Share

Chapter 7

Author: Hera Hazel
When Tanya woke again, she was still in the hospital.

Her injuries were even worse than before.

Every breath pulled at countless wounds, sending unbearable pain through her body.

Preston was sitting beside her bed.

The moment he saw her open her eyes, his face filled with concern and guilt.

“Tanya, you're awake. How do you feel?”

He took her heavily bandaged hand in his, his voice low.

“I'm sorry. This is all my fault. I only left you alone for a little while. I never imagined you'd be kidnapped and tortured like this.”

His expression hardened.

“Don't worry. I've already made sure the kidnappers are behind bars. They'll never see the outside of a prison again. From now on, I'll have more bodyguards assigned to you around the clock. I promise I'll never let anything like this happen again.”

Kidnapped?

Tortured?

Tanya lay there listening to his ridiculous lies, delivered with such convincing sincerity that the pain in her chest almost eclipsed the pain from her injuries.

How could he stand there and lie to her so calmly?

How could he do this to her, then turn around and pretend to be the devoted husband who was heartbroken over her suffering?

Tanya bit her lip and said nothing.

Only one thought remained in her mind.

She needed to get out.

Away from Preston.

Away from this hell.

After another long, agonizing stretch in the hospital, Tanya was finally discharged.

The day she went home happened to be her and Preston's wedding anniversary.

Preston threw an extravagant anniversary party for her, inviting some of Harbor City's most prominent people.

He walked into the ballroom holding her hand, accepting everyone's congratulations and playing the role of the hopelessly devoted husband.

Halfway through the party, photos suddenly began appearing on the enormous screen behind the stage.

At first, they were pictures of Preston and Tanya together.

Photos from their vacations.

Snapshots from their everyday life.

In every one, they looked happy and deeply in love.

Then the images changed.

Tanya's blood ran cold.

They were nude photos of her.

Photos taken after the assault when she was eighteen, her clothes barely covering her, her eyes empty with shock and despair.

“Isn't that Mrs. Hayes?”

“Oh my God. So the rumors were true? She really...”

“How could someone put pictures like that up there?”

The ballroom erupted.

Gasps.

Whispers.

Disgusted stares.

They crashed over Tanya from every direction.

She stood frozen in the middle of the stage, staring at images of the worst night of her life.

Memories she'd spent years desperately trying to bury.

Her face went deathly pale.

It felt as though every drop of blood in her body had frozen.

The humiliation and despair were crushing.

Preston's expression changed instantly.

He rushed onto the stage and pulled Tanya's trembling body tightly against him, shielding her face against his chest.

“Turn it off!” he roared at the staff. “Turn the screen off right now!”

The staff scrambled to obey.

Finally, the screen went black.

But it was too late.

Everyone had already seen.

Preston kept Tanya close and tried to get her out of the ballroom.

Then a swarm of reporters appeared out of nowhere.

They descended on them like sharks smelling blood, cameras and microphones thrust toward Tanya's face.

“Mrs. Hayes! Are those photos real? Were you really sexually assaulted when you were eighteen?”

“Mr. Hayes, did you already know about your wife's past? How did you get past that and accept her?”

“Mrs. Hayes, how did you get Mr. Hayes to be so devoted to you? What's your secret?”

“There are rumors that you used underhanded methods to get close to Mr. Hayes in the first place. Is that true?”

Tanya wanted to scream.

To demand answers.

To run.

But it felt as though an invisible hand had closed around her throat.

She couldn't make a sound.

Her legs felt impossibly heavy, leaving her rooted to the spot.

Then Tanya saw Liam forcing his way through the crowd of reporters.

There was a bottle in his hand.

Before she could understand what was happening, he threw its contents at her.

Acid.

The harsh chemical smell hit her at the same time as the burning liquid.

Tanya tried to dodge.

Too late.

The acid splashed across her arm.

Pain exploded through her as it burned her skin.

Her vision went black.

She collapsed.

She had no idea how much time passed.

Her consciousness seemed to drift through something cold, black, and suffocating.

The pain in her arm never stopped.

It felt as though countless red-hot needles were being driven into her flesh over and over again.

Faint voices reached her through the darkness.

Broken and distorted, as though she were hearing them underwater.

“You barely used any acid today,” Preston said. “And why'd you throw it on her arm? You should've gotten her face. You could've disfigured her for good.”

Then came Liam's careless voice, tinged with amusement.

“What's the rush? I'm still supposed to sleep with her. If I ruin her face, how the hell am I supposed to look at her while I'm doing it?”

Preston fell silent for a moment.

When he spoke again, irritation was unmistakable in his voice.

“I told you to sleep with her to humiliate her. To get revenge on her.”

His voice hardened.

“Don't tell me you're actually starting to enjoy it.”

“Can't help it, Preston.”

Liam lowered his voice.

“She's pretty damn good in bed.”

A low chuckle followed.

“She always acts so cold and untouchable around everyone. But in bed? She's something else.”

His tone turned suggestive.

“If you don't believe me, you could always try her yourself.”

“Shut up!”

Preston's voice turned glacial, his disgust unmistakable.

“I'll never touch her. She's filthy.”

He paused.

“Sylvia is the only woman I want.”

Only Sylvia.

He thought Tanya was filthy.

So that was what she was to him.

Not just an enemy.

Not just a tool for his revenge.

But something dirty.

Something so disgusting that even touching her was beneath him.

Continue to read this book for free
Scan code to download App

Latest chapter

  • 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

More Chapters
Explore and read good novels for free
Free access to a vast number of good novels on GoodNovel app. Download the books you like and read anywhere & anytime.
Read books for free on the app
SCAN CODE TO READ ON APP
DMCA.com Protection Status