Death's Embrace, Love's Aftermath

“The cold, sterile air in the office bit at my prison uniform, a cruel reminder of the past three years. I knelt on the polished floor, my gaze fixed on Daniel Miller' s expensive shoes, a man I once loved for five years. "A convicted felon, trying to seduce me?" his voice, low and laced with familiar cruelty, sent a shiver down my spine. He was now Detective Miller, a powerful figure in the new corporate order, and I was nothing, a "convicted felon" whose parents' assets were seized, their names tarnished. As if that wasn' t enough, he sneered, accusing me of sabotaging his family, ruining Chloe, and pushing her to the brink of suicide. Chloe, his fiancée, my cousin, the one he chose over me when my world crumbled, the one whose father rebuilt his career and became the new CEO. "Silence!" he roared, his fist slamming onto the desk when I tried to deny pushing Chloe. He declared me his personal assistant, more like a maid, even forcing me into a humiliating encounter that left me aching and defeated. Then came the true horror. My uncle, Chloe' s father, the new CEO, had me secretly poisoned, giving me just three months to live. Three months. My back, a roadmap of whip scars from prison, my body frail, I knew I had to survive, not just for revenge, but to reclaim what was mine. I bit my finger, signing my life away, a shaky, bloody promise to turn their world upside down. Now, as the poison courses through my veins, I refuse to be a quiet victim, a disgraced criminal. I will make them pay.”