His Madness, Her Unforgiving Vengeance

I gave my childhood sweetheart, Kade, ten years of my life and the code that built his empire. I thought we were a team. Then, on the night of our success, I overheard him call me his "unpaid intern" and "beta test."

He publicly discarded me for a strategic marriage, shattering my world. I fled, rebuilt my life from scratch, and found real love with a kind man named Heath.

But Kade came back, obsessed and unhinged. When I refused to take him back, he had his thugs beat Heath bloody in an alley.

He cornered me, begging for another chance, his eyes wild with a twisted love.

"It was always you, Addy! I made a mistake!"

I walked straight into his corporate office, my heart cold as stone. I looked the monster I once loved in the eye and delivered my final promise.

"You will stay away from me and the man I love," I said, my voice lethal. "Or I will expose every last one of your family's secrets and burn your entire empire to the ground."

Chapter 1

Addison Fitzpatrick POV:

"She's just an unpaid intern, Dixon. A beta test, really." Kade's voice sliced through the thin wall of the adjoining room, sharp and dismissive. It wasn't loud, but the words hit me with the force of a physical blow. The champagne flute I was holding slipped from my numb fingers, shattering on the polished floor.

My breath hitched. Kade. My Kade.

The faint sound of Kade's business partner, Dixon Perry, chuckling reached me. "And the crush? You really played that up."

A cold dread spread through my veins, freezing every nerve ending. My heart started to hammer against my ribs, a frantic bird trapped in a cage.

"Of course," Kade said, his tone oozing with casual arrogance. "It was practically written in the stars. She' s always looked at me like I hung the moon. Easy, really. I needed the code, and she had it. For free. Like everything else." His words were like acid, burning a hole through my chest.

Dixon's voice was a low murmur. "What about Jodi Dawson? She's not going to like any lingering… attachments."

A fresh wave of nausea hit me. Jodi. The rival CEO's daughter. The strategic business merger Kade had mentioned so vaguely, so casually.

"Jodi understands. This was purely transactional. A means to an end." Kade scoffed. "Addison? She' s a placeholder. A warm body when I needed one, and a brilliant mind when the venture called for it. Nothing more. She'll be gone by the time the app launches. I'm unveiling the app and my relationship with Jodi at the gala next week. It's all planned."

My world tilted. The room spun. The floor seemed to rush up to meet me. Unpaid intern. Beta test. Placeholder.

Kade' s voice continued, oblivious. "Besides, she practically threw herself at me. What was I supposed to do? Say no to free genius and a night of… distraction?" He laughed, a