Chapter 1
My boyfriend caught some rare virus, and it looked like he wasn’t going to make it.
To get him the cure, I slept with the director of the research institute.
Clay Danhauser survived. He got down on one knee, teary–eyed as he proposed to me.
But a few days later, I caught him trying on wedding suits–with my college roommate.
When I took the courage to confront him, he just sneered. “The thought of you sleeping with another man makes me sick! I deserve to marry someone clean and innocent–not someone who‘ s been passed around like a dirty cheap toy!”
His words left me no choice but to yank off the ring, throw it at his face, and walk away -straight into a marriage my family had set up.
On my wedding day, dressed in my gown, I
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ran into Clay–dressed as the groom.
He spat, “You shameless slut! You think you can crash my wedding and make a scene? You must be begging to die!”
I tried to explain, over and over, but he wouldn’t listen. Instead, he tore my gown and started hitting me.
When my groom Clifton Danhauser showed up, Clay’s composure quickly changed.
“Uncle,” he said with a fake smile, “this crazy woman says she’s marrying you. I couldn’t just sit back and let her ruin your reputation, so I put her in her place.”
Not long after, Melissa Gilmour, my college roommate, announced her wedding.
I liked her Facebook post, and she immediately messaged me.
[Girl, get over to The Wedding Atelier. I’ve got a surprise for you!]
The surprise? A slap in the face.
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Her groom was my fiancé Clay.
“Wow, Lorraine, you‘ re such an idiot!” Melissa said, laughing. “The Danhausers are super rich! Did you really think they‘ d want garbage like you?”
“I told Clay I was the one who got the cure. Guess what–he believed me! Now he can’t even look at you without feeling disgusted. You actually thought he‘ d marry you, huh?”
Clay slid his arm around her waist. His words were as cruel as they were cold.
“You‘ re nothing but a slut! You‘ re not good enough for me.”
I watched his lips move, but I couldn’t hear much past the ringing in my ears.
My legs were giving out, but before the world went dark, his voice cut through the haze. “I don’t care if you pass out. Get the hell out of here! You‘ re ruining my day!”
I managed to curl my lips into a bitter
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smile.
This was the man I’d loved for six long. years! The one who‘ d stood with me on a snowy mountaintop and promised we’d grow old together. Now, all of a sudden, he was a monster, tearing me down with every cruel word he could think of.
Everyone knew how deeply I loved him.
I was the daughter of a wealthy, powerful family, but I’d cut ties with my parents. just to be with him.
People always say you shouldn’t meet someone too perfect when you‘ re young. But he checked off every box of what I imagined my first love to be.
Bright, handsome, romantic, sweet, thoughtful…
I thought we’d be happy forever.
Then, during a business trip to South
Africa, he caught a rare virus. The hospital issued three critical condition notices in
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one night.
I heard about a research institute in the city that had developed an experimental drug. It wasn’t on the market yet, and there was no way to buy it.
So I tracked down the director at some exclusive club. Pushed past his bodyguards. Offered him my body in exchange for that life–saving drug.
My Clay recovered.
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The day they moved him to a regular room, he proposed to me, crying.
But that same night… a video surfaced online–me, tangled up with another man. It went viral.
Terrified I’d lose my fiancé, I lied. Told him the woman in the video wasn‘ t me.
He said he believed me.
But after that, he grew colder. Distant.
I knew he was slipping away, but it still
