Chapter 1
“If Genevieve arrives at that wedding with her face intact, Sabrina will never be able to take her place,” a sharp voice echoed down the hall.
I heard that brutal phrase a week before I was supposed to marry Christian Prescott, one of the country’s most famous pop artists, while I was pretending to remain unconscious in a private room at St. Jude Medical Center in Columbus.
Hours earlier, as I was leaving a bridal shop in downtown Indianapolis, a strange man approached me under the guise of requesting a photo for Christian. He suddenly pulled a glass bottle from his coat and splashed severe industrial acid across the right side of my face. I clearly remember the agonizing fire on my skin, my violent screams, and the cold pavement rushing up to hit me before everything went dark.
When I woke up in the hospital bed, my entire head was wrapped tightly in heavy medical bandages. I was terrified to open my eyes because I feared discovering what was left of the face Christian had kissed for five straight years.
Then I heard the heated voice of his talent manager, Gabriel.
“You could have simply broken up with Genevieve, Christian!” Gabriel yelled in a hushed, furious tone. “You could have called off the lavish wedding publicly, so why on earth did you pay a criminal to do this to her?”
My heart stopped beating in my chest as I listened to the deadly quiet in the room.
Christian responded with a terrifying calm that chilled me far more than the icy air conditioning flowing through the room.
“Because if I dumped her a week before the wedding, all of America would be hunting down Sabrina and destroying our reputations,” Christian explained casually. “I needed Genevieve to be physically incapable of showing up so everyone would view me as the devastated, grieving fiancé.”
Gabriel gasped loudly and called him a sick monster.
“At the very least, hire the best reconstructive surgeon in the country to fix her,” Gabriel pleaded desperately.
“There is absolutely no need for that,” Christian replied with cold indifference. “If she is permanently scarred, it works out even better for my public image because I will take care of her forever, offering her a private home, money, and round-the-clock nurses so she will never want to leave me.”
I felt as though the air had been entirely sucked out of my lungs while I lay completely paralyzed under the sheets.
Then Christian added something far more sinister that shattered my entire soul.
“Besides, she can no longer bear children anyway since I took care of that permanent issue a long time ago,” Christian remarked coolly.
My mind immediately flashed back to my three agonizing pregnancy losses over the past few years. I remembered those terrible early mornings in the emergency room when Christian held my hand, stroked my hair, and swore to me that the losses were not my fault.
“What in the world did you do to her?” Gabriel asked, his voice shaking with absolute horror.
“Dr. Lawson adjusted a few key elements in her daily routine,” Christian answered without a drop of remorse. “He manipulated her vitamins, treatments, and daily dosages to ensure she could never carry a baby to term again.”
I wanted to rip the heavy bandages off my raw skin and scream until my lungs burst.
However, the cruelest revelation was still waiting for me.
“Little Leo is already four years old, and Sabrina is completely exhausted from hiding our son in the shadows,” Christian whispered slyly. “Right after our private legal ceremony, I will bring him to the estate because Genevieve won’t have the courage to expose herself to the media, nor can she give me heirs, so she will eventually accept the boy.”
Leo was his secret four-year-old son with Sabrina.
While I had spent years weeping over lost babies that I thought were destroyed by bad luck, Christian was busy maintaining a secret family behind my back.
Gabriel took a very long pause before asking another heavy question.
“Are you honestly still planning to marry Genevieve after putting her through this hell?” Gabriel questioned softly.
“Of course I am, because my wholesome public image with her is worth millions in endorsements,” Christian stated coldly. “Sabrina only wants to experience a real wedding ceremony once, so I can give her that privately while keeping Genevieve as my tragic public wife.”
He then calmly ordered Gabriel to make sure the hired attacker was secretly smuggled out of the country immediately.
When Gabriel left the room, Christian stepped quietly over to the side of my hospital bed. He tenderly gripped my trembling hand with the exact same warmth he always used to comfort me when obsessed fans threatened me online.
“Please wake up soon, my sweet love,” Christian whispered softly against my ear. “We still have a wonderful wedding to attend together.”
In that terrifying moment, I finally understood that I had never been the great love of his life over those five long years.
I had merely been his perfect public alibi.
I kept my eyes tightly shut until I heard the heavy wooden door click close behind him.
A few minutes later, Gabriel slipped back into the room alone, gasped when he saw me staring directly at him, and turned completely pale as a sheet.
I raised a single shaking finger to my lips to keep him quiet.
“Please help me,” I whispered through my chapped lips.
“Do you want me to call the police and report him right now?” Gabriel asked nervously.
“First, you need to help me stay alive,” I replied carefully.
May you like
Gabriel glanced nervously toward the quiet hallway, realizing that Christian still truly believed he had me completely under his cruel control.
Yet, what was about to unfold was so surreal that I still struggle to fully process it today.
