My Escape From His Poisonous Love

t, was a saint for publicly forgiv

nd I learned his forgiveness w

instead to listen to his new, twenty-two-year-ol

a wedding dress, drew a clown smile on my father's

she sneered. "A broken woman

a slow-burning revenge for a crime his own mother had orchestra

as wrong. He left me one thing: revenge. And I w

pte

x P

cly forgiving me for letting his mother die. Today, he let my father

olor. He was everything I wasn't-born into old New York money, charismatic, the brilliant CEO of a

t devoted; he

hat transferred every single one of his personal assets to my

whispered, his lips against my hair. "So

trical performance of love that the wor

a small bio-tracker chip, no bigger than a grain of rice, implanted

faint scar. "And this way," he added, his eyes dark with a passion that

for a long time, I was happy to live inside it. I loved him j

is moth

oment Dwight brought me home. She saw me as a contamination to her pristine bloodline.

hone in my hand, her life hanging

playing on her lips even then. "He'll never truly love you,

lp. I watched the lif

fell to his knees, his cries echoing through the grand, empty mansi

in the eye and said,

is face a mask of shattered disbelief. The world expected

orga

hand and announced that he would not be pressing charges. He signed a legal do

his body trembling. "Do you hate m

lex. I could never hate you. I l

twisted fairy tale that people whispered about. The man who

years, we played the part of

rything

Charity

s and a vocabulary full of words like "cosmic energy" and "the Un

ell for

, once a symbol of his eternal connection to me, was now just a faint white line. He told me i

rs ago, a quiet act of solidarity after I had been forced to have a hysterectomy. He had said

g, a constant, dull ache in my chest. But I e

l to

back in my hometown. My father, Frank McCormick, had collapsed. A massive

diac unit immediately," the nurse said, her v

re was only one person in the world who could ar

led D

ely hold the phone. He answered on the sec

t, cloying, and drippi

tating right now. We're aligning o

y," I said, my voice dangerou

have to learn to let the Universe handle things. Clinging t

in the background, calm an

shifting to a pout. "She's bein

ay. A moment later, his voice came on the l

ng in my throat. "He's dying, Dwight. He ne

hispering in the background. "Cosmic balance..

words shattered the last

aching me about the natural flow of life and death. The Universe has a

shed over me. The seven years of lies, of his performative forgiveness, of m

g my father d

d, my voice ba

ust stood there, the nurse's frantic w

ht had bought for her. It took me fifteen minutes to get there. The door

white fur rug, lighting incense. She looked u

oing here? Your energ

long, blonde hair, and slammed her face into the marble co

high-pitched,

video call on Dwight's number. He answered instantly.

I tol

ce a bloody mess, her eyes wide with terror, her screa

s a calm,

ce as steady as a surgeon's hand. "Get my f

harity's throat, and she

she