The Man Who Abandoned Her Love

The Man Who Abandoned Her Love

Waterfront View

5.0
Comment(s)
6.6K
View
10
Chapters

For ten years, I thought Chase Strong was my savior, pulling me from my small Midwestern town to the glitter of New York City, where I became his devoted fiancée and a successful hand model. Then, a surprise manicure booked by Chase at his ex-girlfriend Karis' s salon left my hands ruined, destroying my career just days before a major contract. When my agent threatened legal action against Karis, Chase' s rage exploded, accusing me of ruining her business. Days later, he drove me deep into a national park, pulled me from the car, threw my purse on the ground, and drove away, leaving me stranded, pregnant, and with no cell service. After two days of terror and dehydration, I returned home to find Chase casually laughing with his friends about abandoning me, calling me a "placeholder" and mocking my career, revealing his true, cruel nature. I couldn' t understand how the man I loved, the father of my unborn child, could see me as a disposable object, especially after my own family had disowned me, leaving me truly alone and with nowhere to go. With nothing left to lose, I made a decision: I would cut all ties with Chase, starting with the baby, and reclaim my life, no matter the cost.

Chapter 1

For ten years, I thought Chase Strong was my savior, pulling me from my small Midwestern town to the glitter of New York City, where I became his devoted fiancée and a successful hand model.

Then, a surprise manicure booked by Chase at his ex-girlfriend Karis' s salon left my hands ruined, destroying my career just days before a major contract.

When my agent threatened legal action against Karis, Chase' s rage exploded, accusing me of ruining her business. Days later, he drove me deep into a national park, pulled me from the car, threw my purse on the ground, and drove away, leaving me stranded, pregnant, and with no cell service.

After two days of terror and dehydration, I returned home to find Chase casually laughing with his friends about abandoning me, calling me a "placeholder" and mocking my career, revealing his true, cruel nature.

I couldn' t understand how the man I loved, the father of my unborn child, could see me as a disposable object, especially after my own family had disowned me, leaving me truly alone and with nowhere to go.

With nothing left to lose, I made a decision: I would cut all ties with Chase, starting with the baby, and reclaim my life, no matter the cost.

Chapter 1

For ten years, I thought Chase Strong was my savior. He was the one who pulled me out of my small, conservative Midwestern town and brought me to the glitter of New York City. For ten years, I was his loving, devoted Clare. The perfect partner for a rising tech star.

He was always so thoughtful. He remembered my favorite flowers, the way I liked my coffee, the exact shade of nail polish that made my hands look best for a photo shoot. My hands were my life, my career. As a hand model, they paid for our beautiful apartment, even if his startup was the thing everyone talked about.

One afternoon, he surprised me. "I booked you a manicure at a new place, babe. It's supposed to be the best in the city. Exclusive."

I smiled, grateful as always. "You didn't have to do that."

"Only the best for you," he said, kissing my forehead.

The salon was chic, all white marble and minimalist design. A woman with a sharp, perfect bob and a surgically sweet smile greeted us. "Chase! It's been too long."

"Karis," he said, his voice a little tight. "This is my fiancée, Clare."

Karis Manning. His high-school sweetheart. The "one that got away." He' d mentioned her, but always as a closed chapter. Her eyes scanned me, a flicker of something cold in their depths before the sweet smile returned.

"Of course. Clare. Your hands are legendary," she said, leading me to a chair. "Let me take care of you personally."

She worked with precision, her own nails perfect daggers of crimson. But the chemical she used on my cuticles felt wrong. It burned. A sharp, searing pain.

"Is this supposed to sting so much?" I asked, trying to pull my hand back.

"Just a new vitamin treatment, honey. It's working its magic," she said, her grip firm.

By the time I left, my hands were red and raw. The next morning, they were a disaster. The skin was peeling, inflamed, and utterly ruined. A $300,000 contract for a diamond campaign was due to shoot in three days. It was gone. My entire career was on fire.

My agency was furious. They had warned me about Karis's salon. Rumors of shoddy practices and cutting corners had been circulating for months. I had ignored them because Chase had insisted. When my agent called the salon and threatened legal action, blacklisting them from the industry, Chase' s reaction wasn't sympathy. It was rage.

"You're ruining her business!" he yelled, his face twisted into an ugly mask I'd never seen before. "Because you couldn't handle a little sting?"

