Betrayed, Broken, Back for Revenge

(Maya)I light the candles and smooth the banner again like it matters.Twenty-two today. And a whole year of being Mrs. Cole Vance.Only one of the richest men in the world. And he married me!This is our first anniversary. We married on my 21st birthday. I got pregnant that night too.He couldn’t stop telling me how amazing I was and how amazing we were together, and then he took a whole month’s honeymoon showing me.He’s older than me by ten years, but that’s not a bad thing. It means he knows what he really wants and who he really wants.Since I had Lucy 3 months ago, well, things have been strained.But today there’s hope. This distance is all just a silly misunderstanding. I know what I felt with Cole is real, and I know he feels it too.Tonight, he will show me that my worry is not needed.He called earlier and said he’d be home for dinner. Finally. He’s remembered it’s our special day.It hasn’t been like this in so long, but I know it’s not all in my head.I know what we ha

(Maya)Lucy is fifteen months old now, wild curls bouncing as she tears through my wing of the mansion.Cole moved us in here so the main area isn’t always so messed up. It makes sense with his formal dinners and visiting dignitaries.I show up at every function I need to as the loving wife. Perfect in every way and Cole plays the loving husband so well.Those nights we make love. Okay, it isn’t the headiness of the honeymoon. And he never stays the whole night. But it’s something and I think I’m starting to make a difference to him.I live for that. I know that’s how he would be all the time if he didn’t have so much pressure on him.He wants to love me. I’ll help him do that again like he used to. No marriage or relationship is perfect, Jade says. And she’s right. It’s impossible to be happy all the time.Cole is still with me so that proves he loves me. He could have any of the women who hang over him at every event.He even flirts with some of them, but she said not to worry, he

(Maya)My wing is quiet after Jade settles Lucy into her bed for her morning nap. Lucy went right off to sleep for her.My body aches in so many places after Cole came to me last night, but my heart feels light for the first time in months.Cole stayed. He made me declare my love for him. He loves me.A knock sounds at the private entrance startles me from my thoughts. Who could that be? Tessa is the only one who comes to that entrance and I doubt it’s her after the last time.When I open it, it’s Rhett. Tessa’s older brother. My childhood sweetheart, teenage dream, whatever you want to call it. That was a long time ago.I blink at him, stunned to see him at my door.He’s broader from the military, sunburnt around the edges, dressed down in jeans and a t-shirt. His ice-blue eyes are no less intense. His expression is something between anger and worry.Here we go. Another lecture from someone who thinks they know what I need better than I do.“What are you doing here?” My voice is shar

(Maya)Days fold into each other. I can’t tell one from the next.I can’t control my mood swings. Sometimes I’m sobbing, other times I’m trying to smash the wall open with my bare hands.My brain is all over the place. No one will listen to me. No one believes me.I’m psychotic, they say. I had a mental breakdown. I tried to kill myself and my child.No one visits except Jade. The devil.She asks the nurses for privacy, says it keeps me calmer.“Cole wanted us to move in,” she says, breezy, like she’s telling me about a new paint color. “For Owen. For the kids. It makes everything easier, you know? It felt right.”In my head the last night with Cole repeats… the way he made me say I’d never leave, the way he’d made me prove it.“I want to see Cole.” If I can just see him, maybe he’ll listen. Maybe he’ll believe me about Jade.Jade’s laugh is small and bright. “See him? He doesn’t want anything to do with you.”She shows me a photo on her cell phone.It’s Lucy and Owen. Owen looks so s

(Cole)I watch her fall in the flames. It’s horrifying.“Maya… No!” My heart has seared with her.How could she do this to me, to Owen?How can Lucy be dead? I called the hospital. I checked in before the party and they said she was going well.Maya’s made a crazy choice taking Lucy’s body with her. She’s denying Owen a healthy life.The drugs, the drugs took her over, changed her.I thought she loved us. I never meant to love her, but I did.Jade rages and pounds her fists against my chest. “Get in there! Get in there and get that child from her!”“It’s too late, Jade.”Her voice cracks, jagged with panic. “I didn’t do all this work to miss out now! I need that spoilt brat’s body!”I push Jade away so hard she falls backwards onto the grass.“Don’t! Don’t you talk about Lucy like that!” I roar at her. “Was it you? Did you do what Maya said you did just to get the bone marrow?”“Yes! Cole, I just can’t lose Owen. I can’t.” She begins to sob and cry uncontrollably.I’ve known Jade fore