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Beyond Our Broken Dreams
Beyond Our Broken Dreams
Author: Hera Hazel

Chapter 1

Author: Hera Hazel
He respected her. Protected her.

Little by little, he pulled her out of the darkness she'd been trapped in for years.

The day he proposed, Preston got down on one knee.

“Tanya, give me the chance to take care of you for the rest of my life. I'll spend the rest of my life healing every wound you've ever carried.”

Tanya believed him.

She placed her broken heart in his hands without holding anything back.

Their lavish wedding became the talk of Harbor City.

Everyone said Tanya must have done something incredible in a past life to be cherished by a man like Preston Hayes. Overnight, she'd gone from an ordinary girl to the wife of one of the most powerful men in the city.

Tanya believed it too.

She thought she'd been unbelievably lucky.

After falling into the darkest period of her life, somehow she'd found someone who brought her back into the light.

Until one night.

Preston took Tanya to a business gala.

She'd never been comfortable at events like these. After staying for a while, she told him she was tired and wanted to go home early.

Preston arranged for someone to drive her back while he stayed behind to socialize.

Tanya had almost reached the parking garage when she realized she'd left her phone in the lounge.

She turned around to get it.

But as she passed a private VIP room with the door slightly ajar, she heard voices inside.

“It's been five years, Preston. Don't you think it's about time you wrapped up this little revenge scheme of yours?”

“Yeah.”

Preston's voice came from inside.

It was the same cool, deep voice Tanya knew so well, except there was an indifference in it she'd never heard before.

“I signed the divorce papers a long time ago. In a few days, when she's at the point where she loves me most, I'll give them to her.”

He paused.

“Then I'll tell her everything.”

“Damn. Five years. First you arranged that car accident and ruined her hand so she'd never be able to play the piano she loved again. Then, when she got pregnant and was so excited about the baby, you staged another accident and made her miscarry.”

The man clicked his tongue.

“But the craziest part? You haven't touched her once in five years. Every time she thought she was sleeping with you, you had Liam take your place. Preston, you really went all out to avenge your brother.”

“She called the police and sent my brother to prison. He had a heart attack and died in there.”

Preston's voice remained perfectly calm.

But every word dripped with hatred.

“Taking one life in return would've been too easy for her. I wanted to destroy everything she cared about.”

His tone turned glacial.

“I wanted to wait until she was happier than she'd ever been, then send her straight to hell.”

“So after the divorce, you're finally going to marry that woman you've been keeping in your heart all these years? Sylvia?”

Sylvia.

Tanya froze.

Sylvia Shaw?

The beautiful, soft-spoken daughter of the Shaw family who came from an equally privileged background?

Tanya had run into her occasionally at parties.

And every time, Sylvia had looked at Preston with an expression Tanya could never quite understand.

So she was the woman Preston had really loved all along.

“Of course,” Preston replied without hesitation.

“Makes sense. If your brother hadn't died in prison and you hadn't spent all these years getting revenge, you and Sylvia probably would've been married a long time ago.”

Then someone suddenly turned to Liam Hunter, a strikingly handsome man whose presence was almost aggressively masculine.

“But what about you, Liam?”

His tone became teasing.

“You've been sleeping with Preston's wife for five years. Don't tell me you haven't caught feelings. She's a gorgeous woman, and Preston's been putting her through hell. You seriously don't feel even a little sorry for her?”

A low chuckle came from inside.

Casual.

Careless.

Yet it sliced straight through Tanya's heart.

“Sorry for her?”

Liam's voice carried its usual arrogance and contempt.

“Why would I feel sorry for some other guy's leftovers?”

He laughed again.

“I only did it all these years to help my buddy get his revenge. I've got women throwing themselves at me left and right. You really think I'd want her otherwise?”

Every word exploded in Tanya's ears like thunder.

She stumbled backward.

For a second, she nearly collapsed.

Tanya bit down hard on her lower lip.

The metallic taste of blood instantly filled her mouth.

Her nails dug deep into her palms, but she couldn't feel the pain.

The only thing she could feel was her heart being ripped apart.

Crushed.

Destroyed so completely that she could barely breathe, let alone remain standing.

The man she'd sent to prison at eighteen...

He was Preston's younger brother?

So the past five years had all been a lie.

Five years of love.

Five years of tenderness.

Five years of believing he'd saved her.

It had all been an elaborate, vicious revenge scheme.

The husband she loved more than anyone was the brother of the man who had assaulted her.

Preston had approached her and married her for one reason.

To destroy her.

He'd ruined her hand so she could never play the piano she loved again.

He'd killed her unborn child and left her to grieve the baby she'd desperately wanted.

And he'd been so disgusted by her that he hadn't even been willing to touch her himself.

Every night over the past five years when she'd thought her husband was holding her in the darkness, kissing her, making love to her, it hadn't been Preston at all.

It had been another man.

His best friend, Liam.

And Tanya had been the biggest fool of all.

She'd spent five years lost in the tender illusion Preston had created for her, believing she was the luckiest woman in the world.

