Her vision blurred with tears she refused to let fall.
Her hands trembled violently, her entire body on the verge of collapse, yet she stood tall—chin lifted, eyes burning with defiance.
Even as her ex-husband loomed closer, a cruel smirk playing at his lips, she didn't back down.
Not this time.
I've survived worse. I've walked through hellfire and lived. I won't let him drag me back again.
But even as her mind screamed bravery, her heart betrayed her—pounding erratically, threatening to burst through her chest.
Her lungs burned, her knees weakened, and the cold, familiar fear she thought she'd buried clawed its way back to the surface.
It felt like standing at the edge of a cliff with a storm raging behind her—one wrong step, and she'd fall back into the darkness she barely escaped from.
But just as she felt herself slipping…
A shadow stepped between her and the storm.
The air shifted.
A hand reached out—firm, commanding—and pushed the nightmare back where it belonged.
And then that voice came again, low and dangerously calm, like a loaded gun ready to fire.
"Touch her again… and I swear you won't live to regret it."