Hot Summer Night

Sixteen years ago, my sisters and I moved from France to the United States to live the American dream. Not long after, I met Declan, a marine who was home for his mother's funeral. He was my everything, my world, and the love of my life. Four and a half years later, I became his fiancée. Then, when I thought everything was going well, my world ended when I awoke to him gone. No note, no nothing. He was just gone. I waited days, weeks, and months to hear from him and for his return. That never happened.

Then, I met Chadwick, who took the pieces of my broken heart and put them back together. He promised me many things during our dating years, guaranteeing he'd give me the world. And he was. Then, after years of not wanting to give my entire heart to him, fearing he'd do what Declan had done, I pushed the fear of him leaving me aside and married him.

The night we married, instead of giving me the world he promised, I was gifted a nightmare. For over six years, I lived in a lake of fire. If I wasn't locked in a dark, cold room for days on end, day and night, I was tormented, punished, abused, and tortured in the blackest darkness until I could no longer see, talk, or move. Maltreating me until he broke me.

Finally, one of my prayers was answered when an ally close to Chadwick helped me escape the prison of hell. She flew me out of New York and brought me to her friend's home in Mobile, Alabama, where I got the shock of my life.

He wasn't just her "friend." He was a ghost from my past, and now I'm in his care. Oh, and he has a child nearly as old as our breakup.