I was devoted to Tom Collin, a man whose ambition I once admired. I gave up my career, my future, my entire identity for him. I was the perfect wife while he built his empire. But when he reached the top, I became invisible.
Then I found him with her—his college ex, the woman who’d abandoned him when he had nothing. When I confronted him, the man I married vanished, replaced by a monster whose hands left bruises on my skin.
I was finally ready to leave. But I never got the chance. He left our five-year-old daughter, Joy, alone for his mistress. And in his absence, my baby was murdered.
I buried my child, and with her, the weak woman I used to be. In a haze of grief, I let a handsome stranger hold me for one night in Italy—a single moment of oblivion.
Five years later, I live for one purpose: Revenge. Tom Collin will pay for what he did. He has no idea the woman now standing before him. But my new boss… he might. The magnetic CEO of our rival company is the stranger from that night. And he doesn’t know he’s the father of my secret daughter.


I remained motionless on the ground, watching their figures grow smaller with each passing moment. My knees pressed painfully into the rough sand, but the physical discomfort felt distant compared to the agony tearing through my chest. Grains of sand clung to my damp skin, and my palms were buried so deeply in the ground that the coarse texture bit into my flesh. Tears fell steadily from my eyes, creating dark spots in the sand below me.


"Please, I'm begging you," I whispered desperately, my voice barely audible. "Joy deserves better than this." The words drifted across the empty space like dying echoes. I stared at Tom's retreating form, willing him to stop, to show even the smallest trace of mercy. But his steps never slowed, his shoulders never turned. He walked away as if my pleas meant nothing at all.


Chapter 48 - Chapter 48 Unanswered Pleas