Love Died Before I Did

For eight years Natasha stood beside Christian Helmley while he climbed out of ruin, and he promised to treat her like a queen. One year into their marriage, he had his first affair. By the tenth, he dragged his lover before her and let her decide the woman's fate; by the twenty-eighth, he wept and begged; by the ninety-eighth, she felt nothing at all.

Now Jasmine Wood wears his gifts and his victories openly, and Christian presses a pen to Natasha's belly while accusing her of killing his son. He calls her an old hag, threatens her with an asylum, and reminds her that other women are simply what a successful man keeps. Natasha's body has gone numb from years of sleeplessness and medication, yet one ache refuses to fade.

With her parents in Asternis and a flight booked in ten days, she packs the house, sparing only the veil he once made by hand. The sea waits, and so does the last of her love for Christian.