To Have and to Hold

You’re supposed to dream about your wedding day. But mine was hell. For one forbidden moment, Theo was my escape. He saw me, not as a pawn in the family games, not as an unwilling bride, scared and alone, unheard. He gave me what I needed, a final wish so I could endure. Then that moment ended, and my life with my husband began. My captor. My monster. To him, I’m nothing more than a vessel for his legacy, a body to fill or to break, a soul to crush under his expensive shoe when my body doesn’t behave. He doesn’t love me. He doesn’t need to. Pain is all he gives me, and it consumes me. Tries to break me. But I remember Theo’s touch. That promise in his eyes when I had that fleeting glimpse of how life could be. Before the darkness swallowed me whole. Before I made the vows I didn’t want to keep. To have and to hold. Til death. He is out there, somewhere, as trapped by the memory of me as I am haunted by him. My savior. The only man who ever cared. In this world, at Rafe’s feet. My desires mean nothing. But I pray for Theo to find me, save me, bring me back to that moment with him. The only man on the planet worse for me than my husband.