LOGINAmber.His hand tightened around my neck, my own hands flying up to claw at his iron grip. It was useless—he was far stronger. My eyes widened in panic as he squeezed harder, cutting off my air. My legs kicked wildly against the floor, desperate for any escape.“Let me go… you’re going to kill me,” I choked out, the words barely scraping past my crushed throat.“Well, it would be faster if I did,” he said, his dead eyes darkening further. He tilted his head slightly, as if straining to catch every broken sound I made. “But you know I hate anything quick.”“Ple…ase…” I begged, my voice a ragged whisper.“Weren’t you going to leave me? What better way to make it quick, huh? Let’s just go together. After your death, I’d make sure to join you soon—I swear I won’t waste any time. What’s life without you anyway?” A cruel, evil smile twisted his lips.Both my hands still clutched at his wrist, trying to pry his fingers loose. For a fleeting second, every memory of the people Zeden had k
Amber.My chest heaved as I struggled to catch my breath. I knew Zeden would never let me go so easily.“Zeden…” I called out, my voice small and shaky.He raised a brow as I took three hesitant steps toward him. He remained completely still, calm in a way that terrified me more than any shout could. Despite my hammering heart and trembling legs, I held Yulia tight against me.“What’s happening, Zeden? They won’t let me leave.” I gestured toward the guards with my free hand. “And the door—the door is locked. It wouldn’t open when I tried.”He answered with a single nod, but not to me. It was directed at the nearest guard. Confusion washed over me as the man approached, his steps heavy with reluctance, as if disobeying might cost him his life.He reached out to take Yulia from my arms.“What are you doing? Get your hands off me! Let go of my child!” I shouted, panic rising fast. “Zeden, tell him to stop! Please, he’s trying to take Yulia away from me!”The guard was too strong. “
Amber.My hands moved quickly through the closet, grabbing clothes and shoving them into the bag. Tears kept falling no matter how hard I tried to stop them. The moment I left Zeden in that shattered room, I had laid Yulia gently on the bed and rushed straight here.Everything I was doing was for the best. Everything. I repeated it like a prayer as I folded shirts and pants into the suitcase. This was for Yulia. She needed to be safe. She didn’t deserve to grow up hated or caught in the middle of Zeden’s dangerous world. I had lived it. It only brought pain, fear, and endless sadness. Zeden should be glad. I was doing us both a favor by walking away before it destroyed what little was left of us.My heart ached with every item I packed. My hands trembled so badly I could barely zip the bag. Tears soaked the front of my blouse, leaving dark wet patches across my chest. Still, I kept going, moving to Yulia’s things next—tiny onesies, soft blankets, her favorite rattle. Each piece fe
Zeden. I bent down and picked up a sharp shard of glass, then closed my fist around it. The edges sliced deep into my palm, warm blood seeping between my fingers. “This pain you’ve caused me is so much worse than anything I’ve ever felt,” I said through clenched teeth. Amber cut in before I could continue. “Zeden, I can’t keep living like this. Every single day has been torture since the beginning. Constant suffering, constant pain. It’s tearing me apart inside and messing with my head until I don’t even recognize myself anymore. I’m scared all the time. I jump at every sound, every shadow. I can’t breathe freely.” Her eyes darted down to Yulia, and fresh tears fell onto the baby’s blanket. “Look at us. We can’t live freely because of your enemies—people who are always ready to kill or punish us just because I married a blind, ruthless man who turned half the world against him. Look at Zameera. She can’t even go outside these walls. You won’t let her. She can’t have real friends
Zeden.“Don’t you dare look away!” I shouted. I wasn’t going to stay calm about this. My hands clenched into tight fists at my sides, nails digging so hard into my palms I thought the skin might split. I could sense how tightly Amber held Yulia to her chest, as if the baby were her only lifeline in the storm I had become.If this was the height of her foolishness, I refused to accept it. Not after everything we had survived. Not when she stood here ready to tear our family apart because fear had finally gotten the better of her.I heard her small, broken sobs, and they only fed the rage burning through me.“You’re so fucking unbelievable!” I stepped back, my hands slicing through the air in sharp, furious gestures. “You want to leave? Then what about Zameera? You’re just going to abandon her? After she has grown so attached to you? After you made her see you as her only friend, her mother, everything I could never give her on my own?” Before she could answer, I grabbed the neare
Amber. We didn’t speak a word in the car. The silence pressed in heavier than any noise, thick and suffocating. My heart and head throbbed with a relentless ache. I swear I didn’t deserve any of this. The pain, the endless cost of marrying him. Zeden. Tears threatened to spill, and part of me wished they would. Not because his mother had stolen my child in some pathetic bid for revenge, but because I was simply exhausted. I couldn’t carry the weight anymore. “I think it’s time to let me go,” I said the moment we stepped into our room. I had followed him upstairs in silence, cradling Yulia close while Rukov helped guide Zeden. His footsteps halted the instant the words left my mouth. A low groan escaped him as he nodded slowly to Rukov, who slipped out and closed the door behind him. Yet Zeden acted as if he hadn’t heard me at all. He continued toward the bathroom. “Didn’t you hear what I said?” I asked, stepping closer. “I said, I think it’s time to let me—” “I heard
Amber.I had been cursed with this nonstop sexual craving.Zeden had dragged me deep into his world, a place where desire never slept and every touch felt like fire.I couldn’t escape it anymore.Tell me why I was already soaked through the fresh panties he had slipped onto me after bathing me ba
Amber.I made small whimpers that tangled pain with shame—the shame that bloomed from wanting him anyway. From craving the very thing that was tearing me open. Lust and hunger twisted inside me until I couldn’t tell where one ended and the other began. How was my body responding so eagerly,
Zeden.I knew exactly what I was doing. Every single second of it. I’d locked away whatever tiny part of me might have felt regret, guilt, anything human. I told myself it was right. Necessary. She’d pushed too far this time. She’d spoken to Enzo Rossi—of all fucking people. That bastard h
Amber.I was putting together what form of slavery this really was. It went far beyond anything I’d imagined. I couldn’t wrap my head around being used like this—so completely, so brutally—while my own body responded with greedy shockwaves, craving more of the same destruction. Every nerve li







