The Monster They MadeFor ten years, I loved my stepbrother. When I confessed, Julian called me filthy and sent me to a psychiatric hospital to “fix my brain.”
For three years, they starved me, beat me, locked me in darkness, and stripped away every piece of the girl who had once begged him to come back.
When Julian finally collected me, he complained that I looked thin. My mother prepared dinner for his pregnant girlfriend. My family praised me for learning not to overstep.
They were right about one thing: I had been cured.
I no longer wanted Julian's love. I no longer wanted a place in the Sterling family. And I no longer believed any of us deserved a happy ending.
Now Julian is kneeling for the heart he ordered others to destroy—but the only man I trust is waiting by the ocean, and my final escape may cost all of us everything.The Call He Never Answered“We need a divorce.”
Arthur laughed. “What about our daughter? Going to make her run off with Mommy?”
“She’s dead, Arthur.”
He checked her empty bedroom, then came back sneering.
“You actually hid her to sell this lie? You’re so jealous of Vanessa you’d fake your own daughter’s death. You’re sick.”
The door slammed behind him.
I began packing her things, but the familiar scent of her blanket broke me all over again.
Then the cemetery called.
“Mrs. Hayes, hurry! Someone is digging up your daughter’s grave!”
Shouting erupted on the other end.Divorcing the Valerius EmpireI was bleeding through my dress, and the doctors said emergency surgery was our unborn baby’s only chance.
My husband owned an empire. His assistant wouldn’t release the deposit.
“Two signatures. An itemized bill. Finance approval.”
Every time I sent one document, Luciana demanded another.
When Dante finally answered, I begged him to authorize the transfer.
“She’s following procedure, Alessia. Stop making this difficult.”
“There’s still a heartbeat,” I whispered. “But we’re running out of time.”
“Then do what Luciana says.”
He hung up before I could tell him what she was asking for next. 
