Chapter 1 - The Truth

Lucy Hawthorne

He’s gone again.

My fingers traced the empty bed, feeling it a bit cold.

Lately, he often got up early for work.

Adrian Hawthorne.

My husband.

But today, it felt wrong. 

Even after getting a shower, wrapping myself in my casual floral dress, and sliding a pair of low heels, the heavy feeling won’t disappear.

A morning hue blew past my skin through the mansion as I wandered around.

This mansion belonged to his family, the Hawthornes.

A dynasty of wealth in the business world. 

As we’re bestowed with marriage, I thought I was marrying into a fairy tale, blessed with love. 

A defeated sigh unknowingly escaped my lips.

But it's all just a dream.

The staff and the maids greeted me, yet it all passed through my ears.

I made it to the dining room just as the maid set down breakfast.

“Where’s Adrian?” I asked.

Her hands froze around a tray. “He left early, Madam.”

“Again?”

She nodded without meeting my gaze.

A tiny sting pricked my chest. 

As always, it seems.

Adrian had been leaving earlier and returning later each day.

His explanations were vague and his kisses were often distracted. 

The scent on his clothes had also masked something unfamiliar.

I shook my head, already losing my appetite.

I must be overthinking again. 

My eyes caught the garden through the tall window.

The rose bushes he gifted me for our anniversary stood in perfect bloom, their petals vibrant.

As if untouched by the rot that began spreading through our marriage.

Sometimes I wondered if the roses knew the truth before I did.

–

The sunny day wasn't long, by midday, the air gradually felt heavy, stormlike even. 

The wind harshly blew across my skin, threading through my soft raven hair.

I dejectedly closed the windows.

My eyes scanned around the house, seeing not a single person available.

My eyebrows knitted. Where’s everybody?

Curiosity tugged my sleeve stubbornly, pulling my feet toward Adrian’s private study. 

One he rarely let me enter.

And as though fate was toying with my life, the door was slightly ajar.

I shouldn’t have looked.

I knew I should have turned around.

And inside, I saw him. 

His body pressed against someone else’s. 

My eyes widened, a gasp almost left my throat before I instantly cupped my mouth.

Adrian.

How could he?

My eyes shifted to the woman’s features, feeling a pang of betrayal on my chest.

Selene Voss, the family’s financial advisor, a woman beautiful in every turn.

The woman he told me not to worry about.

Her hands slid through his hair.

His lips trailed her neck.

His voice softened in a way it hadn’t been for me in months. 

“I’ll handle Lucy soon,” he murmured against her skin.

My world stopped.

My breath hitched, though too quietly for them to hear. 

The room disappeared, the walls collapsing inward around me. 

A buzzing noise filled my ears as Selene replied, voice dripping with false pity.

“She’s been convenient, but she’s becoming a liability nowadays, don't you think? You know your family won’t tolerate loose ends.”

Loose ends.

To them, I was a ‘loose end’.

The man who once swore to love and protect me, was plotting my removal. 

As though it was a mere business transaction. 

I stumbled back from the doorway, each heartbeat a stab to my being. 

The air around me tightened. 

My lungs were desperate for air to breathe.

Why? What had I done wrong? 

All I did was love him with every fragile piece of my existence.

And it was never enough.

I fled. 

My heels knocked with every step I took, surely alerting them.

I didn’t remember running down the hall, or bursting out the back door.

 Or the frantic sound of my pulse roaring in my ears. 

I only remembered reaching the cliff.

The same place where he once proposed, slipping the ring onto my shaking finger under a sky full of stars.

The sea crashed below, wild.

I wiped the tears from my cheeks roughly.

I wanted to scream. 

I wanted to tear the world apart. Yet my voice stayed locked in my throat.

“Lucy.”

His voice spoke behind me, distressing my soul.

I spun defeatedly.

Adrian approached with the calm of a man walking into a board meeting. 

His hair was disheveled from Selene’s fingers. 

His shirt was wrinkled and he didn’t bother hiding any of it.

Shameless.

“You weren’t supposed to see that,” he muttered heedlessly.

A broken laugh escaped me. “You! You were cheating on me! And planning to what? Get rid of me?”

His jaw tightened. “Don’t make this dramatic. You were never meant to be permanent.”

A choked sound left my lungs. “I loved you.”

“And that’s why this is easier.” He sighed disappointedly. 

“Youre a useful tool. Nothing more.”

I stepped back instinctively, toes curling over the edge of the cliff.

“Don’t,” he warned, as if he cared whether I fell.

I wanted to run. 

I wanted to fight.

But he moved first.

One step.

Two.

Then his hand shot out, grasping my arm. 

For a heartbeat, I thought he might pull me into his embrace.

Apologize. 

Pretend he still loved me.

Anything.

“You should’ve known your place, Lucy.”

Please, Adrian.

Instead, he pushed. Hard.

The ground vanished beneath me.

The wind tore a scream from my throat as I plummeted, the sky spinning wildly overhead. 

The sea rushed up, cold and merciless. 

Pain shattered through me, before darkness consumed me.

–

Air rushed into my lungs in a violent gasp. 

My eyes flew open as I clawed on the sheets, coughing as though water still filled my lungs.

Sheets.

Not water.

Not the Hawthorne estate.

I sat up, my heart almost burst out. 

My eyes immediately scanned the room, it was small, cramped. 

Sunlight filtered through the cheap curtains, the wallpaper was peeling slightly at the corners and I instantly knew this place.

My old apartment.

My apartment from seven years ago.

I scrambled to my feet, nearly stumbling. 

The mirror on the wall reflected a version of me I hadn’t seen in years.

Younger.

My phone buzzed on the bedside table.

The date on the lock screen made my stomach drop.

It was seven years before meeting him.

My knees gave out as I sank to the floor, trembling. 

A sob breaking free, burning all the feelings I had left for him.

“I’m alive.”