Chapter 1 Ever since I caught Carter cheating, his first order of business every time he walked through the door was to be shoved against the entryway wall. I’d undo his belt and aggressively spray his crotch with high-concentration rubbing alcohol. Knowing he was in the wrong, Carter would endure it. His eyes red, he’d gently cooperate, softly coaxing me to calm down and stop making a scene. But today, he was two hours late. The second I smelled the foreign perfume on him, I lost it, tearing frantically at his belt. “You were half an hour late last time and you slept with some woman!” “Today you’re two hours late! Tell me! Did you sleep with four of them?!” After apologizing to me for the twenty-ninth time and being shoved away yet again, he finally snapped. Holding up the back of his hand—bruised and purple from an IV drip—he screamed at me. “Enough! I’ve been running a high fever, I practically died, and you didn’t even ask if I was okay! Are you ever going to stop acting like a psycho?” “So I got drunk and slept with someone once! Do you think you’re so pure?!” “No wonder you were dragged into an alley and violated when you were sixteen! Chloe, you’re a paranoid, hysterical lunatic, and you deserve exactly what happened to you!” The plastic spray bottle shattered at my feet. The sharp, burning smell of alcohol choked the air, leaving me completely speechless. Looking at the pure disgust in his eyes, I suddenly felt profoundly exhausted. Fine. This relationship was rotting from the inside out anyway. I was done. … The entryway fell dead silent. The front door wasn’t fully closed. Two of Carter’s buddies, who had helped him home, were frozen on the porch, looking incredibly awkward as they tried to smooth things over. “Chloe, look, Carter is burning up. He’s delirious. He didn’t mean to snap at you like that.” “Besides, you douse the guy in rubbing alcohol every single day… who could handle that? Cut him some slack.” “Yeah, and about that time he got drunk… he broke it off with her a long time ago.” Just the mention of it made my stomach violently churn. When I was sixteen, my stepbrother and his delinquent friends dragged me into a pitch-black alley behind a liquor store. Right as my clothes were being torn off, eighteen-year-old Carter showed up. With red, furious eyes, he grabbed a brick and fought them off. He took off his varsity jacket and wrapped it tightly around my violently shaking body. He held me and cried harder than I did. He said, Chloe, don’t be scared. Anyone who touches you, I’ll kill them. Because of that nightmare, I was terrified of intimacy after we got married. Being touched made my whole body shake. Back then, Carter would just hold me, over and over, gently kissing my forehead. “Don’t be scared, Chloe. It’s okay. I’ll wait as long as it takes.” I always thought he was the salvation that pulled me out of hell. Until six months ago. His chronic gastritis flared up, so I drove to his fire and rescue base late at night to drop off his medication. Instead, I walked in to find him pinning the station’s new trauma counselor against the sofa, kissing her frantically. He was burying his face in her neck, panting heavily. The aggressive, unrestrained passion in his movements was something he had never shown me. The woman’s black lace bra was draped casually over his uniform—the uniform that symbolized honor and rescue. When I caught them red-handed, he fell to his knees, his eyes bloodshot, swearing that he was just drunk and thought she was me. Twelve years. I thought he was the light that pulled me out of the darkness. I never realized the man who pulled me out of the abyss would be the one to push me into an even deeper one. As the memories snapped back, Carter seemed to sober up slightly. He took a step forward, reaching for my hand. “Chloe, I’m sorry. I was so mad I was just talking nonsense. I really have a fever, my head is killing me…” He approached me softly, his face full of remorse. I took a step back, avoiding his hand entirely. “Go rest.” Carter’s hand froze mid-air. His brows furrowed in anxiety, and he tried to step closer. “Chloe, please, let me explain…” “I’m tired.” I cut him off, turned around, walked into the guest bedroom, and locked the door. Through the heavy wood, I heard his two friends helping him into the master bedroom. They whispered to him, telling him that since I didn’t scream or make a scene, it meant I was letting it go. Letting it go? I leaned against the door and slowly slid down to the floor. I wasn’t letting it go. I just didn’t want to read this torn, shredded book anymore. Chapter 2 Early the next morning, while Carter was still passed out, I grabbed a thermal soup container and left the apartment. Even though our marriage was in ruins, I still drove to the city hospital. My mother-in-law had been hospitalized for severe renal failure for over six months. I was the one who stayed up night after night, taking care of her while wearing the same clothes for days. I figured this would be my final act of familial duty. A way to put a period at the end of a twelve-year sentence. When I pushed open the door to the ward, my mother-in-law was holding the hand of another patient’s family member, bragging about me. “I’ve only survived this long because of Chloe. She’s a hundred times more devoted than a biological daughter.” Seeing me, her face lit up with a massive smile, and she immediately told me to sit and rest. I poured the fish broth I had simmered all night and handed the bowl to her. “Mom, drink this while it’s hot. Carter had a fever last night, I need to head back soon to check on him.” She was sipping the broth when her phone, propped up on the overbed table, began to ring. It was