All Chapters of A Vow For Vengeance: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

They let me out sooner than I expected. Timothy’s grace had something to do with it. The grace had also extended to him, arranging a car to pick me up from the facility and bring me to the small apartment in Capitol Hall.For the first few weeks, I had done what I was expected to do. I kept my head down and stayed out of sight. Even when I wasn’t doing much else, I kept one eye on Timothy. There were no dramatic confrontations or explosive revelations. Just quiet and careful watching.I set up Google Alerts under fake names to catch any news about him or his businesses. I followed the company’s press releases, skimmed through social media accounts of people connected to him, his lawyers, business partners, even his private driver’s niece, who posted a little too often. But I got nothing concrete. No scandals, no secrets. Only the polished surface, Timothy wanted the world to see. And for some reason, there was no news about me. It was like I didn’t exist.Months had slipped by since I

I didn’t answer right away. How could I? The words “Marry me” were what I least expected to hear from him. The words also ricocheted off every scar and memory I’d tried to bury.I stared at my hands. My knuckles were already white against the linen napkin. I could feel the ghost of his proposal in the air between us. It was just so impossible to ignore.He can’t be serious. I thought. He knows what this would mean. What it would cost for both of us.I tried to picture it. Anderson and I, married. Not as reckless teenagers sneaking out after a curfew, or avoiding the disapproving looks of their parents, but as adults, battered by the world and their family. Since I didn’t have any. The thought was just so ridiculous that I almost laughed. Almost. But I didn’t laugh. It wasn’t something to laugh about. Then it seemed that my mind had gaslit me. Maybe I had heard the wrong thing. He probably said something else and thought it was that. I asked, so I could clarify that my mind wasn’t

Sleep eluded me.Maybe it was the thin mattress pressing against my back. Maybe it was the relentless drone of the fridge down the hall. Or maybe it was the knowledge that by morning, I’d be leaving this place behind.Anderson’s words replayed in my mind. I was leaving. And Anderson didn’t bluff.The first light filtered through the curtains, slicing the bare walls with golden streaks. I sat up with my gritty eyes as I thought of the coming day. And honestly, the months I had spent here felt like a lifetime.I slid my bare feet onto the frayed carpet. My suitcase lay tucked beneath the bed. It was shoved there months ago with anger. The same one I’d arrived with after the release.I pulled it out, and the zipper caught on the fabric as if resisting the inevitable departure.I moved to the closet. There wasn’t much to sort. Half the clothes no longer fit, either in size or in memory. Some relics of my past life. The rest were cheap replacements that were bought in haste and necessity.

The drive to the Ellsworth mansion felt like being transported back in time.I pressed my palms against my thighs, smoothing the fabric of the navy dress Anderson had subtly suggested I wear out of the pile his personal shopper had bought for me despite my disapproval.Conservative but elegant, he had said, though his eyes had lingered on me in a way that suggested the choice wasn’t entirely about his mother’s sensibilities.“You are nervous,” Anderson observed, his voice cutting through the hum of the engine.I glanced at him wide-eyed. His eyes weren’t on me, they were focused ahead, but somehow still attuned to every shift in my breathing.“Shouldn’t I be?” I asked, though we both knew the answer.His jaw tightened almost imperceptibly. “My mother can be… intense.”Intense. I thought as I looked out of the window. Such a diplomatic word for a woman like Lady Eugenia Ellsworth. She was simply the epitome of a formidable matriarch who’d naturally disapprove of her son’s sudden relati

I had no recollection of how I had finally managed to fall asleep last night. Ever since everything came crashing down in my life, I had rarely had the opportunity to sleep in the same bed with someone else in a long while.I was very nervous at first. It was impossible not to be when Aderson was lying three feet away from me, breathing steadily in the darkness.He had dozed off sooner than I expected, such that I couldn’t help being surprised.The massive four-poster bed might as well have been a football field for all the distance we’d maintained between us. That didn’t bother me though.The wedding candles that Francesca and other staff had lit in the room wept silently as time moved on. At that moment, the bedroom held no air of romance, nor flaming affection, but a kind of neutral warmth and comfort.It felt like all the deep-rooted hatred and ruthless cruelty had been softened by the lightness of the celebration, reduced to nothing more than a faint trace of smoke and fire.I sl