The next day, he told me we were going for a drive to clear our heads. He drove for hours, into the mountains, until we were deep inside a national park. He stopped the car on a deserted overlook.

"Get out," he said.

"What?"

"Get out of the car, Clare." His voice was flat, empty of any warmth. He pulled me out, threw my purse on the ground, got back in the car, and drove away.

I was left there. Pregnant, my hands ruined, with no cell service and no one for miles.

It took me two days to walk out of that park. Two days of terror, hunger, and dehydration. A park ranger found me collapsed on the side of the road. When I finally got back to our apartment, exhausted and broken, I heard voices from the living room. Chase and his friends.

I stopped in the hallway, hidden by the shadows, and listened.

"You actually left her there? In the woods?" one of his friends, Mark, asked, laughing.

"She needed to learn a lesson," Chase's voice was casual, light. "She and her agency were going to ruin Karis. Can't have that."

"But she's pregnant, man. What if something happened?"

Chase chuckled. A low, cruel sound. "What's going to happen? She's tough. A good Midwestern girl, right? Besides, the pregnancy is the only thing making her useful right now."

My blood ran cold.

Another friend, Leo, chimed in. "Useful how? Her hands are shot."

"She's a placeholder, you idiot," Chase said. "She's pregnant, and her family hates her. Where's she going to go? She has nothing without me. She's trapped. She' ll learn to be grateful again."

They all laughed.

"She was getting too big for her britches, talking about her 'career'," Chase mocked. "A hand model. Please."

"Did you see her when she got back?" Mark asked. "Looked like something the cat dragged in. All muddy and her hair a mess."

"Serves her right," Chase said. "A little punishment for crossing Karis."

I stood there, shaking so hard my teeth chattered. The man I loved, the man I had given ten years of my life to, the father of my unborn child, saw me as a thing. An object to be controlled and discarded.

I thought maybe he was just angry. That he would feel guilty. That he would apologize. That last shred of hope died right there in the hallway.

"You're not worried she'll leave you?" Leo asked.

Chase's laugh was arrogant, full of confidence. "Leave me? Clare loves me more than she loves herself. She worships the ground I walk on. She'll cry, she'll beg for my forgiveness, and then she'll be the perfect, obedient fiancée again. She has nowhere else to go."

Every word was a nail in the coffin of the love I thought we had. A bitter smile touched my lips. He was right about one thing. I had nowhere to go.

I crept into the bedroom and found my phone. I dialed my mother's number. My hands trembled as I listened to it ring.

"Hello?" Her voice was sharp, impatient.

"Mom, it's Clare. I... I need help."

"Clare? What now? Are you asking for money again? Your father and I are done. You made your choice when you ran off to New York with that man."

"Mom, please, I'm in trouble."

"We threw out that little box of your things from your room last week," she said, her voice like ice. "There's nothing for you here. Don't call again."

The line went dead.

I was truly alone. Chase had found me when I was eighteen, a girl desperate to escape a family that saw her as a failure for not wanting to marry a local farmer. He had seemed like a prince, my rescuer. Now I saw the truth. He hadn't rescued me. He'd just found a girl with no support system, someone easy to mold, someone who looked just enough like Karis to be a temporary replacement.

Rain started to beat against the window. Without thinking, I took off my shoes, walked out of the apartment, and into the downpour. I walked barefoot through the city streets, the cold pavement a shock to my system. I didn't stop until I was standing in front of a clinic.

Inside, the light was too bright. I walked to the counter. "I need to schedule an abortion."

The nurse looked at me, her expression kind but professional. She took me into a small room. A doctor came in and looked over the chart the nurse had started.

"Ms. Jennings," the doctor said gently. "You're malnourished and severely dehydrated. Your body has been through significant stress. An abortion right now carries risks."

"What kind of risks?" My voice was a croak.

"It could affect your ability to have children in the future. It could be permanent."

My face felt like a stone mask. I nodded. "I understand."

"Are you sure about this?"

"I can't bring a child into this world," I whispered. "I can't be responsible for a life when I can't even protect my own."

She scheduled the procedure for a few weeks away, giving me time to get my strength back.

I dragged myself back to the apartment. Chase and his friends were still there, drinking. He saw me standing in the doorway, soaked and pale.

