The Cost of Her Freedom
The hospital corridors were dim and hushed, cloaked in the sterile quiet of grief and illness. The fluorescent lights above flickered intermittently, casting shadows on the whitewashed walls. Melissa’s heels clicked sharply against the linoleum floor, each step dragging like lead. The black wedding gown Alec had forced her into clung to her like a curse, its silky folds a cruel reminder of everything she had just lost—her dignity, her agency, her hope.
Alec’s grip on her wrist was unforgiving. He hadn’t said a word since they left the conference hall, where their twisted wedding had played out like a grotesque performance. He was drunk—dangerously so—but his eyes were ablaze with cruel satisfaction. There was a terrifying steadiness in his madness now, as though e
