Chapter 1

The wind was raging, as if it wanted to tear the whole world apart. I was helping with exterior wall repairs on the twelfth floor of a high-rise when I happened to glance through the window. That one glance shook my world.

My wife, Bailey Hannold, who was supposed to be on duty at the hospital, was inside the apartment, wrapped tightly in the arms of her ex-boyfriend, Derek Crane. They were kissing like they couldn’t bear to let each other go.

Inside, everything was heated and intimate—a contrast to the howling wind outside. My heart felt like it had been ripped open, and a cold chill flooded me.

“What the hell are you doing?”

I slammed my fist against the window in fury, desperate to break up the disgusting scene in front of me. The thick glass muffled my voice, but the heavy thudding at least caught their attention.

Up on the roof, one of the guys heard the noise too, but he thought I was signaling him to lower the safety rope. By the time Bailey and Derek pushed open the window to look down, I was already being lowered to the ninth floor.

Derek looked worried as he asked her, “Bailey, do you think he saw anything? Is he going to use this to blackmail us? I mean, you are a married woman…”

Bailey let out a dismissive laugh.

“Please. These broke, powerless construction workers get shaken easily. We should cut his rope and teach him to mind his own business… and keep his mouth shut.”

Derek hesitated. “Isn’t that taking it too far?”

Bailey shot him a harsh glare. “What are you afraid of? What can he possibly do to us?”

With that, she grabbed a kitchen knife and started sawing at my safety rope.

The wind was already whipping me around, and with the rope getting thinner and thinner, I was on the verge of falling to my death. Terrified, I swung wildly, trying to find any foothold or surface to steady myself.

The ridiculous sight made Derek burst into laughter. “Look at him! He looks like a clown doing some over-the-top stunt in a circus!”

Wanting to entertain him even more, Bailey dug into the rope with extra force.

I shouted with everything I had, hoping someone would hear me. Alas, the roaring wind was too loud. All I could do was slam myself against whatever parts of the wall I could reach, creating noise so the workers above would lower me further.

It worked. Slowly, they lowered me toward the fifth floor. Unfortunately, by then, the safety rope had been cut so badly that it finally snapped in two. My body dropped instantly, just like a kite that had lost its string.

The wind screamed in my ears as I fell. Faintly, I could still hear the manic laughter coming from the twelfth floor. The overwhelming weightlessness wiped out every thought in my mind.

Then, my body crashed into the ground with a violent impact. It felt like every bone in me shattered at once. Pain shot through me like sharp knives, spreading from my right leg throughout my entire body.

I could feel the bone in my right leg break. The agony was so intense that I couldn’t stop myself from groaning. Sweat and tears poured out uncontrollably, soaking my clothes in seconds.

The betrayal, the despair, and the sheer physical pain twisted together, slicing through my heart. I couldn’t believe my wife, the woman I loved so deeply, could be so cruel. The same woman who once promised me forever was now the demon who threw me into hell.

With both my body and my heart crushed, I sank into overwhelming darkness.