Beneath Your Beautiful

PROLOGUE
It started small. A comment about my body. Guilt trips into canceling
plans with friends. New clothing bought one size too small. The gradual
disappearance of the desserts I coveted. Lavish gifts for my parents.
Let me rewind.
Gideon Lowell swept me off my feet. A hot-shot lawyer, he was rich,
handsome, and solely focused on me. That kind of attention is addictive,
drugging, and makes you blind to the warning signs. It took him a mere six
months to place a gold band on my finger and declare me as his. His wife,
his trophy, his possession. A woman to mold and control.
It took another six months for the real Gideon to rear his head. That was
the day I learned not to disagree with my husband. It was the first time I
made an excuse about an injury to a medical professional, but not the last. I
thought if I loved him harder, deeper, it would change. I would become
worthy of the man I first met. I was wrong.
Now we stand on the precipice of our one-year anniversary, and I am a
shell of the woman I once was. Gutted by his words, his hands, his
emotions, and his control. But there's a place deep inside of me, one he
cannot reach, that clings to a thin ray of light. I just have to be brave enough to grasp it and jump, for there is no salvation in the vast darkness, and I am not ready to go without a fight.