a FaceTime call. The name Vanessa flashed across the screen. Her hands were greasy from the soup, so she gestured to the phone with her chin. “Chloe, hit accept for me. It’s probably Carter’s cousin.” I didn’t think much of it and swiped the green button. The moment the familiar young face appeared on the screen, my entire body stiffened. It was Vanessa. The woman Carter had been desperately tangled up with when he was “drunk” six months ago. In the video, she was holding a little boy who looked about three years old. The boy smiled sweetly at the camera and yelled, “Grandma! Look at the toy car Daddy bought me!” Vanessa looked playfully annoyed, complaining to the screen. “Mom, Carter drank too much and had a fever last night, so I let him sleep in. Did that crazy woman throw another fit and torture him for coming home late?” The air in the hospital room died instantly. My mother-in-law’s hand violently shook. The scalding fish broth spilled all over her blankets. “Ch—Chloe! Let me explain!” Ignoring the burn, she lunged forward, desperately trying to snatch the phone away. I took a step back, staring fixedly at the little boy on the screen. He looked exactly like Carter. I felt so cold I started to shake. “Cousin? This is the cousin you told me about?” Caught red-handed, my mother-in-law let out a heavy sigh. She dropped the act entirely. She grabbed my hand, putting on a face of earnest, pained helplessness. “Chloe, don’t blame Carter for hiding this. For four years, Vanessa has compromised and suffered without ever demanding a title.” Four years? A loud ringing exploded in my ears. My internal organs twisted so violently I couldn’t breathe. So this woman’s existence… wasn’t a drunken mistake from six months ago? My mother-in-law patted my hand gently, lowering her voice to coax me. “I watched you grow up. I love you like my own. But you have to think about Carter. Because of your… trauma, you won’t let him touch you for weeks at a time. He’s a healthy, red-blooded man.” “You can’t expect him to live like a monk his whole life just because of your little issue, right?” “Vanessa already agreed. The boy will call you ‘Auntie.’ You’ll still be the official Mrs. Hayes.” “Nothing changes. Vanessa will never bother you. Isn’t that a good compromise?” … My legs gave out, and I collapsed into the chair behind me. Whatever my mother-in-law said after that, I didn’t hear a single word. My brain was being violently ripped apart by memories on one side and this sickening reality on the other. Four years. Whenever Carter went out of state on rescue missions, he would stay on the phone with me all night. He said he knew I felt unsafe and was scared of the dark, and that hearing his breathing would help me sleep. Once, he was in a disaster zone and almost died. He risked his life to find a backup battery just so he could stay on the line with me. I thought that was the ultimate, profound love. Turns out, it was just a performance. During all those all-night calls to comfort me… was Vanessa lying right next to him? Was that child sleeping right there beside him? He was lying in bed with another woman and his secret child, while soothing me—the clueless idiot—over the phone. A massive wave of absurdity washed over me. I stood up, completely ignoring my mother-in-law, and stumbled out of the hospital room. If their picture-perfect family didn’t have room for my name, then I’d gladly hand over the title of “wife.” Chapter 3 The next day, I took PTO and packed my bags at the apartment. There wasn’t much. A few changes of clothes and my important documents were enough. The doorbell suddenly rang. I thought it was the courier delivering the divorce papers I requested. I opened the door—and froze. Standing in the hallway was Vanessa. She was wearing a pristine white cashmere coat, holding the hand of the little boy from the video. My grip on the door handle tightened so hard my knuckles turned white. “Chloe, aren’t you going to invite me in?” She looked at my ghostly pale face, a smug, undisguised look of triumph in her eyes. “We couldn’t talk properly on the video call, so I brought Leo over to see you.” She deliberately pushed the boy forward, the gesture dripping with arrogance. “Leo is starting preschool soon. Carter feels terrible that he doesn’t have a complete family.” “He said Leo is the eldest grandson of the Hayes family, and he wants me to officially move in with him.” Looking at the child who was a carbon copy of Carter, my stomach violently churned. “Get out!” My eyes red, I pointed toward the elevator and screamed. “Take your bastard child and get the hell out of my house!” I shoved the door, trying to slam it shut so I wouldn’t have to look at them for another second. But Vanessa suddenly shot her hand out, wedging it in the doorframe. She leaned close to my ear, lowering her voice into a vicious sneer. “Chloe, stop acting so high and mighty. Did you really think Carter actually loved you?” “He told me himself. Every time he has to lie in the same bed as you, he has to take sleeping pills just to stomach the disgust.” “The second he touches you, all he can picture is those thugs riding you in that alley.” She stared directly into my eyes, taking a step forward. “He also said you were so dirty, he had to use me to vent his frustration. Because only a clean body like mine could actually turn him on.” The final string keeping my sanity intact snapped in that exact second. The nightmare I endured when I was sixteen. I spent twelve years trying to heal from it. And he used it as pillow talk to entertain his mistress! “You have no right to talk about that—!” I screamed hysterically, raised my hand, and used absolutely every ounce of strength in my