When my fiancée suffered kidney failure, I didn’t hesitate to donate one of mine to save her.
After she recovered, she hugged me tightly and swore she would remain faithful to me for the rest of her life. She promised she would never betray me.
But everything changed when her childhood friend drove drunk, hit my mother and fled the scene, killing her.
Holding his criminal record in my hands, I was on my way to report the crime when I received a chilling phone call from my fiancée.
“Xavier Ravenshade, bring the video back immediately. If you want to see your father safe and sound, you’d better do as I say.”
“If you insist on reporting this and ruining Alaric, I will throw him off the building without hesitation.”
She had my father dangling from a rooftop. If she let go… he would fall to his death.
My heart felt like it had been ripped in half. The pain was excruciating.
Still, I clung to hope—hope that she wouldn’t really go through with it.
But the moment I stepped into the police station, a video appeared on my phone.
My father, thrown from the building.
“Xavier, this is what happens when you disobey. Your mother is already gone. Why not just take the hush money and live a good life with me? Why must you fight me?”
——
I watched the video in horror, my father lying on the ground, writhing in pain, blood pouring from his mouth. The phone slipped from my trembling hands as I collapsed in shock.
I had given her a kidney. I had risked my life for her. And in return, she had destroyed my entire family.
There was no time to grieve. I scrambled to my feet, shaking uncontrollably. I shoved away the officer trying to help me and stumbled out of the station.
I still had the evidence that could expose Alaric Dreadmoor. I was so close to making him pay. But I couldn’t risk it, not with Selene Duskmoor. She would do anything to protect him. Anything.
I rushed home as fast as I could.
There was Selene, sitting in my living room, sipping wine like nothing had happened.
I stormed in and knocked the glass from her hand.
“Selene, what did you do to my father?!”
“You monster! You covered for a killer and tried to wipe out my entire family!”
I slapped her. I couldn’t control the rage. But she caught my hand and shoved me back onto the couch.
“I told you, your mother ran a red light and was accidentally hit by Alaric. It was just an accident. He’ll pay compensation. He’s still so young. Why ruin his life over something so… trivial?”
Trivial? Drunk driving. Killing my mother. Fleeing the scene. That’s trivial to her?
What, then, would she call serious? Alaric going to prison?
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. My chest rose and fell with fury. My face burned red from the heat of my anger.
“To you, the lives of my entire family are worth less than a single tear from your childhood friend?”
My voice broke and the tears spilled down my cheeks, landing on the back of her hand pressed against my chest.
But she didn’t flinch. Her expression showed no sympathy, just impatience.
“Xavier, can’t you try to be a little more reasonable? Think about how I feel.”
“I never said anything like that…”
“But you did those things!”
I pushed her away with all my strength.
“Where is my father?! What did you do to him?”
“He’s fine. Just a broken leg. It’s been treated…”
Slap!
“Selene, you’re not human. You’re not even a person anymore!”
Blinded by rage, I struck her over and over, kicking and hitting her.
There was no love left. Only hatred. Pure, irreconcilable hatred.
Selene, we were done.
