Chapter 1

My eyes widened in shock upon seeing the balance of my bank account was zero. I had saved thousands of dollars for a year by skipping meals, and working part-time, but now it was wiped out.

"If you are looking at the funds in your hidden account, I repurposed them," my husband Reeve said.

"You drained my life savings," I trembled. "For what?”

A cruel smirk touched his lips. "Hayley wanted a specific vintage wine. A rare case became available today. I bought it for her."

My breath caught in my throat. Hayley? My step-cousin.

"But I needed that money to survive," I pleaded. I dropped my hand. The phone hit my side. "I need winter clothes. I need soap. I need fresh food. You refuse to buy me basic necessities. Yet you buy her diamonds and rare wine."

Reeve closed the distance between us. He moved fast and grabbed my chin. His fingers dug into my skin. It hurt as he forced my head up to make me look into his cold eyes.

"You do not have needs, Zoe," he whispered. "You are property. I bought you to pay off a family debt. A woman in your position has no right to money. You exist because I allow it. Remember your place."

He shoved me away. I stumbled backward. My back hit the heavy mahogany door. Reeve turned around and walked out of the house, leaving me alone in the freezing foyer.

I slid down the door and I pulled my knees to my chest.

Bought.

The word echoed in my head. It beat against my skull. It dragged me back to the past.

The nightmare started three years ago. That was the year my mother died. Everything changed the day of her funeral. My father stopped looking at me and caring at me, blaming me for what happened to my mother.

He moved my aunt into our house with her daughter, Hayley, too. They took over instantly. My father bought them expensive clothes. He took them on trips. He treated them like royalty.

I was thrown away. I was moved out of my bedroom. They put me in a windowless closet down the hall. They took my clothes. They gave me rags to wear. I was not allowed to eat at the table. I ate leftover food from the kitchen counter. I ate after the servants finished.

Then came the day that broke me completely.

Hayley was throwing a tantrum in the living room. She was screaming and crying. I was cleaning the floor nearby.

In a fit of rage, she grabbed a heavy glass ashtray from the coffee table and threw it at my head.

The glass cracked against my skull. I fell to the hardwood floor. Pain exploded in my head as warm blood ran down my face. It blinded my left eye.

I waited for someone to help me.

Instead, my aunt walked over. Her face twisted with disgust. She did not offer a towel. She did not call a doctor.

"It should have been you," she said. "You should be dead instead of your mother."

I closed my eyes. I wished I was dead. I prayed for the pain to stop. Maybe that was better… if I was truly the reason my mother died.

But the pain did not stop. It got worse.

That same night, I sat in my dark closet.

Suddenly, a loud crash shook the house. Someone kicked our front door open.

It was Reeve. He came to collect a massive debt. My father and aunt fell to their knees. They wept. They offered him anything to spare their lives.

Reeve looked around the room. Then, he saw me. I was bleeding and bruised in the corner.

He pointed at me. He took me as payment. He cleared the debt. My family let him take me. They did not even say goodbye.

I became his wife on paper, but in reality, I was nothing more than the dirt beneath his expensive shoes. I scrubbed his floors until my knees bled. I survived on the staff's cold leftovers.

I swallowed every ounce of his cruelty.

But the true torture began the day he moved my vicious step-cousin, Hayley, into the mansion. Making her his pampered mistress was his ultimate weapon.

It was his way of proving I was entirely worthless.

But I had been scraping together an escape fund. It was my only way out.

Until he drained my hidden account.

Something inside my chest finally shattered. I refused to die in this freezing house.

Wiping the tears from my cheeks, I slipped into his private bedroom. I tore through his heavy dresser until my fingers brushed against a velvet pouch hidden at the very bottom.

I ripped it open. Thick, solid gold coins gleamed in the shadows.

I shoved the heavy pouch deep into my pocket and ran. I flew down the grand staircase, my eyes locked on the massive front door. Then, a towering shadow stepped into my path.

I curled my hands into tight fists. I braced my trembling body, fully prepared to fight for my life.

But he didn't lunge. He didn't even yell. He just took a slow, deliberate step forward.

I backed away instinctively until my spine hit the heavy wood of the front door.

There was nowhere left to run.

He reached out. I flinched, expecting pain. Instead, his cold fingers gently traced the line of my jaw. The touch was a terrifying contrast to the monster he was.

"Going somewhere?" he asked.

"I'm leaving," I forced the words past the lump in my throat. "You took my money. So I took yours."

Reeve glanced at my pocket. He leaned in close, trapping me against the door. His breath brushed against my ear, sending a violent shiver down my spine.

"If you walk out that door," Reeve whispered, "I will call the clinic. And I will have them turn off your mother's life support… and she’ll be really dead forever."