His Regret, My Unbought Freedom

My husband left me to die in a fire, choosing to save his mistress while I lost our baby in the flames.

But my suffering had only just begun. He and his lover then tried to poison me, swapping my life-saving medication for tranquilizers.

When that didn't work, he orchestrated a car crash that shattered my legs, leaving me crippled and helpless.

His final act of cruelty was on his yacht. He watched as his mistress framed me, then locked me in a room with a group of thugs who left me for dead.

I threw myself into the ocean that night, choosing the cold, dark water over the monsters on that boat.

I survived. I rebuilt my life, found a man who cherished my broken pieces, and was about to get married.

Then, August crashed my engagement party. He told me he'd destroyed his mistress and was giving me his entire fortune. He thought he could buy his way back into my life.

He was about to learn that some things can't be fixed with money.

Chapter 1

Allie POV:

The sterile scent of antiseptic clung to me, a painful echo of the fire' s smoke that still burned in my lungs. My body was a battlefield, aching in places I didn' t even know existed. But the deepest wound was the hollow space inside, where a heartbeat should have been. It had been just days since the lake house fire, days since August had chosen to carry Harper out while I lay trapped, days since I lost our baby. Now, I lay in this hospital bed, my voice barely a whisper, asking for a divorce.

A tiny, foolish part of me-the part that always clung to hope-still imagined him fighting for me. That he would see the devastation in my eyes, remember the years of our life together, and pull me back from the brink. I closed my eyes, picturing him bursting through the doors, his face etched with worry for me.

Then the sharp ring of his phone cut through the silence. My eyes fluttered open. He was pacing by the window, his back to me, his shoulders hunched. The way he answered, his voice dropping to a low, urgent tone, told me everything I needed to know. The slight tremor in his hand, the sudden tightness in his jaw. It wasn't about me. It was never about me anymore.

"Harper? What's wrong?" he demanded, his voice laced with an anxiety so profound it felt like a physical blow. The words were a bitter pill, confirming my worst fears. He didn' t even glance my way, his entire being focused on the hushed conversation.

A cold dread seeped into my bones, a familiar feeling of utter insignificance. My chest tightened, a burning ache spreading through my ribs. It wasn't the physical pain from the fire, but something far deeper, far more insidious. I was invisible. A ghost in my own life.

He finally turned, his eyes glazed,