The Price of His Perfect Life

“I was a top hand model, my hands insured for seven figures. They bought me a life in a sleek Central Park apartment and a diamond ring from my fiancé, Chase Strong. At my engagement party, he insisted I get a manicure from his high school friend, Karis. She soaked my hands in what she called a "new cuticle softener." It was acid. A week later, I found out I was pregnant. I thought a baby would fix the peeling skin and raw blisters, that it would fix us. But when I told Chase, his face was a mask of cold fury. He said a baby didn't fit his plan. He drove me to a desolate mountain, pushed me out of the car, and told me he was leaving me there to think about how easily he could take everything away. The man I was going to marry, the father of my unborn child, left me to die in the freezing darkness. He didn't just ruin my hands and my career; he wanted to break my spirit. But as the sun rose, something inside me shifted from fear to ice-cold rage. I would not let his child be another chain to bind me to my jailer. When he returned, expecting to find me broken, I looked him in the eye and told him, "I'm getting rid of the baby." Then I turned and started walking down the mountain, toward a life he could never touch.”