Marlow
To end the war between the Marinos and the Valentes, I married Theodore Valente, the first love I'd once walked out on.
On our wedding night, that proud, untouchable man held me and wept.
Night after night, his broad frame covered mine as he made love to me.
Theodore's sweet whispers made me blush, and a secret thrill went through me.
Maybe he still loved me after all.
But then the man I thought loved me did the unthinkable.
He shot my father in the head, right in front of me.
He put cement shoes on my brother and sent him to the bottom of the sea.
He had my mother and sister shaved bald, then handed them over to his bodyguards to abuse however they pleased.
By the time I escaped to save them, the torture had already driven them insane...
My beloved husband looked at me coldly, his voice dripping with scorn.
"Did you really think I still loved you?
"Stop dreaming. You really thought marrying me would erase the humiliation you caused when you walked out on me? Or my hatred for your father after he killed so many members of my family?"
Theodore wouldn't let me die.
If I did, he'd kill my mother and my sister.
He kept me as his wife in name only, yet night after night, he forced me to watch him sleep with a stand-in who looked just like me.
Then the day came when his lover got pregnant.
He grabbed me by the throat.
"Once the baby's born, you and I are getting a divorce. My child won't be a bastard."
I smiled, nodded, and promised I'd cooperate fully.
After all, a doctor had diagnosed me with late-stage stomach cancer just yesterday.
I didn't have another week to live.