He threw money on the bed after our one-night stand.
I threw it back in his face at his own inauguration.
By sundown, we were engaged. By the week's end — married.
Franklin Flemington needed a wife to secure his empire. I needed a miracle to save my family. For two years, we played our parts flawlessly — the golden couple the whole city envied.
Behind closed doors, I was invisible to him.
When the two years were up, I handed him divorce papers without blinking.
He stared at me like I'd lost my mind. "I've given you everything a husband should. What more do you want from me, Octavia?"
I smiled, signed my name, and walked out.
I thought that was the end. I thought I'd finally won.
I forgot one thing — Franklin Flemington has never lost anything in his life. And he has no intention of starting with me.
Game on.

They didn't rush us. That was the first detail I cataloged through the feverish haze of my mind. They didn't come in like a rescue party, shouting names or waving markers; they moved with the slow, predatory deliberation of men who knew they held every card in the deck.


I stayed pinned to the muddy earth, forcing my breathing to remain shallow and ragged. I let my eyes flutter, projecting a vulnerability that wasn't entirely an act. Pain still pulsed through my leg in rhythmic, sickening waves, dulled only slightly by Raquel's makeshift medical work. I leaned into it, letting my head lol to the side, playing the part of the broken elite. If they saw me as a threat, they'd kill me. If they saw me as a carcass, they'd leave me. But if they saw me as an asset? That was the only path to survival.


Chapter 191 - ~ 191