body. I slapped Vanessa across the face as hard as I physically could. Smack! The sound echoed loudly in the hallway. The force sent Vanessa stumbling backward. Her forehead slammed violently against the sharp edge of the entryway shoe cabinet. Blood instantly began pouring down her face. The little boy burst into terrified wailing. Vanessa clutched her bleeding forehead, scrambling backward on her hands and knees. “You crazy bitch! You’re a psycho! Just wait, you’re going to pay for this!” She scooped up the crying child and practically fell into the elevator. Drained of all energy, I slid down the doorframe and collapsed onto the floor. I closed my eyes, the cold from the hardwood seeping into my skin. Once my mind finally settled, I pulled a piece of paper from under the coffee table. It was an ultrasound printout I had been hiding for six months. I ripped it into tiny shreds. What was supposed to be a beautiful surprise for Carter now felt like a brutal slap to my own face, burning with humiliation. Half an hour later, the courier arrived with the legal documents. I signed them and placed the divorce agreement dead center on the coffee table. Outside, a torrential downpour began, thunder shaking the windows. I grabbed my suitcase, ready to leave. Right at that moment—BANG. The front door was violently kicked open from the outside. Before I could even react, Carter charged in, the veins bulging on his forehead, and grabbed me fiercely by the throat. “Chloe! What the hell did you do with Leo?!” Chapter 4 He was choking me so hard I couldn’t breathe. I frantically hit his arms. “Cough… what Leo…” Carter violently threw me aside and kicked the coffee table over. “Vanessa told me everything! You attacked her like a lunatic this afternoon!” “She took the kid to the pharmacy to get her head bandaged, turned around, and Leo was gone!” “Who else would kidnap a three-year-old child but you?!” I coughed violently, staring in disbelief at the enraged man in front of me. “I haven’t even left the apartment! Are you insane?!” “You’re the insane one!” Carter’s eyes were bloodshot. He pointed his finger directly in my face and roared. “You’ve spent the last six months dousing me in rubbing alcohol every day! You’re completely unhinged! And now you’re targeting an innocent child!” “Call whatever thugs you hired right now and bring him back!” I gritted my teeth and backed away. “I told you, I haven’t seen him! If you can’t handle it, then sign the divorce papers!” I turned to grab the agreement from the floor. “You aren’t going anywhere until you tell me where my son is!” Carter suddenly grabbed the back collar of my shirt. Riiiiip. The immense force completely tore my shirt dress down the back. Buttons scattered across the floor. My bare skin was instantly exposed to the cold air. Before I could even process what was happening, he clamped his hand around my wrist and dragged me violently toward the bathroom like a criminal. “Carter, what are you doing?! Let go of me!” I screamed in pure terror. The hands of those men in the alley when I was sixteen, and Carter’s hands right now—they completely merged into one horrifying reality. “If you don’t hand over my kid, I’m going to make sure you wake up today!” He kicked the bathroom door open and brutally hurled me into the cold, hard bathtub. Whoosh— He turned on the showerhead, blasting freezing cold water directly into my face and over my body. “Cough… cough… help…” I choked on the water, thrashing wildly, trying to crawl out of the tub. Carter ripped off his leather belt, yanked both my hands behind my back, and viciously strapped them to the metal safety bar of the tub. I twisted my body frantically, shivering uncontrollably in the freezing water. Carter turned around and pulled the massive jug of high-concentration rubbing alcohol out from under the sink. He unscrewed the cap and dumped the burning, toxic liquid directly over my head. “You love torturing people with alcohol, don’t you?! Tell me! Where is the kid?!” The overpowering, chemical stench of the alcohol instantly stripped the oxygen from my lungs. My eyes burned in absolute agony. But Carter didn’t care. He grabbed the back of my head and shoved my face hard into the freezing, alcohol-tainted water pooling at the bottom of the tub. I choked, only managing to let out a few muffled, garbled sounds. My stomach seized in a violent, agonizing spasm. “It hurts…” Before the words fully left my mouth, a sharp, excruciating pain—like a knife twisting in my gut—ripped through my lower abdomen. A second later, a stream of warm liquid ran down my inner thighs. The warmth mixed with the freezing water in the tub, instantly blooming into a shocking, horrifying pool of bright red. I stared blankly at the blood swirling in the water. I stopped struggling entirely. Right then, his phone—which he had tossed onto the sink counter—began to ring. Seeing the Caller ID, he paused for a second before answering. The voice of a police officer came through the speaker, sounding thoroughly annoyed. “Mr. Hayes? Your child isn’t missing!” “The little boy wandered off and climbed the play structure on the top floor of the mall. When we found him, he was happily eating ice cream.” “You parents didn’t watch your own kid, and you immediately call it a premeditated kidnapping and murder? Do you know how much police manpower you just wasted?” In an instant, the only sound left in the bathroom was the hissing of the showerhead. Clatter. The phone and the jug of alcohol dropped simultaneously from Carter’s hands, slamming onto the tile floor. He whipped his head around, and his face instantly turned a ghastly, horrifying white.
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