Parentified

Iris spent her life learning to endure. Raised by a mother who despised her and a father whose love veered violently between devotion and disdain, she was no stranger to betrayal. Desperate for a fresh start, she fell into a marriage with a man who promised her safety-until she discovered his sinister double life. Beneath his charming exterior lurked a sadistic killer, a man who tortured and drowned his victims in a twisted ritual she only discovered too late.

On the brink of death, Iris was saved by the most unlikely person: her childhood friend, a federal agent whose quiet, one-sided love for her had never faded. Though she never returned his feelings, he had spent years watching over her from a distance. And when he learned of her husband's horrific secrets, he risked everything to rescue her, arriving in her darkest hour to pull her from the water and shatter the chains of her nightmare marriage. For the first time, Iris found herself freed from the horrors of her past-but at a price that would haunt them both.