Eighty-Eight Betrayals, One Escape

My fiancé stood me up for the 88th time, leaving me at the courthouse to rush to his adopted sister' s side.

I went home and overheard their twisted plan: they wanted me to get sterilized so I could raise their secret love child.

When his sister later tried to poison me, he screamed at me to apologize. He even locked me in the basement, knowing my severe claustrophobia, to punish me for "upsetting her."

The man I loved was a monster, and I had been his fool.

After he left on a business trip, I packed my bags, accepted a dream job across the country, and sent him one last text.

"We are over."

Chapter 1

Jody POV:

The eighty-eighth time my fiancé left me stranded was the last.

The air in the city courthouse was thick and stale, smelling of old paper and cheap disinfectant. I sat on a hard wooden bench, my fingers tracing the cold, intricate metal of the engagement ring Arthur had placed there six months ago. The diamond glittered under the fluorescent lights, a promise that felt more like a lie with every passing minute.

Three hours. I' d been waiting for three hours.

"Jody Campbell and Arthur Lowery?" a clerk called out, her voice flat with boredom.

I stood up, my legs stiff. "He' s on his way," I said, the words tasting like ash in my mouth. It was the same excuse I' d given her an hour ago.

She gave me a look that was a mixture of pity and annoyance before calling the next name on her list.

My phone buzzed in my hand. Arthur' s name flashed across the screen. Relief, weak and pathetic, washed over me for a split second before the familiar dread settled back in.

"Arthur, where are you? They' ve called our names twice."

"I' m so sorry, baby," his voice was a low, apologetic murmur that used to make my heart melt. Now it just made my stomach clench. "Something' s come up."

Something always came up. And that something was always named Claudia.

"What is it this time?" I asked, my voice dangerously quiet. I already knew. I always knew.

"Claudia' s not feeling well. She says she has a headache and she' s feeling dizzy. I have to take her to the hospital."

A headache. He was abandoning our appointment for a marriage license-our third rescheduled appointment-for a headache.

The week before, he' d missed my graduation dinner because Claudia had a nightmare. The month before that, he' d cancelled our vacation because Claudia felt lonely. Eighty-eight times. I' d kept a tally on a hidden app on my phone. Eighty-eight plans cancelled, eighty-eight promises broken, eighty-eight times I was told I was less important than his adopted sister.

"Jody? Baby, are you there?"

I stared at the peeling paint on the opposite wall. "She has her own car, Arthur. She has a driver. She can call a doctor to the house."

"You don' t understand," he said, his voice laced with that familiar, frustrated guilt. "She needs me. She saved my life, Jody. I owe her everything."

The story was his shield, the one he hid behind every time he chose her. When they were kids, Claudia had supposedly pushed him out of the way of a speeding car, breaking her own leg in the process. It was the foundation of their toxic, co-dependent bond, the debt he felt he could never repay.

"I have to go, baby. I' ll make it up to you, I promise. We' ll go tomorrow."

He didn' t wait for my response. The line went dead.

I stood there, the phone pressed to my ear, listening to the dial tone. The muffled sounds of the courthouse faded into a dull roar. It felt like the world was underwater, and I was sinking.

Slowly, I lowered the phone. With numb fingers, I twisted the diamond ring. It slid off my finger easily, leaving a pale, indented mark on my skin. I looked at the brilliant stone, a symbol of a future that would never happen. A future where I would always come second.

I walked over to the trash can by the exit, its metal lid slightly ajar. Without a second thought, I opened my hand and let the ring drop. It made a small, unsatisfying clink as it hit the bottom, lost amongst discarded coffee cups and crumpled papers.

"Ma' am?" The security guard by the door was looking at me, his brow furrowed. "You just... did you just throw that ring away?"

I didn't answer him. What was there to say?

He seemed to understand. He shook his head slowly. "He' s not worth it, kid. Any guy who stands you up at the marriage license office isn' t gonna show up for the real thing."

His words struck a chord deep inside me, a truth I had been refusing to see. Everyone saw it but me. My friends, my family, even a stranger at the courthouse. I was the fool who kept believing in his empty promises.

The memory of our first meeting felt like a scene from a different life. I was a junior chemical engineering student, tutoring to make ends meet. He was Arthur Lowery, the charismatic heir to a tech empire, who' d burst into the campus library like a storm, charming and brilliant and utterly captivated by me. He pursued me relentlessly, with helicopter rides over the city and private concerts and a thousand whispered promises of forever. He' d even bought the building my favorite struggling bookstore was in, just to keep it from closing. He' d made me believe in fairy tales.

Then, a year into our relationship, Claudia had returned from studying abroad.

At first, it was subtle. A dinner he had to cut short because Claudia called, crying about an exam. A weekend trip postponed because Claudia had the flu. But the intrusions grew more frequent, more demanding. My life began to revolve around her needs, her whims, her manufactured crises.

