Shattered Illusions, Reclaimed Life

, sending Alexis Thorne to

-refundable ticket under a fake name and paid

er eight years of marriage and

an affair with Alexis, a twent

st for a little while, Ethan and

s wr

nd out wi

s a cold, p

yell, no

t me, his eyes l

can play games

icked up

ts, John and Mary, from nothing, was their life.

oyed it in

supplier he secretly controlled,

es stopped, and a scathing review quest

ers va

s entire adult life, just sat in his office at the flag

ently in the kitchen, the

wo large figures in dark s

't touch

in our small living r

oth, almost bored

rnoon. I hear bu

er didn

omeone. I want her back. And Sarah needs t

tting the sil

n your knees and publicly apologize for raising such a deceitful daughter. You'll beg

r's hand

h, I spoiled you. It's time y

s shoulders slumped, th

is eyes was a

bbing the phone. "I'll tell you.

d, a dry, hu

e in a position

ne wen

mansion he'd grown up in, but the brownstone he'd bought

e living room, st

is she,

nts alone firs

ace t

ast I didn't

my throat, slamming m

oded behin

face inches from mine, his breath hot. "Cru

ough to make me gasp

he le

or, coughing, tears s

, his express

in Vermont. S

didn't need me to tell him. He'd probably k

call. It

"Our twelve years, S

d, the struggling artist, had never really exis

er, was finally s

crifices I'd made, they t

as o

I have to get my pa