Chapter 1He Called Me Damaged Goods

All because I didn’t bleed on our wedding night.

Damon, crippled by a pathological obsession with purity, decided right then that I was damaged goods. Unclean.

Every night after that, he forced me into the clawfoot tub, holding me down while scalding water—nearly a hundred and sixty degrees—blistered my skin. He wouldn’t let me out until my body was violently raw and peeling.

No matter how many times I tried to explain human anatomy, he refused to listen.

"Taryn told me every virgin bleeds the first time," he would say, his voice flat, his knuckles white against the edge of the porcelain. "She’s a woman. Why would she lie to me? If you’re afraid of the water, Summer, it just proves you have something to hide."

I told myself it was trauma. His mother had wrecked their family, leaving him and his father for another man, scarring Damon with a twisted, suffocating dread of betrayal. So I endured it. I took the burns, believing my patience could heal his broken mind.

Until the night of my birthday.

I walked into our bedroom and found Damon tangled in our sheets with Taryn, the girl he’d grown up with.

Seeing me in the doorway, Taryn didn't flinch. Instead, she deliberately pulled back the duvet, showing off a stark crimson smudge on the white linen.

"See?" she murmured, tilting her head. "I told you. A real virgin always bleeds."

Damon didn’t look guilty. He didn't even scramble to cover himself.

"Summer," he said, sounding almost relieved, "now we're even. I can finally forgive you."

He actually thought we were even.

He thought he was being generous.

But looking at him, the last ember inside me died. I would never forgive him. And I would never, ever let him touch me again.

* * *

I didn’t scream. I didn’t cry.

I simply turned around, walked to the closet, pulled down my suitcase, and began packing.

Behind me, Taryn let out a soft, mocking tut. "Uh-oh. The wifey’s mad. Better go coax her, Damon, before she runs off with all her bags."

Damon frowned. He swung his legs out of bed, marched over, and violently wrenched my arm, dragging me back toward him.

"What are you throwing a tantrum for?" he demanded, his grip bruising. "Didn't I just say I forgive you for what you did? What more do you want?"

My eyes burned, but I swallowed the bile rising in my throat. I stared right into his face. "You brought another woman into our bed, into our home, and you have the audacity to ask what I want?"

Damon didn't flinch. Instead, he hauled me toward the mattress, forcing my face down toward that glaring red stain.

"You spent months hiding behind medical excuses, telling me adult women rarely bleed," he snarled. "Taryn is a year older than you. If she bled, why didn’t you? What right do you have to be angry with me? You came to me tainted. Who are you to take the moral high ground?"

A soft snicker broke from the bed. Taryn leaned against the pillows, smiling.

"Oh, let her be angry, Damon. It’s natural. She promised you she’d never been with anyone else just to get you to marry her, and now that her lie’s out in the open, she’s embarrassed." She paused, placing a delicate hand over her mouth in mock horror. "Well... maybe she didn't technically date anyone. Some girls just sleep around without labels, right? Oh, sorry, Summer, don't mind me. I’m just thinking out loud. I’m sure you’re not that kind of girl."

Damon’s jaw clenched so tight a muscle ticked in his cheek. He turned that dark, poisoned gaze back onto me.

"Summer. Tell me the truth. Before me, how many men have touched you?"

I stared at the man I had loved for half my life, and a solitary tear finally betrayed me, slipping down my cheek.

I had known Damon since we were kids. I fell for him before I even understood what love was. When I pursued him, I learned all about his mother's abandonment, how it left him so hollowed out that he couldn't stomach the thought of being with someone who had a past.

Back then, I considered myself blessed. We were young, and I had all the time in the world to prove I was entirely his. And in college, my devotion finally cracked his armor.

The day we made it official, I teased him: "With all the girls chasing you, why pick me?"

He had looked at me with absolute sincerity and said: "Because you're the only one whose world revolves around me. You make me feel safe."

He knew. Deep down, he knew the truth of my heart. Yet here he was, unraveling years of devotion over a few poisoned whispers from Taryn.

Seeing my tears, a flicker of discomfort passed through his eyes. His voice softened, but the condescension remained. "Look, we’ve been together a long time. We’re married. Just be honest with me, and I swear I won't leave you."

A bleak, empty laugh escaped my lips. I pulled my wrist from his grasp.

"Damon... I’m the one leaving you."