The Thomas and Moore families were old friends. Michael was five years older than me, and our marriage was arranged when I was a child.
I used to follow him everywhere as a child, and he would protect me, never letting anyone bully me.
But everything changed when he went to college and met Evelyn.
Eight years ago, the Thomas family faced bankruptcy.
I brought thirty percent of the Moore family’s shares into the marriage, ensuring our family would support theirs through the crisis.
I thought this would make Michael look at me differently.
Even if he only stayed with me out of gratitude, I would have been content.
But I was so wrong.
Childhood affection couldn’t compete with a new love.
In eight years of marriage, we barely slept together.
I got pregnant with Skylar because he was drunk and out of his senses. I was held under his body, enduring his madness and listening to him calling Evelyn's name over and over again.
A marriage in name only, no matter how hard I tried to hold it together, shattered irreparably.
I saw my daughter’s lifeless body in the morgue, her bloodstains cleaned.
I don’t know how long I stayed there, lost and numb.
My brother Aiden Moore arrived after hearing the news.