Chapter 36

• His father's secret love child and Edward's half-sister, Vanessa, went to him. She had always wanted my position, whispering sweet poison into his ear from the day she came into our lives. She showed him doctored photos, "proof" of my "affair." The clincher was when she informed him that she was pregnant and that the father was Edward. His remaining threads of sanity snapped.
• Edward, blinded by rage and deception, took everything from me. He used his lawyers to take all my assets, forced me to sign the divorce papers under duress, and depleted my small inheritance. To prevent me from returning, he framed me for corporate fraud.
• I signed the contract, staring at the empty, mocking words. The wedding was a sham, the man a monster. I had nothing to lose but my life. I vanished. I left Bristol and underwent treatment, disappearing for three years. The world, and Edward, thought me dead or missing.