tant, low hum of pain I had learned to ignore. But sometimes, when I

t face was M

y still remembered before my mind did. A cold sweat broke out

gowns between us. He looked the same. Confident, handsome, with that ea

me then, shar

e for that place, she

as on my knees in front of him, my hands clutching the expensiv

do this. I'll do an

He was talking about sending me to an underground fight club, a place where men paid to watch

ng his leg away from my grasp. "

? Not a fiancée, not the woman he was supposed to spend his life with,

ftening into that manipulative tone I knew so well.

ou with the money in three days, an

clings to a single drop of water. Three days of hell fo

tmare I can't speak of, a pit of violence and degradation. I survived on the thought of him, on the

y body a map of bruises and cuts, my mind shattered. I barely clung to

him design, my heart pounded with a mix of terror and relief. But the house wasn't dark a

pa

in the center of a group of his friends, a drink in his hand, laughing. And next to hi

oud and boastful, carryin

n, I wouldn't have been so cruel to her," he said, t

she won't dare to be so headstrong anymore. She'

e only thing I could hear was the shattering of my own heart. He hadn

he man I thought I loved. I never looked back. That night, Sarah

ears later,

k, then disbelief, then something I couldn't name flickered across his features. He s

, his voice a

u know I've been searching

hing for me? Or for the obedient, b

I simply smiled, a cool, calm s

solid figure that had been standing silently behind me

rk, my smile wide

ose. Please don't let my h

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