Filed To Story: The Broken-Hearted She and The Icy He Book PDF Free
His pale blue-ringed pupils locked on her with bone-chilling malice, as if he weren’t holding a living woman, but a corpse with no worth.
He squeezed harder, his laughter ringing with mockery.
“John… hah!”
“I heard you came back and suddenly claimed you had late-stage stomach cancer, you were dying?” that
“Tell me what would that fool John do if he learned your grand performance, your supposed death sentence, was nothing but an act? Would he still cradle you like a treasure, still throw his life away for you?”
What?
John’s eyes flew wide, blood vessels bursting red across them like cracks in glass.
Elsa’s cancer… an act?
His gut screamed the truth-this wasn’t a bluff.
She had lied.
If Elsa had never loved him, if her “illness” had been fabricated, then what had he done?
He had staged a wedding for her, handed her Lily’s hand-sewn gown, her parents’ heirloom, and the ring carved with their initials-everything meant for Lily, all to appease a fraud.
He had trampled Lily’s love, her pain, for the sake of a selfish, deceitful woman.
“Don’t you dare!”
Elsa’s eyes flickered wildly.
Simon knew her illness was a lie, but he had always protected her. With her tears, she had made him swear to keep her secret from John.
She did care for John-at least a little.
And now, with him already turning cold, already pulling away, she couldn’t bear to imagine his face if he learned the truth-that her “love,” her “last wish,” her “suffering” had been nothing but performance.
Hudson’s gaze burned with cruelty, and Elsa’s heart skipped hard against her ribs. Her voice faltered, softening into fear.
“Hudson, you can’t treat me like this! We’re husband and wife, we’re one. I know your company’s been in trouble these years… if John keeps caring for me, I can use the money he gives me to help you-“
“Hah!”
Hudson’s laughter cut her off, sharp and mocking.
Yes, she was his wife. Which meant everything Simon or John gave her also belonged to him. His company was bleeding cash, true, but why should he beg her? A few beatings, and she would hand over what he wanted.
His lips twisted in a cruel smile. “Simon’s savior, are you?”
His tone turned venomous.
“You stole the jade pendant Simon gave to Lily when they were children. You wore it, pretended to be her, and claimed her place in his life. That’s your big ‘heroic deed’? Elsa, you’re as filthy and shameless as ever.”
Bitch!
The curse burned at the back of Elsa’s throat, but she dared not say it. Not when defiance could earn her another brutal beating.
Hudson’s perversions ran deep. He had made her confess her darkest secrets under torture, forcing her to bare what she had buried in her soul. Lies never fooled him-one look and he knew.
She had spilled everything just to survive. Later she’d regretted it bitterly, praying those secrets had died with him in that “accident.”
But he lived. And now he wielded her secrets like a knife against her throat.
At the doorway, John’s face grew darker with every word.
Elsa faking her illness had already been a shock. But this?
The girl who had once saved Simon wasn’t Elsa-it was Lily.
Simon’s long-cherished Lizzy had always been Lily.
“You can’t tell Simon…”
Elsa’s tears rolled heavy down her cheeks. Her pitifulness blurred truth and performance alike-John couldn’t tell if it was an act, and even Hudson paused.
Once, Hudson had admired her-her icy beauty, her aloof pride. But the day he caught her tangled with his friend, all tenderness rotted into loathing.
He had caged her with marriage, not out of love, but out of vengeance. He would make her pay for her duplicity, her games.
He saw through the cold mask-saw the shameless woman who warmed every man’s bed. Back home, she hadn’t changed. Still dangling, still deceiving. His hatred blazed hotter.
He released her throat suddenly, looming over her with a predator’s sneer. “Please me. Beg like a dog. Do it well enough, and maybe I won’t kill you today. Maybe I’ll keep your secrets safe-for now.”
The memories of foreign nights, forced to abase herself under his cruelty, flooded Elsa’s mind. Humiliation. Pain. Fury.
Her pride screamed against it-but fear of death, fear of exposure, crushed her resistance.
Simon was her last card. She couldn’t let him know his beloved Lizzy was Lily. She couldn’t let him abandon her.
Her hands shook as she stripped off her clothes, her soul shattering with each discarded piece. She bent herself to Hudson’s will, drowning in pain and degradation.
The master bedroom’s window was open.
A sudden gust swept through, slamming the half-closed door wide.
Elsa flinched at the sound, her gaze darting instinctively toward the doorway-
And froze.
Her blood ran to ice.
John was standing there.
Watching.
He had seen her-seen her stripped of dignity, crawling in shame before Hudson.
And worse-he had heard it all.
Hudson’s taunts, every vile secret-every truth.
Elsa’s heart plummeted into an abyss.
“John!”
Elsa’s eyes flew wide, a desperate scream ripping from her throat. The icy pride she clung to shattered instantly as she scrambled for anything to cover herself.
Hudson, on the other hand, felt no shame at all. For him, degrading women in front of others was second nature. Even with the room in chaos, even with John standing there, he sneered, straightened his clothes slowly, and strolled out of the bedroom.
His trip to China wasn’t really about Elsa-humiliating her was just sport. His true target was James. And maybe, he thought, he could even strike a deal with John. So he smirked and left, giving them “privacy.”
“John, it’s not what it looks like…”
The clothes on the floor were torn to rags, unwearable. Elsa yanked the bedsheet around herself, clutching it tightly as if it could restore her dignity. She tilted her chin with brittle defiance, tears streaming down her face, a rose battered by storm, still straining to stand tall.
“I only love you. I never wanted anyone else. I was forced-I had no choice, I-“
“Forced?”
John laughed.
But his laugh was hollow, his eyes dark and dangerous.
Elsa trembled violently.
She knew. He had seen too much. Erasing what he had witnessed was impossible. Still, she clung to hope, her lips shaking as she,tried again.
“John, please, I swear, I never-
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