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Chapter Thirty-Nine: The Walls Are Closing In
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2025-05-07 14:19:00The silence in the car was suffocating. Even the soft hum of the engine sounded like a scream in my ears. I kept my eyes on the road, hands tightly clenched around the steering wheel, but my mind was miles away—lost in a whirlwind of memories, suspicions, and pain.
Victor’s betrayal had shattered something inside me. Not just the illusion of love, but the core of who I was. And now, every interaction felt laced with hidden meanings. Every word, every look, every missed call. I didn’t know what was real anymore.I pulled into the driveway, the house looming ahead like a haunted shell. It used to be my sanctuary. Now, it felt like a trap. As I stepped inside, the scent of lavender from the diffuser hit me—a scent I used to love. Now it made my stomach turn.I dropped my bag on the hallway bench and walked into the living room. The framed photos on the wall caught my eye. Smiling faces. A perfect family. A perfect lie.I tore my gaze away, swallowing the lump in my thro
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Ifunanya07Elena There’s a kind of silence in marriage that feels more suffocating than a scream. Not the silence of peace—but the silence of secrets. That’s the kind of silence I’ve been living in. To everyone else, I’m Elena Hart. Accomplished. Beautiful. Successful. A woman with a dream career in psychiatry, a picture-perfect home, a husband most women would envy, and a life that gleams from the outside like polished glass. But anyone who’s ever touched glass knows how easily it shatters. That morning, I did what I always do. I got up before him, prepared his favorite breakfast—sourdough toast, scrambled eggs with truffle oil, and black coffee—and dressed in the soft silk robe he bought me in Paris. Everything was exactly as he liked it. I set the table. The flowers were fresh. The morning sun filtered through the sheer curtains, warm and golden. Perfection. At least on the surface. Daniel walked in like he always did—confident, composed, already halfway into the version of
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Shattered Vows Chapter Thirty-Nine: The Walls Are Closing In
The silence in the car was suffocating. Even the soft hum of the engine sounded like a scream in my ears. I kept my eyes on the road, hands tightly clenched around the steering wheel, but my mind was miles away—lost in a whirlwind of memories, suspicions, and pain.Victor’s betrayal had shattered something inside me. Not just the illusion of love, but the core of who I was. And now, every interaction felt laced with hidden meanings. Every word, every look, every missed call. I didn’t know what was real anymore.I pulled into the driveway, the house looming ahead like a haunted shell. It used to be my sanctuary. Now, it felt like a trap. As I stepped inside, the scent of lavender from the diffuser hit me—a scent I used to love. Now it made my stomach turn.I dropped my bag on the hallway bench and walked into the living room. The framed photos on the wall caught my eye. Smiling faces. A perfect family. A perfect lie.I tore my gaze away, swallowing the lump in my thro
Shattered Vows Chapter Thirty-Eight The Calm Before the Reckoning
ElenaI used to believe the sky offered freedom.But now, flying thousands of feet above the ground, all I could feel was the pressure—on my chest, my thoughts, my future.Noah lay curled against me in the small cabin seat, his little hand resting on my lap like an anchor. The soft hum of the jet did nothing to quiet the storm still raging in my head.Kate sat across from us, arms folded, gaze fixed on the clouds. She hadn’t said a word since we took off, but her mind was clearly racing. I could see it in the way her jaw tightened with every passing second.“Where are we going?” I asked finally, breaking the silence.“Zurich. Safehouse. Temporary. I have contacts there,” she replied without looking at me.“And then what? Do we keep running for the rest of our lives?”“No. Once the files go viral—and they will—we’ll have leverage. They’ll be too busy covering their tracks to chase us.”I scoffed. “That’s naive. Jason’s not the type to let go. And n
Shattered Vows Chapter Thirty-Seven Nowhere Left to Hide
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Shattered Vows Chapter Thirty-Six Face to Face
