This wasn’t what I signed up for.

Hell, I don’t ever remember signing up for anything at all, but when there were debts to be paid, and time had run out, I was delivered to Miss May’s doorstep.

The man who had paid a handsome fee to make me his wife was the only person in the world that I ever learned to fear.

It was when he and I first locked eyes that I knew I was in for a worse hell than I could imagine. I never expected the cruelty that accompanied it.

But rage can do something to a heart that once was gentle.

It can do something to someone who was once quiet and full of hope.

It can slowly turn a caged, once-frightened animal into a feral one.

It did because I wasn’t afraid of him anymore, I was determined.

And I was ready to break free.