Chapter 1

My family went bankrupt, and my dad knew there was no way he could dodge prison time. He was scared someone would come after me for revenge once he was gone, so he decided to marry me into a rich family.

In the end, he set his sights on the powerful Holt family.

He used their crimes to blackmail them, then tempted them with a house full of rare antiques. With this carrot-and-stick approach, they finally caved and agreed to the marriage.

None of us expected that on the day of the wedding, Sebastian Holt's beloved first love, Nina Ward, would get drunk trying to drown her sorrow, crash her car, and die on the spot.

From that moment on, Sebastian hated me down to the bone.

He wrapped his fingers around my throat and snarled, "Calista Lockhart, don't think marrying me means you get to keep living your cushy life. After we're married, I'll make you spend every day wishing you were already dead so you can atone for Nina's death."

The day of Nina's funeral, it poured in Berdona. Sheets of rain came down like the sky had split open. Sebastian made me crawl all the way to her burial spot, pressing my forehead to the ground with each step.

When he shoved me to the ground, my knees slammed into the stone slabs with a heavy thud. A wave of searing pain shot through me, but I gritted my teeth and forced the tears back. Under his icy stare, I started to inch forward.

Loose gravel sliced open my forehead and my knees. Rain mixed with blood and streamed down my face, blurring my vision. By the time I finally reached the burial spot, I was a bloody mess and on the verge of collapse.

But that was only the beginning of the nightmare.

After we got married, Sebastian gave all the household staff a few days off and turned me into his maid. I slept in the maid's room and watched him bring a different woman into the master bedroom every night. I had to serve them drinks, do their laundry, cook their meals, make the bed…

That still wasn't enough for him.

One night, just like always, Sebastian brought another woman home. Around 2:00 am, my phone suddenly rang. His commanding voice came through the speaker.

"Calista, you've got ten minutes to buy two boxes of condoms and bring them up. If you're late, you'll deal with the consequences."

I sprinted through the streets in the middle of the night, running block after block until I finally found a pharmacy still open.

When I delivered the condoms to the master bedroom, Sebastian yanked me inside as well. I froze in panic when I saw him and that woman as naked as the day they were born, instinctively trying to back away.

He blocked my path, shoved me toward the bed, and said with cruel amusement.