Chapter 3

A cruel smile flashed across Astrid's face. "Who do you think Barrett cares about? A useless, broken burden like you... or me?"

Before the words fully left her lips, she shoved the back of my wheelchair. The seat tipped, throwing me violently onto the rough, splintered wood of the pier.

In the same breath, she let out a dramatic shriek and threw herself onto the ground right beside me.

"Octavia, please!" Astrid sobbed hysterically. "I'll call off the wedding! I won't marry Barrett if it makes you this angry. Just please, don't hurt me."

Barrett sprinted back at the noise, terrifying rage flashing in his eyes.

"Octavia! What is wrong with you?" he roared, ignoring me on the ground as he swept Astrid up into his arms. "She was only trying to help you! How could you be this malicious?"

Astrid buried her face in his chest, trembling on cue. "Barrett, please don't be angry with her. She just cares about you so much. She got carried away and tried to break my legs."

Barrett's face contorted with disgust. "How did you become so utterly vile, Octavia? Just because you're a cripple, you want to drag Astrid down with you?"

He slammed his foot into my overturned wheelchair. The metal frame collapsed onto my legs with a sickening crack.

A wave of agonizing pain shot through my lower body. I gasped, unable to speak, but the physical pain was nothing compared to the ice that flooded my veins.

"Cripple."

The word had finally come from his mouth, freezing me to the core. Ten years of shared history had been erased by a few tears from a stranger.

Barrett turned his back on me and carried Astrid toward the hospital. "Don't worry. No one will hurt you while I'm around."

My legs were still pinned under the wheelchair; my palms were scraped raw and bleeding. I closed my eyes in despair.

Barrett had once promised that as long as he was around, no one could humiliate me. Now I was the one hurt, and he didn't care. Everything between us had changed.

...

I didn't remember how I got home. In a daze, I felt a warm touch on my forehead.

Barrett had softened after all. He looked at me with a trace of regret. "I'm sorry. I was too rough earlier, but you never should have hurt Astrid."

Tears welled up in my eyes, hot and bitter. "What if I told you I didn't touch her? Would you believe me?"

He met my gaze. "The evidence was right in front of us. Why would Astrid lie? She's the Harrington heiress; she has everything. Why would she ever bother framing you? Just apologize to her later, and we can pretend none of this ever happened."

A mirthless laugh cut through my chest. Why would the wealthy heiress frame a nobody like me? I wanted to know the answer, too.

"I didn't do anything wrong," I insisted.

A sharp slap echoed through the room. The force of his hand snapped my head to the side, blood trickling from the corner of my mouth.

The air became heavy and suffocating.

In the past, if anyone laid a hand on me, he would have destroyed them. Today, he had hurt me twice, but I refused to take the fall.

His eyes flickered under my stare, but rage eventually won out. "You weren't like this before. When did you become so unreasonable?"

I wanted to scream. "Who is the one who has really changed?"

Barrett had me put under house arrest. No one could visit me without his permission until after the wedding.

Then one day, he stormed in like a furious lion.