Chapter 1
Cops showed up right away, brandishing an official search warrant.
But Damian Black didn't even bat an eye.
"Officers, you've been lied to.
"The whistleblower is Emma Carter, right? She's just a car washer for my team. She's been obsessed with me for years.
"She crippled her legs street racing three years ago, and lately she's developed a severe case of delusion."
In an instant, a hundred camera lenses swiveled as one.
All of them locked straight onto me, sitting in my wheelchair, my palms crusted black with motor oil.
Julia Bennett tucked herself neatly into Damian's arms right on cue and stared at me with pure triumph in her eyes.
"Miss Carter, I know your disability makes you insecure, and I know you've got all these silly fantasies about Damian.
"But how could you file a false police report just to ruin his entire future?"
I glared daggers at those two backstabbing bastards.
My stomach churned so violently I thought I would throw up right there.
"Damian, I am your legally wedded wife!
"When did I become just a damn car washer?"
My hands shook like a leaf as I unlocked my phone and fumbled to pull up our digital marriage certificate.
"I have proof right here..."
"Bang!"
The words weren't even out of my mouth before it happened.
One of Damian's bodyguards drove his boot straight into the side wheel of my wheelchair.
I went tumbling, chair and all, and crashed hard against the polished marble floor.
My phone skidded across the floor, coming to rest a few feet away as the screen shattered on impact.
Damian's lead lawyer immediately stepped in to block the officers.
"As you can see, this mentally ill woman is extremely dangerous. As for her so-called evidence, it's completely fabricated out of thin air."
With the key evidence destroyed, the cops had no choice but to postpone the arrest.
They passed the case over to the FIA and ordered the team to cooperate with further investigation later.
Damian turned to the cameras, his face etched with heartbreak.
"I'm sorry, everyone. I've given her chance after chance, and all I got was more and more vicious lies in return."
"Crunch."
I watched in horror as the bodyguard brought his boot down and crushed my phone to bits.
In a matter of seconds, three years of my life and everything I'd believed about our love were reduced to nothing.
They dumped me inside an abandoned, unheated shipping container behind the race track.
Heavy late-autumn rain hammered down on the tin roof.
I huddled in ice-cold standing water, and the throbbing agony in my broken legs felt like a hundred steel saws dragging back and forth through my bones.
I had no idea how much time passed.
Then the container's iron door crashed open as someone kicked it clean off its latch.
Damian stepped inside, holding a big black umbrella that dripped water onto the floor.
"Does it hurt?"
He slipped off his custom-tailored designer suit jacket.
Then he wrapped it gently around my blood-caked body.
He lowered himself to one knee in the muddy muck.
Using the pad of his finger, he slowly wiped the blood away from the corner of my mouth.
His eyes held that same deep, tender affection I'd craved and clung to for three whole years.
I ground my teeth together so hard my jaw ached and swallowed the bubbling blood that rose in my throat.
"God of Speed. Aren't you afraid of karma?"
He huffed a cold, mocking laugh.
Then he slapped a confirmed diagnosis of severe schizophrenia right into my face.
"Emma, aren't you done making a scene?
"Julia is a top-tier socialite. She can pull billions in sponsorship for me.
"What can a cripple like you even give me? All you're good for is hiding in the basement fixing my cars and tapping at a keyboard."
His fingers clamped down hard on my jaw.
"Since you insist on being such a stubborn pain in the ass..."
He tapped open the tablet in his hand.
On the screen, I saw my apprentice, Liam Smith.
Only nineteen years old.
A deaf-mute orphan.
Three years ago, when I crashed off the cliff in that accident, he was the one who pulled me out of the burning wreckage.
After that, he became the only person I could count on in the entire team.
For three years after I lost the use of my legs, he carried me up and down three flights of stairs to the repair shop every single day.
When the whole internet was calling me a spineless simp for Damian, he was the only one brave enough to step right in front of me and take the heat.
And now, a rusted steel pipe was pressed right over his good, working right hand, held ready to strike.
"Liam's got his advanced mechanic certification exam tomorrow, doesn't he?"
Damian's voice slithered into my ears like a venomous snake.
"Sign the diagnosis paper.
"Or this hand gets turned into mush.
"You know I always keep my word."
I stared at Liam's twisted, screaming face on the screen, and every drop of blood in my veins froze solid.
"I'll sign."
Damian smiled, satisfied.
He patted the top of my head fondly.
"Good girl.
"Cooperate nicely, and you'll still get your next meal."
