Chapter one

~ANOTHER NIGHT TO HATE~

“Brown… please stop.”

The words came out broken, barely more than a whisper through blood and tears. I was curled on the cold marble floor, arms over my head, waiting for the next strike.

It didn’t come. The room went still.

Slowly, I lowered my hands and looked up at the man towering over me. My husband, the man who once kissed my fingertips like I was something precious. The same man now breathing hard above me, leather belt hanging loose in his fist.

“I’m tired of this marriage,” I choked out. “I’m tired of you.”

For one second, silence.

Then he smiled. It was the kind of smile that made my stomach turn.

“What did you just say?” Brown asked softly. “Leave what marriage?” He crouched in front of me, expensive cologne mixing with whiskey on his breath. “You think you can walk away from me?”

His fingers clamped around my chin, forcing my face up.

“I made you,” he said. “You were nothing when I met you. Nothing.”

Something inside me cracked.

“That’s a lie.” My voice trembled, but it was there. “I had a degree. I had a career. I had dreams.” Tears blurred my vision. “You came into my life pretending to love me. You made me believe I was lucky. Then little by little, you took everything.”

His jaw hardened.

“You mean I upgraded you,” he snapped. “Your cheap little job embarrassed me. I gave you this house. This life. Wealth women would kill for.” His eyes swept over me with disgust. “And look at you now. Soft, broken, and unattractive. Motherhood ruined whatever appeal you had left.”

The words sliced deeper than the belt ever could.

I laughed. A raw, ugly laugh dragged out of pain.

“Then divorce me.”

His stare darkened.

“If I disgust you so much, let me go.” I swallowed hard. “Or are you only a man when someone is too weak to fight back?”

The slap came so fast my head snapped sideways.

Before I could recover, he grabbed my jaw again, squeezing until pain shot through my skull.

“You’ve tried to leave before,” he murmured, eyes burning into mine. “Police reports. Lawyers. Tears.” He leaned closer. “Didn’t work, did it?”

My chest tightened.

“All I need is to buy your parents a new car, maybe a vacation, and they’ll swear under oath that you’re unstable.” He smirked. “Everyone has a price, Amaya. Especially your family.”

I stopped breathing for a second, because I knew he was right. He shoved my face away like trash. Then he straightened, sliding the belt free from his hand with a slow hiss.

He had come home drunk tonight because I’d done something unforgivable. I applied for a job without his permission. I didn’t even know how he found out.

“You will never leave me,” he said, voice rising like thunder. “You are mine. No man will touch what belongs to me. Do you think any man would find you attractive after you’ve already had a child for me?”

The belt came down again and again. He stopped at some point, grabbed my head, slammed it against the floor, and choked me.

He choked me until the room blurred, pain became soundless, and my body no longer felt like mine.

When he was done, he stepped over me. Actually stepped over me. He grabbed his keys and walked out, already on the phone with one of the women he uses to punish me.

The front door slammed. Silence flooded the mansion.

I lay there unable to move, cheek pressed against the freezing floor, tasting blood and shame. Somewhere in the distance, a clock ticked. Somewhere upstairs, cartoons still played in my daughter’s room.

Then I felt it. A tiny hand, warm and shaking, on my shoulder. “Mommy?”

Ariel, my baby girl.

I had told her so many times: when Daddy gets angry, stay in your room. Hide. Don’t come out, and don’t let him see you. But she was here now, tears falling onto my arm.

“Please wake up,” she sobbed. “Please, Mommy…”

I forced my eyes open. Her little face was blurry through the swelling.

My voice scraped out like broken glass. “I’m okay, baby.”

It was a lie so cruel it nearly killed me.

“I’m okay.”

She nodded, because children believe the people who love them.

Using the wall, I dragged myself upright. Every breath burned. Every inch of me screamed. But when I looked at my daughter standing there in pink pajamas clutching her teddy bear, something stronger than pain rose inside me.

Rage and freedom.

I knelt in front of her, wincing as my knees hit marble. I held her small face between trembling hands.

“Go to your room,” I whispered. “Pack your five favorite outfits. Your teddy. Anything you love.”

Her lip quivered. “Why?”

If we stayed, he would kill me one day, and eventually, he might hit her too. I should have left years ago, but instead of voicing those terrifying truths, I simply kissed her forehead.

“Because we’re going somewhere faraway.”

She stared at me for a second… then nodded and ran. I watched her disappear up the staircase.

I thought she would hesitate, but she seemed happy. That broke me. My poor child already understood that we were in danger in this house.

Then I looked around the mansion Brown bought to prove he owned me. The chandeliers, gold frames, and polished floors, all stained with my blood.

For four years, this house had been my cage. Tonight… I will escape.