CHAPTER ONE

Twenty-Seven Years Ago

"Come on come on come on" the young woman whispered frustratedly as she battled with the chains that cuffed her legs.

Not too long ago, she had difficultly but successfully pulled off the ones on her hands, thanks to her slim body and sweaty skin.

God, she could not be more thankful for the one thing that embarrassed her to death since her body started changing and her hormonal imbalance got the best of her.

Sweating profusely against her huge rounded belly, she slammed her swollen feet against the wall, drawing blood from her bruised ankle.

But it worked. She muffled a loud scream as her ankle bone snapped, pushing it out of place and letting the cuff fall awkwardly across her leg.

She may have been fragile but her father had taught her to never be weak.

She had greatly despised him back then for his over protective antics and his reluctance to separate himself from the dangers that came with the world he lived in.

Wars had taken the lives of nearly everyone they loved. Yet, somehow, in her worse moment, in her moment of pure desperation.

In a moment that was set to define life and death for her and her unborn child, he and his stupid protective walls were all she could think and pray for.

The chains finally fell off and with the strength she had battled for all her life, she limped towards the gates of the small prison cell she had been locked in.

She pulled out the bobby pin she had slipped off one of the napkins they handed to her every morning and inserted it into the lock.

Twisting and twisting expertly, the lock finally gave way with a click. Her phone laid on the table outside the room. The sick twisted bastards had kept it there so she would see that her life was completely at their mercy.

She snatched it and rushed across the empty grass land outside the mansion, towards the dark forest, breathing fresh air for the first time in months since she had been taken.

Her legs were screaming, her broken leg wailed with hate for the unkindness shown to it in this race. She held onto her belly, "Hold on my love, be a good boy and stay in." She whispered to her pregnant stomach.

Finally, she came to a clearing in the woods, she had successfully put as much distance between herself and the horror of a place.

She turned on the phone and a signal popped up. Feeling relieved, she dialed her father's number.

"Hello?" A deep, harsh voice, that sounded like it was used to giving commands and being stern sounded over the phone.

"Papa! Please, I'm scared. I want to come home." The young woman cried.

"Elira! Where are you?! I'm coming to get you now!"

"Papa, I'm at the ..." A large hand closed over her mouth, muffling her words.

The woman kicked and screamed, but another man grabbed her leg, making her toss the phone on the floor.

"No! No! Please! Let me go! Please!"

"Elira! Elira!" The man continued to yell over the phone. One of the men picked it and turned off the phone.

"Please, please please please don't take me back. Please, I beg you. My baby, they'll kill him, they'll kill us." The young woman pleaded in a small voice, holding onto her belly.

"Sh sh sh sh shhhhh, that's alright now sweetie. No more talking." One of the men said as he injected her with a serum that made her body suddenly go limp.

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PRESENT DAY

The slap was not the first thing she expected the minute she opened the kitchen door.

"How dare you?!" He roared out.

Her face stung like acid where he hit her. Her grey eyes scanned the room frantically for what it could possibly have been this time.

Then she spotted the broken china on the floor and it made sense.

Her skin bit like ants where his fingers bruised her. She should have been used to it by now, but being hit by the man you love for the sake of another woman just never lessened how much it hurt.

"How could you have been so careless? You knew it was a gift from Madeley and it cost a fortune!"

His voice outweighed his rage, betraying the truth about the situation - the plate was not that costly, but simply because he and Madeley had argued the previous night, it suddenly made all the difference.

"Enough!"

His hand froze in the air at the sound of the voice.

Sinora Anderson had spent her life like this, like a slave. For seven years she had served the famous Belmont family judiciously, holding onto a promise that the man she had once fallen in love with would eventually marry her.

The same man whose eyes now regarded her with abhorrence.

"just one more year and we will officially get married." He had said back then.

But one year became two and two became more. She was no longer even considered part of the family, but more like an under compensated help.

Her kids were raised away from her and saw her as only lesser to her social media influencer sister, whose feet they worshipped because of how much she spoiled them.

Before this, Sinora’s life had been equally worse. From the moment she was conscious enough to say the word 'mama', her life had been difficult.

The parents who raised her despised her, as if she had been dumped on them forcefully, and perhaps she had been. After all, she was not even their real daughter.

Their real daughter was Madeley, a beauty queen/social media influencer. The one they had given all their love and resources.

The best schools, the best clothes, an opportunity to go to college and as bonus, she could snag any man she wanted, any man in the world.

Yet somehow, she set her eyes on the one Sinora had gotten fair and square, Charles Belmont. A man Sinora had been engaged to for seven good years with the bonus of two kids.

Charles Belmont had walked into Sinora’s life at a time when she had been drowning. A time when oxygen seemed expensive for her to afford, he was her air.

He was handsome, charming, what would she not have given for those blue eyes.