Six Years: A Betrayal Reborn

ye

ars, I counted every single day in the begin

ed we order. We were in a small, beautiful coastal town in Southern Europe, celebrating our engagement. I' d just sol

into our villa, their faces covered. T

hem, got myself beaten badly, and told th

rror, as they dragged me away. "I'll get you back, L

r a long, long tim

ment, hard labor, and a slow, grinding lo

ho needed an operative with my old skills-someone smart, untraceable, and utterly beholden to her. She made me a deal. "Work for me for six years

er enforcer, her most trusted advisor. I learned her world of corporate

touched down on American soil. I was back. I was free. I was also, thanks t

ng I did was

ard. She wa

nd CEO of "Aura," a lifestyle brand on the verge of a massive IPO. Her face was on billboards, her a

in a pristine white kitchen, a man' s arm around her. Mark Davis. Her "b

a girl. I did the math quickly. The boy loo

y stone sett

s than a year a

ng a family with the man who was supposed to be my friend. She had never even looked for me. The ransom money, the

held onto for two thousand one hundred and nine

d in a sleek, glass-walled gallery in downtown Manhattan. She was holding a

ple turned to look at the man with a har

sa

ened, not with relief, not with joy, but with pure, unadulterated

her voice a little too bright, "

ce. She walked towards me, her heels clicking on the polished concrete floor

hissed, her charming public f

home,

re. You're suppo

ical blow I' d endured. "You left me.

e moves on. I had to be practical. Crying over a lost cause wouldn't build th

ou used my memo

o me anyway, broken and broke. Look at you." She eyed my simple,

who loved her was gone. In his place stood someone she didn't know,

," I said, my voi

ed away, leaving

my pocket. It was V

o?" she asked

tepping out into the cool night air.

e real work begins. She thinks you're a ghost from her

ing ignited inside me. Hope was gone, b

eady,"