Chapter 1

I thought I was marrying for love. Instead, I walked straight into a slaughterhouse, all carefully arranged just for me.

The fiancé I'd loved for three years slipped an organ donation form between the pages of our marriage paperwork and tricked me into signing it — all to save his adopted sister, a girl he shared no blood with.

When the anesthesia wore off, I was missing a kidney, and I'd been thrown out into a thunderstorm like garbage.

They thought I was as good as dead. What they didn't know was that I clawed my way back out of hell on nothing but the will to get even.

I was going to cut my way to them, step by step, and make every single person in this conspiracy pay.

Pain.

A tearing, ripping agony spread from my lower back, like a rusty saw dragging back and forth across my nerves.

I forced my eyes open. The blinding surgical lights made my head spin. The air was thick with the smell of disinfectant.

This wasn't the bridal suite Sebastian and I had set up together.

This was a cold, sealed underground operating room.

"You're awake?"

A familiar, ice-cold voice sounded by my ear.

I turned my head with effort. Sebastian stood over me in a perfectly tailored couture suit, looking down at me. He held a glass of red wine, and his eyes had none of their old warmth. All that was left was a sneer that chilled me to the bone.

"Sebastian... what happened to me? My stomach hurts so badly..." My voice was hoarse. I struggled to sit up, only to find my hands and feet strapped down to the bed.

Panic seized my heart in an instant.

"Don't thrash around. We just took out one of your kidneys. If the wound splits open, you could actually die." Sebastian took a sip of his wine, his tone as casual as if he were chatting about the weather.

Boom!

My mind exploded. I stared at him, refusing to believe it. "What did you say? What kidney?!"

"Thank you for the kidney, by the way."

A sugary-sweet voice came from behind Sebastian.

Grace stood there in designer hospital pajamas, her cheeks rosy. There wasn't a trace left of the "end-stage uremia" frailty she'd shown before. She wrapped herself around Sebastian's arm and rested her head on his shoulder.

"See, Sebastian, I told you. As long as you asked, she'd hand over her worthless life for you. A kidney's nothing."

Sebastian tapped her nose affectionately. "Silly girl. If it saves you, I'd take more than a kidney. I'd take her whole life if I had to."

A cold went through my entire body, as if I were falling into a bottomless pit.

"Sebastian! Have you lost your mind?! I'm your fiancée! We're getting married tomorrow!" I thrashed like a madwoman, the straps cutting bloody welts into my wrists.

"Married?" Sebastian soffed and looked at me like I was an idiot. "Susan, go look at yourself in a mirror. A broke nobody with no money and no power — you thought you were good enough to walk through the doors of my family's home?"

He pulled a document from his jacket pocket and slammed it down across my face.

"Take a good look. This is the Voluntary Organ Donation Consent Form, signed in your own handwriting."

The sharp edge of the paper sliced the corner of my eye. I stared at the document.

The signature line — that really was my handwriting.

Then I remembered.

Three days ago, Sebastian had handed me a thick stack of tedious prenuptial property agreements to sign, saying it was his family requirement. I trusted him completely, so I signed without reading a single word.

So that was it. That death warrant had been buried in the pile.

"This is assault! This is a crime! I'm calling the police!" I screamed in despair, tears bursting from my eyes.

"Go ahead. Call them." Sebastian leaned down and grabbed my chin, his eyes venomous. "You signed the consent form. A private doctor did the surgery. Who do you think the cops will believe — some hysterical woman, or the legal team of the Cross Group?"

"Let me go! Give me my kidney back!" I shook my head wildly, wishing I could bite a chunk out of him.

"You're too loud." Sebastian flung my chin away in disgust and tossed a check onto me. "That's a million dollars, for one kidney. You've never seen that much money in your life, have you? Take the money and get out of this city. If I ever see you again, it won't just be a kidney I take."

He turned to the two bodyguards at the door. "Throw her out."

"Yes, Mr. Cross."

Two big men came over, roughly unstrapped me, and dragged me off the bed like a dead dog.

The wound split open instantly, blood soaking through the hospital gown.

"Sebastian! Even as a ghost, I will never let any of you go!"

My curses were sealed behind the heavy iron door.

Late night. Howling wind and pouring rain.

The bodyguards dumped me on a deserted mountain highway and drove off.

Cold rain mixed with blood and ran into the mud.

I curled up on the ground, convulsing with pain, my consciousness slipping away bit by bit.

Just when I thought I would die in that storm —

Two blinding high beams cut through the curtain of rain.

A black Rolls-Royce Phantom screeched to a stop right in front of me.

The car door opened. A pair of polished, handmade leather shoes stepped into a puddle.

A black umbrella opened over my head, blocking out the downpour.

I struggled to open my eyes. What I saw was a face so cold and sharp it looked like a god's. The man wore a black trench coat, and his presence was so powerful that even the rain around him seemed to freeze.

"Susan?" His low voice was strangely clear in the rainy night.

I didn't know him. but I knew he was my only hope of survival.

I clutched the hem of his coat, my knuckles white.

"Save me..."

The man looked down at me, something dark and unreadable churning in his deep eyes.

"Do you want to die? Or do you want revenge?" he asked.

"Revenge..." I bit down hard, my mouth full of the taste of blood. "I want them to pay... blood for blood."

A cold, hard curve lifted at the corner of his mouth.

"Get in."

He bent down, scooped me up into his arms, and carried me into the endless dark.