Arthur always had an excuse. "She' s just fragile, Jody. She' s been through a lot."

I had tried to be patient, to be understanding. I loved him. I believed in the man he was when she wasn' t around. But today, standing in this soulless courthouse, I finally understood. He would never be that man for me. Not really. He belonged to Claudia.

I walked out into the harsh afternoon sun, feeling hollowed out. The drive back to the sprawling mansion we shared was a blur. I parked my car and walked through the front door, the silence of the house pressing in on me. It was a house filled with beautiful, expensive things, but it had never felt like a home.

As I reached the top of the grand staircase, I heard their voices coming from the master bedroom-our bedroom. My hand froze on the doorknob.

"Are you sure this is going to work, Arthur?" It was Claudia, her voice sickly sweet. "What if she says no?"

"She won' t," Arthur' s voice was firm, confident. "Jody loves me. She' ll do anything for me. For us."

My blood ran cold.

"It' s the perfect plan," Claudia continued, her voice dripping with satisfaction. "She undergoes the tubal ligation, we get married, and she raises my baby as her own. No one will ever know the child isn' t hers. It will be our perfect little family."

The words hit me like a physical blow. Tubal ligation. Sterilization. They wanted me to give up my ability to have children, to raise Claudia' s baby-conceived with another man, I assumed-as my own.

My baby. A child I would never have.

"And the baby?" Arthur asked. "You' re sure... you' re okay giving him up?"

"Of course," Claudia purred. "He' s your baby, Arthur. It' s only right that he grows up with his father. And Jody will be the perfect mother. After all, she won' t be able to have any of her own to compete."

My breath hitched in my throat. I couldn' t feel my hands, my feet. A roar started in my ears, drowning out everything else.

I shoved the door open.

They were standing by the window, Arthur' s arm wrapped around Claudia' s shoulders. They turned, their faces a mixture of shock and guilt.

"Jody," Arthur started, taking a step toward me.

"What baby?" I asked, my voice a raw whisper. "Whose baby are you talking about?"

Claudia stepped forward, a triumphant smirk playing on her lips. She placed a protective hand on her still-flat stomach. "Mine, of course. And Arthur' s."

The world tilted on its axis. Arthur' s baby.

I looked at Arthur, my heart shattering into a million pieces. His face was pale, his eyes pleading. "Jody, let me explain. It' s not what you think. It was one night, I was drunk, it was a mistake..."

"A mistake?" I repeated, a bitter, hysterical laugh bubbling up from my chest. "You want me to undergo surgery, to become sterile, so I can raise the child you had with your sister? You call that a mistake?"

"It' s for the best, Jody," Claudia said, her voice smooth as silk. "This way, we can all be together. Arthur won' t have to choose. You get to be a mother. It' s what you' ve always wanted, isn' t it?"

I stared at her, at the man I thought I loved, and I felt nothing but a bone-deep, chilling cold. The love I had felt for him, the patience, the hope-it all evaporated, leaving behind a vast, empty wasteland.

I turned my gaze to Arthur, searching his face for any sign of the man I fell in love with. I found none. "Is this what you want, Arthur? Is this really your plan for us?"

He wouldn' t meet my eyes. He reached for me, his hand trembling. "Jody, please. We can make this work. I love you."

I flinched away from his touch as if he were on fire. The words "I love you" from his lips were the most obscene thing I had ever heard.

Without another word, I turned and walked out of the room. I went to my own room, the guest room I' d been sleeping in for months, and locked the door. I sank to the floor, my body shaking uncontrollably. The sobs came then, violent, wracking things that tore through me, leaving me breathless and raw.

I cried for the woman I used to be, the one who believed in love and fairy tales. I cried for the future I had lost.

As the tears subsided, leaving me empty and exhausted, my phone rang. It was a number I hadn' t seen in a while. Dr. Evans Chaney, my former professor and mentor.

"Jody," he said, his voice warm and familiar. "I hope I' m not calling at a bad time."

"No, Dr. Chaney. It' s fine." My voice was hoarse.

"Listen, I know you turned down the R&D position at Sterling Innovations last year, but the lead researcher spot just opened up. The project is groundbreaking, a new polymer synthesis that could change everything. It' s your work, Jody. Your theories from grad school are the foundation. I thought of you immediately. The job is yours if you want it."

Sterling Innovations. A prestigious research firm on the other side of the country. A dream job. A job I had turned down for Arthur.

A new life. An escape.

A wave of clarity washed over me, sharp and absolute.

"Yes," I said, my voice clear and steady for the first time all day. "I' ll take it."

"That' s wonderful news! When can you start?"

I looked around the opulent, sterile room that had been my prison. "I' m on my way."

I hung up the phone. I stood up, walked to my closet, and pulled out a suitcase. It was over. The fairy tale was dead.

And I was finally, blessedly, free.

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