She stole my lunch twelve times. HR did nothing, so I made one she couldn’t take unnoticed. She ate it anyway. Avocado cost her everything.
I MARRIED A MAN TWICE MY AGE TO SAVE MY FATHER’S LIFE… BUT THE REAL PRICE WASN’T THE RING—IT WAS THE PILL HE MADE ME SWALLOW EVERY NIGHT. AND WHEN I FINALLY WATCHED WHAT HAPPENED AFTER I FELL ASLEEP… I WISHED I HAD NEVER SAID YES.
CHAPTER 1: THE DEAL THAT DIDN’T FEEL HUMAN
I didn’t marry him for love.
I married him because the alternative was watching my father die.
The doctors didn’t soften it.
The surgery was urgent.
The cost was impossible.
And I had nothing.
No savings.
No family to call.
No time.
Then he appeared.
CHAPTER 2: THE MAN WHO WAS WAITING
His name was Victor Hale.
An old connection of my father’s.
A man I had only heard about in fragments—always described the same way:
Quiet.
Distant.
Unsettling.
But powerful.
Very powerful.
He listened to my situation without interrupting.
Then he gave me a solution.
Simple. Clean. Terrifying.
“I’ll pay for everything,” he said.
Then came the condition.
CHAPTER 3: THE PRICE
Marriage.
No questions.
And one rule that mattered more than anything else:
“You will never question what happens inside my house.”
I should have walked away.
But I didn’t have the luxury of pride.
So I signed.
CHAPTER 4: THE FIRST NIGHT
There was no ceremony.
No celebration.
Just paperwork… and silence.
That night, I lay in a room that didn’t feel like mine.
Cold.
Perfect.
Watching.
And sometime after midnight—
The door opened.
CHAPTER 5: THE PILL
He stood there.
Watching me like I was already part of something.
In his hand—
A small white pill.
“You need to take this,” he