"Look what the storm blew in," he said with a smirk.

His friends laughed.

For the first time, I saw him clearly. The charming, doting partner was a performance. This cruel, narcissistic man was the real Chase Strong.

I said nothing. I walked past him, into our bedroom, and closed the door.

The apartment was still decorated for our engagement party. Streamers and balloons drooped from the ceiling, mocking me. The wedding was in a month. A grand affair he had planned, a public spectacle to show off his perfect life with his perfect, pregnant fiancée. A fiancée he had just left to die in a forest.

I turned on my phone. Dozens of messages. One from my agent said they'd managed to negotiate a smaller penalty for the broken contract, but it would still cost me everything I had. I was ruined.

That night, he slipped into bed beside me. He wrapped his arms around my waist, his touch making my skin crawl.

"You okay, baby?" he whispered against my hair. "How's the little one?"

Continue Reading

Other books by Waterfront View

More
Dying for His Love, Reborn

Dying for His Love, Reborn

Romance

5.0

"Ava, are you really going to propose to Liam again?" My best friend, Sarah, looked at me with worried eyes. I just smiled and adjusted my brand-new dress. This was the fourth time; it had to be a success. An hour later, I was at the Grand Hotel, clutching the custom-made engagement ring for Liam. He was making a "huge announcement," and his best friend said he wanted me there. My heart raced, certain this was it-after three years and three rejections, he was finally ready to accept me. But then, standing beside him in the spotlight, was a beautiful woman I' d never seen before. "This is Chloe Green," Liam announced, "My fiancée." My world imploded. The room erupted in applause, but to me, it was deafening silence. Hundreds of eyes turned to me-pity, mockery, amusement. I was the city' s biggest joke, watching him slip a sparkling diamond on her finger. When I tried to show him the ring I' d brought, he sneered, "You thought I' d ever want something from you? You thought I' d ever want you?" Then he threw my precious, custom-made ring into the dark, freezing river below the balcony, challenging me: "Go get it, then. If you can find that ring in the river, I' ll believe you." Despite my fragile health and my doctor' s warning, I jumped. I found it, shivering and half-drowned, and returned to him, only for him to declare, "This scar... Every time I see it, it makes me sick. I would never marry a woman like you. Get out of my sight." The scar was from the kidney I' d donated to save his life. I died alone in an empty chapel days later, a "dying wish" marriage proposal from me twisted into his cruel, public humiliation. My ghost, tethered to his hatred, watched him publicly propose to Chloe while I faded into transparency, my very existence erased by his disgust. But a private investigator and my doctor had the truth about my sacrifice-my hidden kidney donation, my last letter to him. They revealed it all, forcing him to confront the monster he had been.

His Obsession, My Betrayal

His Obsession, My Betrayal

Romance

5.0

One year with David Chen felt like paradise after Jake, but love, I learned, is a master illusionist. I thought I' d found solace in David' s arms, after my long-term boyfriend Jake unceremoniously dropped me for his high school sweetheart, Emily. Then, on our first anniversary, hunting for a rare comic, I stumbled upon David' s secret studio-not a creative haven, but a chilling shrine to Emily Carter, plastered floor to ceiling with her portraits. Hundreds of his letters lay scattered, each a meticulously dated testament to a seven-year obsession, detailing how he used my heartbreak, my trust, to orchestrate Jake and Emily' s reunion. I wasn' t a girlfriend; I was a pawn in his sick game, a means to an end for the woman he truly loved to get back with my ex. The betrayal was a violation, worse than Jake' s, a cold, calculated masterpiece of manipulation that turned my year of healing into a cruel deception. I had to escape, to sever this twisted knot of lies, and the only way out was to call my parents and accept the arranged marriage I' d always laughed at. Just as the decision formed, David' s cheerful voice echoed through the studio, followed by the shattering sound of groceries, and his fake smile dissolving as he saw the truth laid bare. He tried to smooth it over, playing the concerned lover, until I revealed my drastic plan: "I' m moving to New York. I'm getting married." His dismissive smirk was quickly replaced by panic as Emily Carter herself appeared, walking calmly into his web of lies, confirming his deception. Later, doubled over in agony, suffering from a ruptured appendix, I called him for help-the man I thought loved me. He hung up, choosing to tend to Emily' s "headache" over my very real, life-threatening pain, dismissing my screams as manipulative drama. The words "You're just trying to get my attention" echoed as my phone died, the realization slicing through me: he would rather let me die than displease her. Finally, face-to-face in the hospital, he saw me. He saw the IV, the monitors, the reality of my near-death while he' d coddled his fragile Emily just feet away, oblivious. Yet, his gaze hardened, turning from me back to her, and he walked away, promising to return, a promise I knew was as hollow as his love. I fled to New York, rebuilding my life, forging a new identity, finding unexpected peace with my arranged fiancé, Ethan. But the past wasn' t done. David found me.

