I married a monster. The monster wore a kind mask. He said ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ and ‘may I.’ He opened doors and pulled out chairs. The epitome of a gentleman.

But when he came home, that monster tore off his mask and showed his true face. One that would give me nightmares for years to come.

At first, he never laid a finger on me. I was his delicate rosebud, he said. He promised to never bruise my petals.

So he took his anger out on his son, and I watched helplessly as he reduced Ryder to a quaking animal. Again and again, I told myself I would stand up to this monster, but I never did. Instead, I evolved. I tried to outsmart the devil. I was plotting my own selfish escape. I knew sleeping with Ryder would be risky. If it backfired on us, we’d both die. But how else was I supposed to convince a seventeen-year-old boy that this was true love? He was a teenager who thought with his cock, not his brain.

But Ryder, poor, pathetic boy, disappointed me again and again. He wasn’t nearly strong enough to defeat his father. I needed a new champion. Someone just as powerful as Thomas Ainsworth, if not more. Someone who’d rescue me and set me free.

I met Paul Rayner at a dinner party shortly after Thomas and I got married. He seemed like a good man, but then again, didn’t they all?

I never planned to cheat on Thomas, but he forced my hand. He made me beg. He made me cry. He made me scared. Did he expect me to stay with a monster for the rest of my life?

A year into our sham of a marriage, I decided to place my bets on Ryder and Paul. Paul frequently threw lavish parties and invited us Ainsworths to all of them. It was so easy to charm him because his wife was colder than ice, especially inside the bedroom. So, I slept with both my husband’s friend and my stepson in order to have a chance at freedom. I wasn’t proud of what I did, but I did what I had to do. It was self-preservation. I didn’t expect to get pregnant; that had been my mistake. But I soon learned to live with that mistake and use it to my advantage. I told Paul it was his. I told Ryder it was his. I told Thomas it was his. Now the baby belonged to three men, and it would never want for anything again.

But even the best laid plans went awry. Paul didn’t want to keep it. Thomas wanted a son. Ryder was the only one who was excited about my pregnancy, but he was broke and jobless. He had no means of supporting us. Still, moving out with Ryder and divorcing Thomas was better than staying in that prison we called ‘home.’ How was I to know that Ryder would betray me?

For the next twenty years, I swallowed my anguish and played the perfect housewife. Waited out my prison sentence. Bided my time until Rayner would finally leave his wife, Celeste. But he never did, and I remained caged. Trapped under Thomas’s thumb. Of course, Paul helped me once in a while, mostly if I asked for money, but he never wanted to be seen in public with me or the baby. That’s when I came up with a new plan. Once I was out of prison, I told Paul that I could arrange playdates between Cally and Ori. They were only a few years apart in age. I convinced him that it’d be good for the two sisters to play together and become friends. So reluctantly, Paul arranged for weekend playdates, and sleepovers, and eventually, Paul transferred to Ashland for a few years, and the girls became best friends. They even went to elementary and middle school together. Everyone thought they were sisters.

I knew sooner or later I’d be able to slide into Paul’s life and become the woman I was always meant to be. A Rayner matriarch. Queen of a billion-dollar empire. I’d marry Paul and become one of the wealthiest women in the world. I’d care for Cally as if she was my own, and he would finally divorce his cold wife who never gave him an ounce of pleasure. My happily ever after was within reach. So close I could smell it between the sheets. But it never happened.

I kept waiting, and the years dragged on. Ori transformed from a sunny toddler to a brooding middle schooler. She was bullied, and though my heart warmed to see Cally remain her friend, I knew it wasn’t fair that Ori suffer for her mother’s mistakes. And it wasn’t fair that I suffered because of Ryder’s betrayal. So the year Ori turned eighteen, I begged and pleaded for Paul to help me find Ryder. I wanted Ryder to suffer the same way I did, and Paul was powerful enough to grant my wish. He took pity on me, and with his vast resources, my plan was set in motion.

It didn’t take long before Paul’s men tracked Ryder down. He was working some low-life job at a motel. He’d never gone to college and hadn’t made anything of his pathetic life. Paul promised me he’d make Ryder suffer, but that it would take several months. I had no problem waiting several months. After all, what was several months compared to the last twenty years?

Paul personally offered Ryder a ludicrous job at his company. He paid my stepson well, and Ryder bought it all, hook, line, and sinker. Once Paul had Ryder eating out of his hand, I told him the next step of my plan. Of course, when I suggested we use Ori, he vehemently opposed the idea. Not only were they practically family, he said, but he did not want to allow Ryder to interact with our precious daughter. But I convinced Paul that if we hired a different woman, there would be too many unknown variables, which would make the plan more likely to fail. Ori was loyal, and loyalty couldn’t be bought with money.

So we used our daughter as bait. I just hadn’t expected her to get hurt in the process.

I had to admit, it was partially Ori’s fault. She’d gotten greedy. She saw the nice cars Cally drove and the expensive parties Paul threw for his legitimate daughter. Ori got jealous, as any young woman would. She wanted more from her biological father. She wanted more money, nicer things, a better life. And why shouldn’t she want those things? Why should she live in an abusive and broken household while her sister lived like royalty? Didn’t she deserve her share of Paul’s wealth and affection? Wasn’t she his flesh and blood, too?

So while she was interning for Paul, my poor baby decided to offer her father an ultimatum: tell the world that she was his daughter, or she would tell the press herself. Paul scoffed at the idea, and Ori grew desperate. Paul felt threatened and offered her an ultimatum in return: disappear off the face of the planet, or go to jail for extortion and blackmail. Panicked and defeated, Orielle ran away from home, and that was the last I’d heard of her. Until nine days ago, when she showed up, pregnant, starving, and all alone, seeking shelter from a place she once called home. But things were different now, she just didn’t know it. Thomas had gotten Alzheimer’s and was put into a care home. He was no longer a threat anymore. Orielle and I were supposed to finally be free. We were going to use all our savings to start a new life in Mexico.

But as fate would have it, Ryder Ainsworth came thundering back into our lives and stole everything from me all over again.

This time, I wasn’t sure I could get it all back.