Chapter 5
Ten years ago, Ethan and I had just graduated from Columbia. Full of ambition, we launched our own tech startup.
Our dreams were grand, but reality proved brutal.
Just as we started gaining traction, we were sabotaged by competitors.
Ethan was framed and imprisoned on fraud charges.
Desperate and out of options, I approached our main competitor.
I offered anything–anything–if they would drop the charges against Ethan.
Three days later, I was admitted to the hospital, my body covered in bruises.
Soon after, Ethan was released.
But with his freedom came a video sent by our competitors.
The footage showed me naked and kneeling, being degraded and violated by three men.
Ethan destroyed our apartment in rage, holding me as he sobbed uncontrollably.
He swore he would kill them.
He promised to marry me and spend his life making it up to me.
Later, he made good on both promises.
Lockwood Tech is no longer the five–person startup we began with.
Ethan patiently rebuilt, enduring humiliation and making connections, often drinking himself into oblivion at business
dinners.
He sacrificed his pride, methodically becoming someone that even Wall Street’s sharks feared crossing.
Six years ago, on the day our company went public, he proposed to me, brimming with excitement.
I refused.
I didn’t want him to marry me out of guilt or pity.
In my darkest moments, the humiliation from that night replayed like a horror movie I couldn’t escape.
It tortured me day after day.
I felt tainted, unworthy of anyone’s love.
36.4%
Chapter 1
espresto m
Onner in
ory ion days sp
Finally, on his thirty–third attempt, I said yes.
He warded to announce it to the world, but I stopped him.
I was too afraid.
I worried that public congratulations would somehow jinx our happiness.
Selfishly and cautiously, I immersed myself in his love.
Gradually, I healed, learning to make peace with myself and my past.
My nights were no longer filled with nightmares of falling into an abyss but with the warmth of his embrace
But five short years later, the man who once called me the most beautiful woman in the world now implied I was dirty and damaged.
The man who had silenced everyone who knew about the incident now actually used my trauma as foreplay, carelessly sharing my humiliated video with his mistress.
♡ (0)
(0)
40.9%
