CHAPTER 1
“Ethan, you either die or I die!”
My scream tore through the rain. The shard in my hand glinted red where it cut into my palm, but I barely felt it.
Ethan just laughed. Low. Dark. Amused.
“Baby,” he said, tilting his head like this was all entertainment, “I tamed you too well. You can’t hurt me. No matter what I do, you can’t.”
My chest rose and fell too fast. My voice trembled, but the anger burned hotter than the pain.
“You framed my parents,” I said. “Two days before our wedding, Ethan. And after everything… after all the years we spent together, you still kept another woman. Someone you planned to marry after you destroyed me. How could you?”
He didn’t even flinch.
Instead, he lifted the glass in his hand and took a slow sip, his eyes glinting with mock sympathy.
“Correction,” he said casually. “I used you. You were a challenge, and I got curious. We made a bet. Eight years ago to break you.”
His lips curved slightly.
“Worth every second.”
For a moment, I couldn’t move.
Rain ran down my face, mixing with the salt of tears I refused to let fall. Everything inside me felt frozen.
Ethan turned away like the conversation was over. Like my life meant nothing.
He walked toward his car, his jacket soaked with rain, his steps calm and unbothered.
“Goodbye, Aria.”
The car door slammed. The engine roared to life. Red taillights glowed through the rain before disappearing into the wet darkness.
The glass slipped from my fingers.
It hit the ground with a soft clink before the rain swallowed the sound.
My breathing turned shallow. The city around me blurred into neon lights, smoke, and betrayal.
I didn’t cry.
I just stood there, empty.
Then a voice cut through the rain.
“Poor child.”
I turned sharply.
An old woman stood beneath a flickering sign across the street. In her hand was a black rose. Her face looked carved by time, deep lines cutting across her skin, but her eyes… her eyes knew too much.
“What?” I whispered.
Her gaze stayed on me.
“You’ll return to the moment your soul first bled,” she said calmly.
A chill crawled up my spine. “What are you talking about?”
“If you stay soft,” she continued, “she’ll take what’s hers.”
Thunder rumbled above us. I looked at her confused, my heart was already bleeding and yet this woman is here saying something that doesn't make sense.
The woman smiled slowly.
“You’ll understand when the glass breaks.”
And then everything slowed.
The raindrops stopped falling.
They hung in the air like tiny crystals.
Headlights appeared at the end of the street, growing brighter.
Screech.
Metal screamed against metal.
My heart slammed against my ribs as I stepped back.
Too late.
A burst of white light swallowed everything.
Pain exploded through my body as I was thrown into the air. For a split second, images flashed through my mind.
My wedding dress.
Ethan’s smirk.
The sound of my own heartbeat… cracking apart.
Then silence.
The last thing I heard was the old woman laughing softly.
Certain.
And the faint whisper of rose petals brushing against the rain.
