Divorce from my husband after he drowned my parents

sary kiss burned li

ed my jaw, his wedding band digg

rained light over

the sofa as he barked

my sanctuary, now loom

tate-of-the-art." Hi

's do

inted in th

touched my arm-and tim

palm. Blood welled, co

asn't d

this nightm

n't end up a nameless b

pierced my skin, I was

Merrick family-calm, restrained,

y one who dared to

im everywhere. On the day he was to choose a partner for a politica

ells faded int

h the sound of separate

n a shelf-polite smiles, empty convers

one, convincing myself his dista

't sharing the s

gton walked into our

nd innocent, but her presence shat

r cracked at th

over her lik

d faster than

ion-dollar deal just because

s for a single tender look,

d a bed with me would burn

ivian paradise, a private island carpeted in her beloved bl

ivate jet, hurtling through the night sky to Iceland, all bec

er as I marched past startled employees, my presence a tempestuous force. I would confront the man who'd given the world to anot

convinced that the man I'd loved for

when the family tried to bar Beatrice from his

divorce papers, his retalia

mansion. This time, he dragged me to the i

or drown yo

as the water that close

burning, hands scrabbl

eeing my parents drowning

of that icy embrace and the taste of

us life, when he kissed me for

draw my blood right a

rn-that blood was for

cc was enough. But he treated it like a crisis,

much that I kne

he bag and left without looking back. The needle in my arm st

shudder, especially the final "b

a'a

startled cry

n had gone black, and my body was

re losing consciousness was

adam has

't turn around-only t

care

e sound of th