Filed To Story: The Broken-Hearted She and The Icy He Book PDF Free
There will be time later.
Once she was officially married, half of Victor’s fortune would be hers. And with her beauty and charm, she was certain she could ensnare him completely.
Then, once she had him wrapped around her finger, she would walk into the Luke estate whenever she pleased.
She would make sure Lily’s child never saw the light of day. The pain, the humiliation she had suffered today-she would repay it a thousandfold.
“Forgive me.”
After Marilyn left, Victor turned to Lily, his shame so deep it etched pain into his features.
“It’s nothing,” Lily answered quietly.
She couldn’t blame Victor.
Still, something nagged at her. The whole situation felt strange. Last night, in the hotel-she wasn’t entirely convinced the woman had been Marilyn at all.
But with the surveillance cameras conveniently broken, and Marilyn discovered unclothed at Victor’s side, her suspicion remained just that-a suspicion.
Victor was determined to take responsibility. There was nothing she could say to stop him.
“You-“
Henry clutched his chest, nearly choking on his fury.
He had always thought his eldest grandson, obsessed with finding a bride to give him a great-grandson, was the most troublesome. But today he realized-the real disaster was the second grandson.
“You fool!” Henry barked, gasping for breath. “Do you see what you’ve brought into this house? I’d rather you had bedded a pig-or a dog!”
A pig or a dog…
It was crude, but not a single member of the Luke family disagreed. Even if Victor’s tastes had been that depraved, it would still have been better than Marilyn.
Ivan, still reeling from discovering she had even stolen clothing, dragged a hand down his face in exasperation.
If Victor really married Marilyn, even if they lived away from the estate, sooner or later she’d be back.
What if she decided to steal his things?
Unthinkable.
“You should’ve called me last night,” Ivan muttered, leaning against the wall, utterly defeated. “Even if I had to find you a man, it would’ve been better than being shackled to a thief like Marilyn.”
Victor’s gaze was heavy, unreadable.
Grandfather wanted him to settle for livestock, Ivan suggested men…
Never mind. He wouldn’t argue.
The truth was harsh enough: Marilyn, selfish and scheming, was still a burden he could no longer shake.
Not a pig. Not a dog. Not a man.
But her.
And he had no choice but to shoulder it.
After leaving the bridal shop, Simon phoned John, urging him to look after Elsa.
John flatly refused.
But when he left the office that evening, he found himself driving toward the luxury apartment in the city center he had once given Elsa.
She had returned to the country with one final wish-to marry him. He had given her a wedding, placed Lily’s hand-stitched gown in her arms, even slipped onto her finger the diamond ring Lily had commissioned for herself.
The ring was carved on the inside with his and Lily’s initials, a design Lily had loved deeply.
Now he wanted it back, to place it where it belonged-on Lily’s hand.
Having stayed with Elsa when she’d been unwell, he still remembered the door code.
The lights in the living room were on. She was home.
He stepped inside, heading straight for her bedroom.
The door was ajar, open just a crack-enough for him to glimpse a man with a scar slashed across his left brow, his hands clamped mercilessly around Elsa’s throat.
John’s heart lurched.
He no longer wanted entanglement with Elsa, but he could not stand by and watch her strangled before his eyes.
He opened his mouth, instinctively ready to shout-
But before John could shout a word, the scarred man sneered viciously.
“Slut. Didn’t expect me to come back alive, did you?”
“Didn’t expect that while I was recovering, you’d plant such a massive green hat on me!”
“And that John-what a pathetic fool!”
John froze where he stood, his foot lifted but unable to move forward, his body petrified like stone.
The man’s words poured over him like ice.
Elsa had said she loved only him. That she’d been forced overseas, torn from him against her will. That she’d suffered alone, endured so much pain that she’d fallen ill with late-stage stomach cancer.
She had sworn she had spent those years in misery, pining for him, dreaming only of reunion.
But this man’s mocking laughter cut those illusions to shreds.
She hadn’t been alone at all. She had married him-climbed into his bed without hesitation, chasing wealth and status.
All the while, John had pitied her, cherished her lies as though they were truths. And in that pity, he had lost the one woman who had given him her whole heart.
Pain. Regret. Shame.
Emotions crashed through him like a tidal wave, drowning his chest, scorching his soul. It was as if he had fallen into an endless hell, unable to live, unable to die.
The liar he had treasured/
The woman who had loved him truly, he had betrayed.
What had he done?
His thoughts spiraled in torment when Elsa’s choked voice broke through.
“Hudson, you lunatic, let me go!”
Hudson-her husband-was no man but a monster. Violent, bloodthirsty, twisted. Every time he touched her, it was with cruelty, leaving her battered and bleeding.
Even their wedding night had ended with her too broken to leave bed for days.
Four years of marriage, and she had lived marked with bruises and scars, her body never free from pain.
Now, as his hands crushed her throat, the terror of those years surged back like a tide, suffocating her.
She knew with chilling certainty-this devil could kill her.
Clawing at his wrists, she rasped desperately, “John still cares for me! I’m still Simon’s savior! Hudson, John and Simon’s power isn’t beneath yours. If anything happens to me, they’ll destroy you!”
“Hah! Threatening me?”
Hudson laughed, a sound cold enough to freeze the air. He loathed threats above all else.
That Elsa, once so meek, would dare bare her teeth at him-it amused him, made his smile even crueller.
New Book: Returned To Make Them Pay
On her wedding anniversary, Alicia is drugged and stumbles into the wrong room—straight into the arms of the powerful Caden Ward, a man rumored never to touch women. Their night of passion shocks even him, especially when he discovers she’s still a virgin after two years of marriage to Joshua Yates.