Betrayal's Wake: A Wife Scorned

ily, swam like a tiny mermaid. It was in these quiet underwater moments that

grasp my hand, wrapped around th

bubbles replacing my smile, my lungs screaming for air. What struck me most, though, wasn't

't come to me, still wrapped in a scratchy towel and dripping saltwater. He went str

nded, his voice low and menacing. Lily, buried in his shoulder, sobbed,

is shadow fell over me, and he hissed, "You can't even take care of our daughter f

possible reason would she have to do something like that?" The cold of the deep w

Olivia' s child. The marriage, the contract, the baby-it was all a calculated trap. "You hav

ap, exposing my C-section scar to everyone. As I stood humiliated, she bea

as calculated. My heart, already shattered, felt like it w

fyingly calm. Before anyone could react, I plunged them into the magnificent birthday cake, stabbing ag

o abandon. My phone rang; it was Olivia' s mother. "You can't leave! Think of your duty!" she shrieked. "That poor child just

bitter laugh escaped me. "You can have the ring. You can have the house. Yo

oor with my single small suitcase, Jake blocked my path. "I've already figured it out," he ann

y new mommy now? You have to leave with nothing. That's what happens to bad people." T

e marble floor. "Okay, Lily. I'll leave with nothing." I turned my back on them al

len on a velvet curtain; flames were already licking their way up, and Lily stood frozen in ter

in rod crashed down on me. The pain was searing, but I held her tight,

singed. "Ava! What did you do now?" he roared. That was it. The last piece of my

them, trapped in their beautiful, burning prison. "Seven years,"

veway. No shoes, torn clothes, my back screaming, gravel digging into my bare feet. But I didn't care