Chapter 1

A sharp, stinging pain exploded across my cheek.

My head snapped to the side, my hair flying across my face. Chloe, the young intern, stood before me, her hand still raised. Her eyes, however, were wide with a calculated fear, not triumph.

"Ava, I'm so sorry," she whispered, her voice trembling. "I didn't mean to. You just... you scared me."

Before I could process the lie, she stumbled backward, her body hitting the edge of my heavy oak desk with a loud thud. She let out a pained cry and slid to the floor, clutching her arm as if it were broken. It was a performance, a perfect, disgusting performance. I had barely touched her. I had only come to confront her about the emails I'd found, the proof of her affair with my fiancé, Leo.

The door to my office burst open. Leo stood there, his face a mask of thunderous rage. His eyes, the same eyes that had looked at me with so much love just this morning, were now fixed on me with cold fury. He didn't even glance in my direction. He rushed straight to Chloe's side, kneeling to help her up.

"What happened?" he demanded, his voice low and dangerous. He cradled Chloe in his arms, his touch gentle.

"It's nothing, Leo," Chloe sobbed into his chest. "I just... I upset Ava. She thinks... she thinks there's something between us. I tried to explain, but she got so angry."

Leo' s head whipped around, and his glare pinned me to the spot. "Ava, what the hell is wrong with you?"

His mother's voice, smug and sharp, suddenly came from his phone, which he was still holding. It must have been on a call. "Leo, I told you she was unstable. A woman with that kind of temper is not fit to be a part of our family."

Leo didn't defend me. He just listened, his jaw tightening. He looked from the crying, seemingly fragile Chloe in his arms to me, standing there with a red handprint blooming on my face.

"Apologize to Chloe," he commanded. He started a slow, deliberate countdown. "Five."

My mind went blank with shock. Apologize?

"Four."

"Leo, she's the one who..." I started, my voice shaking with a mixture of pain and disbelief.

"Three." His voice dropped, becoming even more menacing. "Don't make me talk about Finn. You know how fragile he is. A little bit of stress... it could be very bad for him."

The mention of my younger brother, Finn, was a punch to the gut. Finn suffered from severe anxiety, a fragile soul I had sworn to protect. The thinly veiled threat froze the blood in my veins. They knew my weakness.

My memory flashed back to just a year ago. We were in this very office, late at night. Leo had brought me dinner, rubbing my shoulders as I hunched over a blueprint. He had kissed the back of my neck and whispered, "You're a genius, Ava. The most brilliant woman I've ever met. I can't wait to make you my wife." He had been so charming, so devoted. His words had been my entire world.

How had I been so blind? I had seen the signs, hadn't I? The late-night "meetings," the scent of a different perfume on his suits, the way he'd become distant. I had told myself it was just the stress of his real estate empire, that I was being paranoid. I had underestimated Chloe's ambition and his mother's venom. I had completely misjudged the man I was supposed to marry in one month.

"I'm waiting, Ava," Leo said, his voice cold and impatient.

Tears of humiliation burned my eyes. I looked at Chloe, who peeked at me from over Leo's shoulder, a tiny, triumphant smirk on her face before she buried it again, sobbing. I was trapped. For Finn, I would do anything.

I swallowed the lump in my throat and forced the words out. "I'm sorry, Chloe."

My hand, resting on my stomach, trembled. The faint flutter of life I' d felt for the first time last week now felt like a lead weight. A sudden, sharp cramp seized my abdomen, a wave of pain so intense it made me gasp. I clutched my stomach, a cold dread washing over me. This was wrong. Everything was so terribly wrong. My perfect life, my future, it was all shattering around me, and I knew, with a horrifying certainty, that this was only the beginning.