ElenaThere she was—standing at the edge of the woods like a phantom I couldn’t banish. Kate. Dressed in black from head to toe, her blonde hair pulled into a tight braid, and a cruel smirk curling her lips.I froze at the window, heart hammering against my ribcage. My fingers gripped the curtain tighter, barely breathing as I stared at her.How had she found me?This cabin was supposed to be untraceable. Daniel had assured me that no one—not even the government—could track us here.But Kate wasn’t just anyone.I slowly backed away from the window. Noah was still asleep on the couch, curled up under a fleece blanket with his stuffed bear tucked beside him. Oblivious. Safe—for now.I had two choices: hide or confront her.I chose the latter.I grabbed the knife I had slept with under my pillow, slipped on my boots, and stepped out into the morning chill.She didn’t flinch when I approached. She stood perfectly still, as if she’d been waiting fo
Shattered Vows Chapter Thirty-Five The Road to Nowhere
ElenaThere’s something eerily liberating about driving away from everything you’ve ever known.With each mile that passed, the weight of Westbrooke lifted a little more from my shoulders. But it didn’t leave me feeling lighter. It left me raw—like skin exposed to cold wind after a burn. I was escaping, yes. But escape didn’t feel like freedom. It felt like survival.Noah had fallen asleep in the backseat hours ago, his head resting against his bear, his breath soft and steady. I envied him at that moment—his innocence, his trust that I could protect him from a world that had turned so violently unpredictable.The GPS Daniel gave me led to a remote cabin nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Secluded. Unlisted. Rented under a pseudonym. He told me it belonged to an old friend, someone who owed him a favor. I didn’t ask questions. I didn’t want to know the details. Not this time.I just wanted to breathe.It was nearly dawn when I pulled into the gravel drivewa
Shattered Vows Chapter Thirty-Four When the Lies Become Flesh
ElenaThere’s something terrifying about being told you’re being watched—and then seeing proof of it.I stared at the grainy photo Daniel handed me again. Me and Noah, a seemingly ordinary day, immortalized by someone hiding behind a lens with god knows what intention. There was a red circle around my son’s face. The apples he held were blurry. His smile wasn’t.It turned my stomach.“Who took this?” I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.Daniel shifted in the seat across from me, his jaw tight. “We’re still trying to figure that out. But they’re careful. This was left anonymously outside Jason’s office door this morning in an unmarked envelope.”“Why him?” I frowned. “He’s not even—he’s not—”“Because they want to rattle you. And they knew that rattling him might be faster.”I stood from my desk, pacing the floor. “So what do you want me to do, Daniel? Go to the police? They already made it clear I’m not a priority. I’m just the woman who survived
Shattered Vows Chapter Thirty-Three Shadows That Never Leave
ElenaI couldn’t sleep.Even with Noah tucked in safely and the doors locked tight, my mind kept spinning. Kate—hovering near Jason’s building. Jason—paranoid, spiraling. Jessica—showing up out of nowhere like a ghost from a life I’d buried.Was this the beginning of another storm? Or had it never really passed?I stood by the window, arms wrapped around myself, watching the wind play with the branches outside. My thoughts were a mess of memories and warnings—Kate’s smug threats, Jason’s desperate voicemail, and Jessica’s haunted eyes.The thing about trauma is, it never truly leaves. It just changes shape.It becomes the silence between breaths, the twitch of doubt when everything seems too quiet. The ghosts don’t go away. They just wait. Lurking.And tonight, I felt them watching me.My phone buzzed on the table.Unknown Number.For a moment, I stared at it, heart hammering. I should’ve let it go. But instincts born from heartbreak and betra
Shattered Vows Chapter Thirty-Two The Calm Before Another Storm
ElenaMornings used to be the hardest.They reminded me of everything I’d lost—waking up in a bed that once held two, making breakfast for a family that had shattered, forcing a smile in front of a child who watched me far too closely.But lately, something has shifted. The silence no longer echoed with grief. It just… was.Peaceful. Simple.And mine.I stirred Noah’s oatmeal as sunlight filtered through the kitchen window. He sat at the island, swinging his legs, humming a tune from the animated movie he’d been obsessed with all week.“Don’t forget your math book,” I reminded him, handing over a lunchbox. “You left it on the coffee table last night.”He groaned. “Why can’t I just skip school and become a YouTuber?”“Because YouTubers still need to know how to count.”He made a face, but I saw the smile tugging at the corner of his lips.It was moments like this that made every sleepless night worth it.I’d finally found a rhythm, a fr
