Chapter 2

By the time I dragged myself down to the ground floor, the area was deserted. Not a soul in sight.

My phone buzzed in my pocket.

It was a text from Julian.

[Natalie said it was too cold down here, so I drove them home first.]

[Just call an Uber. It's a bit remote, so add a tip and someone will take the ride.]

[Text me when you get home.]

Right beneath the message was a transfer of three hundred dollars via Venmo.

The notification glowed on my screen, screaming with irony.

I opened my browser and pulled up a flight search.

A one-way ticket to Vancouver, departing in five days, cost two hundred and sixty dollars.

I gritted my teeth and accepted the transfer.

For fifty minutes, I walked along the desolate road, my blistered feet burning, sweat drying and freezing against my skin over and over again.

By the time I reached our villa, I was shivering violently from the cold.

Staring at the familiar house, all I felt was a bitter ache.

A year ago, Julian told me that a future Mrs. Vance shouldn't be working outside. He told me to quit my job and stay home to focus on our upcoming wedding.

So I quit. I poured everything I had into revolving my entire life around him.

And then he started complaining that I had nothing to do all day.

He fired all the housekeepers and dumped every single chore onto my shoulders.

Standing in the center of the spotless living room, I looked at the flight confirmation glowing on my phone screen. A quiet, freeing smile touched my lips.

Next week, there wasn't going to be a bride waiting at Julian's altar.

By the time Julian finally returned to our house after dropping off Natalie and my parents, I was curled up on the bathroom floor, vomiting until my body gave out. My vision was spinning, and my consciousness slipped in and out.

"Avery!"

His face drained of color. Panicking, he scooped me onto his back and rushed out to the car to drive me to the hospital.

Lying against his back, my foggy mind drifted.

Listening to his ragged breaths, I suddenly remembered our college days.

Natalie had lied to me back then, claiming she had dropped her phone into the campus outdoor pool in the dead of winter, demanding that I jump in to get it.

"Avery, you know I have a weak constitution," she had sneered.

"If I jump in, I'll catch severe pneumonia."

"And if Mom and Dad find out you let that happen, do you think they'll ever let you off the hook?"

Remembering the beatings and the dark storage closet Mom and Dad used to lock me in, I had dived straight into the freezing water.

That night, Julian had carried me on his back, running toward the ER just like he was doing now.

The next morning, when Natalie saw me lying weak in the hospital bed, she had rolled her eyes. "Oh please, you were in the water for two minutes! Is it really that serious?"

"Are you faking it just to get Julian's attention?"

Back then, Julian had snapped at her on the spot.

"Her fever was high enough to cause seizures! You think this is funny?!"

"Don't ever play with her health again, Natalie. I mean it."

Back then, Julian couldn't bear to see me suffer even the slightest scratch.

Yet now, he stood by and watched as everyone built their entertainment upon my torment.