Unleashed Desires by EllaRose

The Scars She Hid From The World

REGINA MCBRIDE

The heavy iron gates of the Wilderness Correction Camp groaned as they released me after three years of state-sponsored hell. I stood on the dirt road, clutching a plastic bag that held my entire life, waiting for the family that claimed they sent me there for "rehab." My brother, Brady, picked me up in a luxury SUV only to throw me out onto a deserted highway in the middle of a brewing storm. He told me I was a "public relations nightmare" and that the rain might finally wash the "stink" of the camp off me. He drove away, leaving me to limp miles through the mud on a snapped ankle. When I finally dragged myself to our family estate, my mother didn't offer a hug; she gasped in horror because my muddy clothes were ruining her Italian marble. They didn't give me my old room back. Instead, they banished me to a moldy gardener’s shack and hired a "babysitter" to make sure I didn't embarrass them further. My sister, Kaleigh, stood there in white cashmere, pretending to cry while clinging to her fiancé, Ambrose—the man who had once been mine. They all treated me like a volatile junkie, refusing to acknowledge that Kaleigh was the one who planted the drugs in my bag three years ago. They wanted to believe I was broken so they wouldn't have to feel guilty about the "wellness retreat" that was actually a torture chamber. I sat in the dark of that shed, feeling the cooling gel on the cigarette burns that covered my arms, and realized they had made a fatal mistake. They thought they had erased me, but I had returned with a roadmap of scars and a hidden satellite phone. At dinner, I didn't beg for their love. I simply rolled up my sleeves and showed them the price of their silence. As the wine spilled and the lies crumbled, I sent a single text to the only person I trusted: "I'm in. Let them simmer." The hunt was finally on.

Modern Revenge Scheming

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I was a top patent lawyer until my husband and his lover framed me, destroyed my career, and sent me to prison. For seven years after, I was presumed dead, living as a ghost in a warehouse.

Then, they found me. My ex-husband, Edgar, and our son, Kody, showed up, shocked to see me alive.

They lured me to Kody' s 18th birthday party, but it was a lie. The party was a surprise engagement celebration for Edgar and Celena, the very woman who ruined my life.

In front of everyone, Edgar told me to "let go."

My own son even begged me.

"Mom, please," he cried. "Just say you're sorry."

Sorry? For what? For surviving the car crash they orchestrated to kill me?

I looked at the boy I once loved more than life itself. In the sudden silence of the ballroom, I smiled and asked, "Kody, do you remember the night Celena asked you to slash my tires?"

Chapter 1

Abigail Cardenas POV:

The familiar scent of damp cardboard and recycled plastic filled my lungs, a scent I' d come to associate with my new reality. Seven years. Seven years since I was Abigail Cardenas, the sharp-witted patent lawyer, whose life had been surgically removed and replaced with this monotonous routine. Now, I was just Abigail, a ghost in a warehouse, sorting boxes under fluorescent lights.

A commotion near the loading dock pulled me from my thoughts. It wasn' t unusual for visitors, but the hushed whispers and sudden stillness suggested something different. I kept my head down, my hands moving automatically, taping another box shut.

Then I heard it. A voice. Deep, familiar, like a melody I'd tried to erase but was still etched into the deepest parts of my memory. Edgar.

My breath hitched. My body froze, a cold dread seeping into my bones. Seven years. He was supposed to be a phantom, a chapter slammed shut.

"Abigail?" The voice was closer now, hesitant, laced with a surprise that felt like a punch to my gut.

I didn't look up. Couldn' t. I just kept sealing the box, my movements stiff, robotic. My heart was a frantic drum against my ribs.

A shadow fell over me. A hand reached out, tentative, almost brushing my arm. I flinched, pulling back as if scalded. The touch would have burned me, branded me all over again.

Silence stretched between us, thick and suffocating. The warehouse noise faded into a dull hum, as if the world was holding its breath. Every fiber of my being screamed at me to run, to disappear back into the anonymity I had carefully built.

The fluorescent lights above hummed, casting a stark, unforgiving glow on the dust motes dancing in the air. The faint smell of exhaust fumes from a distant forklift suddenly felt overwhelming, making my stomach churn. I felt dizzy, disoriented.

"Abigail? Is that really you?" His voice was hoarse now, thick with disbelief. "They said... they said you were gone. Dead."

I remained silent. My jaw ached from clenching it so tightly. What could I say? That I wasn't dead enough? That I had survived the wreckage he and his lover had made of my life?

"We had a funeral," he continued, a strange mix of shock and relief in his tone. "Celena... she was devastated. Kody... he cried for weeks."

My blood ran cold. The names, uttered so casually, were like venom. Devastated? Cried for weeks? The hypocrisy was a bitter taste in my mouth.

Another figure moved beside him. Taller now, broader shoulders. Kody. My Kody.

"Mom?" Kody' s voice, a raw, broken whisper, tore through me.

My hands trembled, but I didn't stop working. I couldn't acknowledge them. Not here. Not now. Not ever.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Edgar' s voice pleaded, stepping closer. "We thought... we thought we' d lost you forever."

Lost me? They had thrown me away. I wanted to scream the words, but they stuck in my throat, choked by years of unspoken pain.

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