Melissa sat curled on the edge of her bed, the soft glow of her cell phone screen illuminating her tired face. Her eyes lingered on the old family picture—the one where her mother held her tight, smiles frozen in time. A small smile touched her lips, bittersweet and fragile. She closed her eyes, whispering a quiet thank-you to the universe—for the strength, the courage, and the voice she had finally found to stand against Alec, to protect her mother.
She believed she had done something brave—something right.
But what Melissa didn’t know was that the war had only just begun. While she sat in solitude, thinking she had taken the upper hand, the storm was already swirling behind her back. Alec wasn’t broken. He wasn’t tamed. He was wounded, enraged—and dangerous. The wound she’d reopened, t