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  • Beyond Our Broken Dreams   Chapter 38

    That day marked the ceremony for the Golden Compass Award, the highest honor in the international design world.With the social impact and artistic merit of her Rebirth collection, Summer took home the top prize.She stood onstage in a simple white gown, her short hair sleek and neat, her smile poised.The spotlight shone down on her.Every eye in the room was fixed on her.She accepted the heavy trophy and faced an audience filled with the world's leading designers, critics, and media.Then she began to speak.Her voice carried through every corner of the auditorium and, through the livestream, across the world.“Thank you to the judges, and thank you to everyone who has supported Reborn.“This award doesn't belong to me alone. It belongs to every person who has struggled through darkness but never stopped searching for the light.”She paused.Her calm gaze swept across the audience, as though looking past everyone in the room toward something far away.“I've lived through

  • Beyond Our Broken Dreams   Chapter 37

    Meanwhile, Summer's Nirvana jewelry exhibition opened in Paris as scheduled.None of the surrounding scandals hurt it.If anything, the successive controversies involving the Hayes and Hunter families only drew more attention to Summer's story as both a survivor and a woman who had rebuilt her life.Global interest surged.So did the praise.The exhibition was an unprecedented success.On the night it closed, Summer held a press conference that was livestreamed worldwide.For the first time, she publicly addressed all the rumors surrounding her.No tears.No emotional performance.She stood beneath the lights in a simple black dress and calmly, clearly, and firmly stated the facts.She confirmed that she had once been Tanya Spencer.She confirmed that the abuse had really happened.Then, in front of the cameras, she removed the signature *Scars* bracelet from her wrist.The faint, winding burn scar beneath it was exposed to the entire world.A wave of shocked gasps swept

  • Beyond Our Broken Dreams   Chapter 36

    The color rapidly drained from Preston's face.His consciousness began to fade.But he still forced himself to turn his head toward Summer.Her bodyguards had already freed her and ripped the tape from her mouth.Preston opened his mouth, trying to say something.Instead, blood spilled from his lips.Summer stood several feet away, surrounded by her security team.She watched him lying in a pool of blood.Watched him struggle to keep his eyes on her.There was no panic on her face.No sadness.Not even much surprise.Only a deep, complicated calm.As though she'd expected this to happen all along.Or perhaps she simply didn't care.Her bodyguards urged her to leave immediately.Summer gave Preston one last look.It was brief.Almost weightless.There was no emotion in it.She looked at him the way she might look at a dying stranger on the side of the road.Then she turned away.Surrounded by her guards, she walked quickly to the car waiting in the shadows and got

  • Beyond Our Broken Dreams   Chapter 35

    The crisis at Hayes Corporation spread across the globe like an avalanche overnight.The stock price collapsed.Tens of billions in market value vanished.Banks demanded repayment.Business partners began questioning their commitments.Panic spread internally.Preston rushed back from Paris and took command at headquarters.He spent day and night in meetings, negotiating, containing the fallout, and trying to keep the company from unraveling.Through it all, he remained frighteningly calm.He stabilized the core businesses, launched an aggressive crisis-management campaign, and threw every resource he had into tracing the anonymous email and limiting the damage.But visible threats were easier to guard against than hidden ones.While Preston was buried in the crisis, an old rival who had remained quiet for years seized the opportunity.They secretly planned to kidnap him and force him to hand over key technology and market share.Somehow, they obtained Summer's Paris addre

  • Beyond Our Broken Dreams   Chapter 34

    “Your idea of loving me was helping your best friend spend five years pretending to be him so you could sleep with his wife?”Summer didn't raise her voice.She didn't need to.Every word cut straight through Liam.“Your idea of loving me was joining in when I was drugged, humiliated, and treated like a toy?”Her gaze was cold.“You didn't just participate. You enjoyed it.”Liam went rigid.All the color drained from his face.Summer looked away.She opened the small purse she was carrying and took out a tiny, unlabeled box of pills.Then she casually tossed it at his feet.The box landed on the pavement with a faint tap.“These are for sex addiction.”Her tone was flat, as though she were recommending something completely ordinary.“I think you need them.”Liam stared down at the little box by his shoes.Cold spread through his entire body.It felt as though he'd been stripped naked and thrown out into the snow.Shame and pain nearly swallowed him whole.Summer lif

  • Beyond Our Broken Dreams   Chapter 33

    Liam used some less-than-conventional means to track down Summer's address in Paris.She lived in a high-rise apartment building with extremely tight security.He knew she traveled with bodyguards and kept an unpredictable schedule.His only chance was to wait outside her building and catch her when she came home.So he waited in his car for two days and two nights.On the evening of the third day, just as daylight was beginning to fade, the familiar black Bentley slowly approached the entrance to the underground garage.Liam immediately shoved open the car door and rushed over.The Bentley stopped.The driver and the bodyguard in the front passenger seat got out first, watching the unexpected visitor warily.Then the rear door opened.Summer stepped out.She wore a camel-colored coat over a light knit dress.Compared with the last time he'd seen her, she looked less sharp today.Softer.More relaxed.The moment she saw Liam blocking the car, her steps paused.Her brows

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