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For three years, I was the perfect trophy wife to billionaire Hunt Brennan, a silent fixture in his mahogany-rowed estate. I traded my medical career for a designer wardrobe and the hope that he might one day see me as more than a contract. But on our third anniversary, the dream died. Hunt came home reeking of scotch and threw grainy photos of a charity gala handshake in my face, calling me a gold-digging parasite. He didn't just accuse me; he broke me. He shattered glass against the wall, bruised my jaw with his grip, and dragged me upstairs to "punish" me, all while whispering his ex-girlfriend's name in the dark. By morning, his mother had called to evict me to the guest cottage because his true love, Chasity, was back and needed the master suite. I left with nothing but a dusty suitcase and a secret: two pink lines on a pregnancy test. When my Uber broke down in a freezing downpour, Hunt drove past me in his Maybach, rolling down the window just to tell me to enjoy the rain. He left me stranded, never knowing he was leaving his own child behind. I didn't understand how a man could be so cruel to the woman who gave up everything for him. Did he really think I was just a doll he could discard the moment his "angel" returned? Four years later, the "submissive" Mrs. Brennan was dead. In her place stood Dr. Dianna Campbell, the top cardiothoracic surgeon in Europe. I stepped off the helicopter at Mount Sinai to save his sister's life, and Hunt was there, desperate and broken. "Dianna?" He whispered my name like a prayer, but I didn't even blink. "Dr. Campbell. Refrain from touching the staff, Mr. Brennan." He thought he could shred our divorce papers to keep me trapped, but he was about to learn that the woman he abandoned in the rain didn't need his permission to exist-and she certainly didn't need him.
The grandfather clock in the hallway chimed two times, the sound heavy and hollow in the silence of the Brennan estate. Dianna Campbell sat at the head of the long mahogany dining table. The wax from the tapered candles had long since melted onto the linen tablecloth, pooling like dried blood.
Dinner was cold. The Filet Mignon, the roasted asparagus, the truffle mash-it was all inedible now. Just like their marriage.
It was their third anniversary.
Mary, the head housekeeper, stepped out of the shadows of the kitchen doorway. She wrung her hands in her apron, her eyes darting between Dianna and the untouched food.
"Ma'am? Should I... should I clear the table?"
Dianna didn't look up. She just lifted her hand, a weak, dismissive wave. Her wrist felt heavy, weighed down by the diamond bracelet Hunt had given her the year before-not out of love, but because his publicist said it would look good in the society pages.
"Clear it, Mary. Please."
The heavy oak front door groaned open. The sound was followed by the sharp, uneven clatter of dress shoes on marble. Dianna's stomach tightened, a physical knot twisting behind her navel.
Hunt Brennan walked into the dining room. He brought the smell of cold rain and expensive scotch with him. He didn't look at the table. He didn't look at the decorations. He didn't look at her.
He loosened his tie as he walked past her, throwing his suit jacket onto a chair.
Dianna stood up. It was a reflex, a habit drilled into her over three years of trying to be the perfect wife. She reached out, her fingers grazing the fabric of his shirt.
"Hunt, I-"
He spun around. His eyes, usually a piercing blue, were bloodshot and dark. He looked at her not with anger, but with something worse. Disgust. He didn't touch her. Instead, his hand swept across the table in a blur of motion. Crystal glasses, silver cutlery, and the porcelain plates holding their anniversary dinner went flying, shattering against the marble floor with a deafening crash. Wine splashed across the white linen like a fresh wound. The violence of the act sucked the air from the room, and Dianna stumbled back, her hip bone colliding hard with the sharp edge of the dining chair.
Sharp pain radiated down her leg, but she didn't make a sound. She bit the inside of her cheek until she tasted copper.
Hunt loomed over her. He looked at the wreckage on the floor, then back at her.
"Don't touch me," he slurred, his voice low and dangerous.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a crumpled stack of photographs. He threw them at her. They fluttered down like dead leaves, landing on the floor between them.
Dianna looked down. It was a picture of her at the charity gala last week. She was shaking hands with a man-a donor. But the angle was suggestive, the lighting intimate. It was a lie captured on film, a masterfully crafted piece of slander he should have been able to see through. But he didn't. Or perhaps he didn't want to.
"Is the money not enough, Dianna?" Hunt stepped closer, backing her against the table. "I knew what I was buying when I paid your father's debts. But I expect my purchases to remain exclusive."
"It's not what it looks like," Dianna whispered. Her voice shook. "I was just being polite. You weren't there, Hunt. You left me alone."
"I have a company to run," he spat. "Something a parasite like you wouldn't understand."
He reached out and grabbed her chin. His fingers dug into her jaw, hard enough to bruise. He forced her to look at him.
"You are a gold digger, Dianna. That's all you are. That's all you'll ever be."
Tears pricked her eyes, hot and stinging. She tried to pull away, but his grip tightened.
"Let go," she gasped.
"Why? You signed the contract," Hunt sneered. He let go of her jaw and grabbed her wrist, dragging her toward the stairs. "You wanted to be Mrs. Brennan. You wanted the life. You deal with the husband."
He dragged her up the stairs. Dianna stumbled, her heels catching on the carpet, but he didn't slow down. He kicked open the door to the master suite and threw her onto the bed.
The silk sheets felt like ice against her skin.
He didn't kiss her. He didn't speak to her. It was an act of punishment, stripping away the last shreds of her dignity. Dianna stopped fighting. She lay still, staring up at the crystal chandelier, counting the teardrop crystals. One hundred and four. One hundred and five.
Somewhere in the haze of his intoxication, she heard him groan a name against her neck. It wasn't hers.
Chasity.
When he was done, he rolled off her and walked straight to the bathroom. The door slammed shut. The shower turned on. He was washing her off him.
Dianna curled into a ball, pulling the ruined duvet up to her chin. Her body shook, violent tremors that started in her chest and rattled her teeth. She looked at the nightstand. Their wedding photo sat there. Hunt looked bored. She looked hopeful.
She reached out and knocked the frame face down. The glass cracked.
The sound was small, but it felt final.
Dianna sat up. Her body ached, but her mind was suddenly, terrifyingly clear. She walked to the closet, past the rows of designer gowns Hunt had bought for his doll. She reached into the back, behind the furs and the silks, and pulled out a dusty, gray suitcase.
Chapter 1 1
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Chapter 2 2
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Chapter 3 3
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Chapter 4 4
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Chapter 5 5
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Chapter 6 6
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Chapter 7 7
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Chapter 8 8
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Chapter 9 9
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Chapter 10 10
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Chapter 11 11
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Chapter 12 12
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Chapter 13 13
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Chapter 14 14
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Chapter 15 15
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Chapter 16 16
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Chapter 17 17
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Chapter 18 18
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Chapter 19 19
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Chapter 20 20
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Chapter 21 21
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Chapter 22 22
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Chapter 23 23
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Chapter 24 24
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Chapter 25 25
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Chapter 26 26
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Chapter 27 27
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Chapter 28 28
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Chapter 29 29
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Chapter 30 30
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Chapter 31 31
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Chapter 32 32
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Chapter 33 33
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Chapter 34 34
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Chapter 35 35
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Chapter 36 36
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Chapter 37 37
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Chapter 38 38
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Chapter 39 39
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Chapter 40 40
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