Espin

, hateful post. My heart pounded so hard it felt like it would burst through my chest. T

angely steady. I thrust the phone toward Jacob

ng through his composed facade. His jaw tightened, and the calc

from his face, leaving him a ghastly white. He scrolled through the comments, his eyes darting, his breath comi

ick with unspoken accusations. The distant sound o

It was a sound devoid of humor, brittle and false. He looked at me,

ed up about? This is some desperate girl's pathetic attempt to get attention." He tossed my p

ence. He was already tryi

b, she posted a marriage license! With your

really think I'd marry someone like her? An obsessed intern? You think I'd jeopardize everyt

ally finding its full voice. "Explain it! Explain why my fiancé, on

earching for an escape route. Then, a new mask descend

d tired, put-upon, as if I was the one causing him grief. "You want the tru

. "Kiera... she's always been a little... troubled. Obsessive. You re

ot obsessive. But I listened, a

, Aurora. Her dying grandmother's last wish was to see Kiera settled, married to a good man." He looked up, his eyes pleading for understanding. "She fabricated th

wish?" The words tasted like ash. My own dying grandmother had wan

ure act of charity! I couldn't say no. Not to a dying old woman. I intended to annul

en her grandmother rallied, for a bit. And then she passed, only a few days ago now. I was going to handle the paperwork this week, bef

orgot you were married to someone else? You forgot to annul it before yo

This... this was a momentary lapse in judgment, an act of compassion that got out of hand. I swea

n, the pity he claimed to have felt for Kiera, felt like a slap in the face to me. What about

For our company? My entire savings, my inheritance, my youth! Every late night, every cancelled holiday, every single

we go," he muttered, rolling his eyes. "Always about the money, isn't it, Aurora? Always about what you 'sac

ng a wedding dress to our reception, and you're

r misunderstanding, one I can fix. I'll get the annulment. Kiera means nothing. You mean everything. Don't ruin our day, Aurora." He

off a few hundred-dollar bills, holding them out to me. "Just take it. S

to buy away his betrayal. My vision swam with tears of pure, unadulter

red, my voice trembling with suppressed f

rt out the company shares, whatever you need to feel... compensated. Just not today. Not right now." He took anot

ing. And in that moment, something inside me snapped. The years of love, of tru

single thought beyond the primal urge to hurt him as he had hurt me, I sw

s was the real Jacob, cold and vicious. He raised his hand. Before I could react, his palm connected sharply with my cheek. The force of

hand. I tasted blood. He had hit me. On our wedding d

he snarled, his voice raw with menace. "Look what you made me do! You think you can just assault

spat the words, venom dripping from each syllable. "And if you try to make trouble, if you try to

there, my cheek throbbing, my heart aching with a pain far deeper than any physical bl

eces of my heart. He wanted to destroy my good name? He wanted me to lose everything? He would soon learn that Aur