so much pain.

wh

who had nev

and who de

nothing.

pressed down on

t time in her li

be so bad if she