His Cruelty, Her Comeback

“My husband, Bennet, was my hero. Three years ago, his stalker, Gianna, crippled my drawing hand, ending my career as an architect. Bennet promised me justice, locking her away in a remote cabin to suffer for her crime. On our fifth wedding anniversary, I went to the county office to update my records. The clerk looked at me with pity. "Ma'am, our records show you were divorced three years ago. Your ex-husband, Bennet Crosby, remarried on the same day." The name she read next shattered my world: Gianna Skinner. The punishment was a lie. Their prison was a lover's paradise. For three years, he lived a double life, celebrating our anniversary with his other wife. He brought her into our home as a maid, claiming it was for my "healing." He even shoved me to the ground in public to save her from a staged fall. The final betrayal came when Gianna framed me, convincing Bennet I had hired men to assault her. He dragged me to a dark room, not even recognizing me through a mask. He believed I was a stranger who had hurt his real wife. "Anyone who lays a hand on my wife," he snarled, "will feel a thousand times the pain." He personally whipped me ninety-nine times. The man who swore to protect me became my torturer, all while believing he was defending the woman he truly loved. He left me for dead, ordering his men to finish the job. But I escaped. Bleeding and broken, I fled the country with a new identity, my heart set on one thing: entering the Paris architecture competition and taking back the life he tried to destroy. He thought he had clipped my wings, but he only taught me how to fly from the ashes.”