THE TYRANT'S CONTRACT BRIDE

"Ah...Alex! Please be gentle! Oh, God!!"

A seductive, feminine moan shattered the silence, causing Serena's world to grind to a crashing halt.

She stood frozen, unable to process the tangled, passionate embrace unfolding before her very eyes.

It was as if someone had pressed the pause button on reality. All she could do was watch in numb shock as her entire life shattered into jagged shards around her.

She saw the rapturous expression on Alex's face, the way he held the other woman with such achingly familiar yet utterly foreign intimacy.

It felt like an out-of-body experience, like she was watching some horrible scene in a movie she couldn't turn off or fast-forward through.

All she wanted was to escape, to run away from this fresh hell, but her body simply refused to obey her mental commands.

"Oh, Alex! I can't imagine you this intimate with that loser," the woman gasped between breathy moans, her words mingling obscenely with the sounds of frantically writhing bodies and the creaking of the bed frame.

"Diana..." Alex grunted, his voice a low rumble of pleasure. "Leave Serena out of this for now! You're the one I love and want to spend my life with."

Those words detonated like a grenade at Serena's feet, the shrapnel of their impact shredding what little remained of her heart.

Hot tears streamed down her cheeks as she watched the man she loved wrapped up in another woman's arms, utterly oblivious to her presence.

She squeezed her eyes shut, focusing every ounce of her willpower on calming her ragged breaths and the tremors wracking her body. Slowly, through sheer force of will, she regained a tentative hold on her whirlwind of emotions.

That's when the final, devastating piece clicked into place.

Diana?

Was Alex really having an affair...with her supposed best friend? Her trusted confidante and sister in all but blood?

A fresh wave of nausea and dizzying vertigo slammed into Serena as the full, horrific reality crashed over her like a tsunami.

Her heart raced, her head spun, and she struggled just to remain upright as she processed this ultimate betrayal.

She couldn't believe that this was the same girl she had loved like family, the one person outside of Alex that she trusted above all others.

How could Diana do this to her? How could someone she held so dear violate that bond in such a cruel, unconscionable way?

At that moment, Serena simply didn't know how to react. She was numb, paralyzed by the all-consuming storm of hurt, anger, and disbelief raging within her.

Clap...clap...clap.

The mocking sound of Serena's slow, deliberate applause shattered the lurid tableau, finally alerting the oblivious lovers to her presence.

They froze in comically stunned poses, like erotic statues.

Alex snapped his head around to face her, disbelief and naked panic written across his features.

His expression was a sickening mixture of shock and like he'd just been caught red-handed in the most despicable of crimes. His face drained of color, his eyes widening in abject horror as his mouth worked uselessly.

How the hell was she here?

"Serena!" he finally managed to croak out. "It’s not what you think. I can explain!"

The flimsy lie was almost enough to break through Serena's numb haze and ignite her fury anew.

She could no longer contain her anger, her hurt, her disgust at this bald-faced hypocrisy.

She dashed forward, putting every ounce of her weight behind a vicious slap that caught Alex square across the cheek.

The sharp crack of impact echoed through the bedroom like a gunshot, the explosive sound shockingly loud in the stillness that followed. Alex stumbled backward, clutching his face in stunned agony, his eyes filled with a very different kind of pain now.

Serena could see the angry red welt already blooming across his skin, a visceral reminder of her fury and his ultimate betrayal.

She stood there, chest heaving with exertion and emotion, her palm still stinging from the force of the slap.

She couldn't believe what she had just done...what he had driven her to do with his reprehensible actions.

The tears she had been fighting so hard to hold back finally broke through in a torrent, cascading down her cheeks in an unstoppable stream.

"After everything we've been through?" she choked out, her voice trembling with the force of her hurt and anger. How could he do this to her, to them?

Serena turned her burning gaze to Diana then, unable to even look at Alex any longer. The other woman stared back, completely devoid of remorse or guilt. In fact, she looked...proud? Smug, even, as if she had won some grand prize rather than betraying her closest friend in the most vile way imaginable.

"And you..." Serena's words caught in her constricted throat as a fresh wave of anguish slammed into her. "Diana...how could you?"

"Serena, please stop. This isn't new anymore," Diana said calmly as if she didn't grasp the gravity of the situation. "Alex and I love each other. It's not my fault you were too blind to see it."

Serena laughed bitterly at the irony of it all. A whirlwind of thoughts and emotions raced through her head as she tried to process the magnitude of this betrayal by her husband and so-called best friend.

What kind of punishment could possibly fit such a heinous act?

She clenched her fists, trying to contain the fury boiling up from deep within.