My fiancé paid a man to attack me before our wedding, then said, “If she’s scarred, even better.”

Chapter 1
I heard my fiancé confess while pretending to be unconscious

“If Genevieve shows up to that wedding with her face untouched, Sabrina will never be able to take her place.”

I heard Christian Prescott say those words one week before I was supposed to marry him. I lay motionless in a private room at St. Jude Medical Center in Columbus, my face wrapped in bandages, my eyes closed, my hands cold beneath the blanket. Hours earlier, after leaving a dress fitting in downtown Indianapolis, a man had approached me as if he wanted a photo for Christian. Instead, he threw acid across the right side of my face. I remembered the burning, my own scream, and the sidewalk rushing toward me.

When I woke, I was too afraid to open my eyes. Christian had kissed this face for five years. He had called it beautiful at airports, award shows, quiet breakfasts, and every night he swore fame had never changed him. Then I heard Gabriel, his manager, speaking through clenched teeth. “You could have ended things with Genevieve. You could have canceled the wedding. Why pay someone to do this?”

Christian sounded almost bored. “Because if I left her one week before the wedding, America would start looking for Sabrina. I needed Genevieve unable to show up. I needed everyone to believe I was the devastated fiancé.”

Gabriel called him sick and demanded that he at least find me the best reconstructive surgeon. Christian gave a soft laugh. “It’s not necessary. If she’s left scarred, even better. I’ll take care of her. House, money, nurses. After this, who do you think is going to want to leave me?” Every word stripped another layer from the man I thought I knew.

Then he said, “She can’t have children anymore. I took care of that a long time ago.” Three miscarriages flashed through me at once. Three emergency rooms. Three nights Christian held me while I cried and told me none of it was my fault. Gabriel’s voice dropped. “What did you do?” Christian answered, “Dr. Lawson adjusted a few things. Vitamins, treatments, doses. Whatever was necessary.”

I nearly moved when Christian mentioned Leo, his four-year-old son with Sabrina. While I had been mourning children I believed I had lost by chance, he had been raising one in secret. Worse, he still planned to marry me because our public image was worth millions. Sabrina would get a private ceremony. I would remain the public wife. Then he ordered Gabriel to get my attacker out of the country.

After Gabriel left, Christian took my hand and whispered, “Wake up soon, my love. We still have a wedding to have.” I waited until the door closed before opening my eyes. Gabriel returned moments later and went pale when he saw me awake. I raised one finger to my lips. “Help me,” I whispered. He asked if I wanted to report Christian. I shook my head. “First, help me stay alive.”