“Amanda… what are you saying?”

  She wiped the tears from her cheeks, her gaze steely as she stared him down. “I love Ryan, and if you try to stop me, I’ll do something you can’t control. I’ll take my life.”

  Harold’s jaw clenched, the color draining from his face. He had never seen Amanda like this, so unyielding, so broken. For a moment, the control he always held so tightly over her life slipped through his fingers. He knew she wasn’t bluffing, not this time.

  “Fine,” Harold said, his voice strained. “If this is what you want, then so be it. Marry him.”

  Amanda’s breath caught in her throat. She had won, but at what cost? She had forced her father’s hand, but the look in his eyes told her that this victory came with a price—one she would have to pay eventually.

  A few months later, Amanda and Ryan were married in a modest ceremony, far from the grand spectacle her father would have preferred. The tension between Amanda and her family was palpable, but she stood by Ryan, believing that love would carry them through.

  For a while, it seemed to work. They had moments of happiness, where it felt like they had beaten the odds, where love truly seemed like enough. But everything changed the day Ryan’s mother died.

  The loss shattered him in ways he couldn’t fully comprehend. His mother had been his anchor, the one person who had always supported him no matter what. Without her, the world felt unsteady, and Ryan’s grief began to drive a wedge between him and Amanda. The once carefree, passionate love they shared was now strained by the weight of sorrow and unresolved emotions.

  Harold had seen the opportunity and seized it. The cracks in Ryan and Amanda’s relationship widened, and before long, Amanda’s father began to sow doubts in her mind, convincing her that Ryan’s inability to recover from his mother’s death was proof that he wasn’t strong enough for her, that he couldn’t give her the life she deserved.

  Amanda, vulnerable and emotionally exhausted, started to believe him. The love she had fought so hard to protect began to erode, slipping away like sand through her fingers.

  ***

  Stolen novel; please report.

  Back in the present, Ryan couldn’t stop replaying the events in his mind. He just couldn’t put the puzzle pieces together anymore. How had everything fallen apart so quickly? How had the woman he loved, the one who had fought her own father to be with him, become so cold, so distant?

  The truth was elusive, slipping through his thoughts as he sat on the edge of the bed, staring out of the window of the small guest house Amanda had confined him to. The memories of her betrayal stung like salt in an open wound, but the more he thought about it, the more he realized something deeper was at play. He was missing something—a part of the story he didn’t know yet. And that uncertainty gnawed at him.

  His phone buzzed on the table, pulling him from his thoughts. It was his supervisor from work.

  “Mr. Sinclair,” the voice on the other end said, sounding apologetic, “I’m sorry, but the CEO has declined your submission. He… well, he didn’t think it met the company’s standards. You’ll have to start from scratch by tomorrow morning.”

  Ryan sighed heavily, his head falling into his hands. He had been expecting that. With everything going on in his personal life, his work had suffered. And now, even the career he had fought so hard to build up was slipping away from him, just like everything else.

  “Understood,” he said flatly before hanging up.

  It was another blow in a series of failures that had been piling up ever since his marriage began to fall apart. Once upon a time, Ryan had been full of hope and ambition, believing he could conquer anything. But now, all he felt was exhaustion and defeat.

  He leaned back against the wall, closing his eyes as the weight of his collapsing world bore down on him. Something had to give—he couldn’t keep living like this. But the answers to how it had all gone so wrong still eluded him.

  As he sat there in the silence, the gnawing feeling returned. There was something he was missing, something just beyond his reach, waiting to be discovered.

  Ryan dragged his tired body to the bathroom, his muscles aching from the weight of exhaustion. He splashed cold water on his face, trying to shake off the heaviness that had settled in his chest. His reflection stared back at him from the mirror—hollow eyes, unkempt hair, and a shadow of the man he used to be. Amanda hadn’t spoken to him all day. It wasn’t unusual; she had barely acknowledged his existence for months now, treating him like an invisible stain in her life. Just for her to come and talk about divorce.

  Once, they’d shared a bed, a life filled with laughter and tenderness. Now, she found him disgusting. Amanda had relegated him to the guest room, as though he was some unwanted burden she couldn’t rid herself of fast enough. Ryan swallowed the lump in his throat and changed into his worn-out clothes. He lay on the thin, uncomfortable mattress, hoping for a night of peace, even though he knew better. The silence in the house was suffocating, but it was the best he could hope for.

  Just as sleep began to pull him under, the loud, violent sound of knocking echoed through the small room. His eyes shot open, groggy and disoriented. The clock read 5:45 a.m.—not even morning yet. The knocking persisted, growing louder, more aggressive.

  With a groan, Ryan dragged himself out of bed, blinking away the sleep as he stumbled toward the door. The moment he unlocked it, the door was yanked open, and a sharp, stinging slap hit him across the face.

  His head snapped to the side as his cheek burned from the force of the blow. His vision blurred for a moment before he looked up, only to find his mother-in-law, Gloria Hargrave, standing in front of him, her eyes blazing with fury. She was still in her nightgown, her hair pulled back messily, but her rage was palpable.

  “You disgusting pig!” she spat, her voice shrill and venomous. “How dare you use your filthy, dirty body to touch my daughter’s car?”

  Ryan stood there, frozen, his mind struggling to catch up with her words. “W-what?”

  “You heard me,” Gloria hissed, stepping closer, her finger jabbing into his chest. “Amanda had an important meeting at 7 a.m. She has to be at the company in less than an hour, and do you know what she found? *Do you?!*”