You'll also like

THE SPITEFUL BRIDE: MARRY TO RIVAL'S SON

THE SPITEFUL BRIDE: MARRY TO RIVAL'S SON

Ray Nhedicta
4.6

"Let's get married," Mia declares, her voice trembling despite her defiant gaze into Stefan's guarded brown eyes. She needs this, even if he seems untouchable. Stefan raises a skeptical brow. "And why would I do that?" His voice was low, like a warning, and it made her shiver even though she tried not to show it. "We both have one thing in common," Mia continues, her gaze unwavering. "Shitty fathers. They want to take what's ours and give it to who they think deserves it." A pointed pause hangs in the air. "The only difference between us is that you're an illegitimate child, and I'm not." Stefan studies her, the heiress in her designer armor, the fire in her eyes that matches the burn of his own rage. "That's your solution? A wedding band as a weapon?" He said ignoring the part where she just referred to him as an illegitimate child. "The only weapon they won't see coming." She steps closer, close enough for him to catch the scent of her perfume, gunpowder and jasmine. "Our fathers stole our birthrights. The sole reason they betrayed us. We join forces, create our own empire that'll bring down theirs." A beat of silence. Then, Stefan's mouth curves into something sharp. "One condition," he murmurs, closing the distance. "No divorces. No surrenders. If we're doing this, it's for life" "Deal" Mia said without missing a beat. Her father wants to destroy her life. She wouldn't give him the pleasure, she would destroy her life as she seems fit. ................ Two shattered heirs. One deadly vow. A marriage built on revenge. Mia Meyers was born to rule her father's empire (so she thought), until he named his bastard son heir instead. Stefan Sterling knows the sting of betrayal too. His father discarded him like trash. Now the rivals' disgraced children have a poisonous proposal: Marry for vengeance. Crush their fathers' legacies. Never speak of divorce. Whoever cracks first loses everything. Can these two rivals, united by their vengeful hearts, pull off a marriage of convenience to reclaim what they believe is rightfully theirs? Or will their fathers' animosity, and their own complicated pasts tear their fragile alliance apart?

HIS DOE, HIS DAMNATION(An Erotic Billionaire Romance)

HIS DOE, HIS DAMNATION(An Erotic Billionaire Romance)

Viviene
4.9

Trigger/Content Warning: This story contains mature themes and explicit content intended for adult audiences(18+). Reader discretion is advised. It includes elements such as BDSM dynamics, explicit sexual content, toxic family relationships, occasional violence and strong language. This is not a fluffy romance. It is intense, raw and messy, and explores the darker side of desire. ***** "Take off your dress, Meadow." "Why?" "Because your ex is watching," he said, leaning back into his seat. "And I want him to see what he lost." ••••*••••*••••* Meadow Russell was supposed to get married to the love of her life in Vegas. Instead, she walked in on her twin sister riding her fiance. One drink at the bar turned to ten. One drunken mistake turned into reality. And one stranger's offer turned into a contract that she signed with shaking hands and a diamond ring. Alaric Ashford is the devil in a tailored Tom Ford suit. Billionaire CEO, brutal, possessive. A man born into an empire of blood and steel. He also suffers from a neurological condition-he can't feel. Not objects, not pain, not even human touch. Until Meadow touches him, and he feels everything. And now he owns her. On paper and in his bed. She wants him to ruin her. Take what no one else could have. He wants control, obedience... revenge. But what starts as a transaction slowly turns into something Meadow never saw coming. Obsession, secrets that were never meant to surface, and a pain from the past that threatens to break everything. Alaric doesn't share what's his. Not his company. Not his wife. And definitely not his vengeance.

Chapters
Read Now
Download Book