On the day Kaelen Rivers died, his ex-wife was trying on wedding gowns with her first love.

She had snarled at him, "Why don't you just fucking die?"

After he was dead, she was getting married for the second time.

She called to ask why he wasn't at her wedding.

He couldn't make it, of course. He could only send his funeral portrait to attend in his place.

...

Night. A torrential downpour.

The Thorne Manor.

Cassia Thorne strode into the living room.

"Cassia, you're back."

Kaelen shot up from the sofa the moment he saw her.

CRACK—

A vicious slap struck Kaelen across the face, so hard his head snapped to the side, the taste of blood instantly filling his mouth.

"You’re so desperate to be Mr. Thorne that you couldn’t stand Aidan even breathing, so you tried to have him neutered?"

Cassia’s beautiful eyes were chips of ice as she stared down at him.

Kaelen's cheek burned with a white-hot pain. "What happened? I didn't hurt him…"

He tried to explain, but Cassia cut him off before he could finish.

"Right. You didn't *neuter* him. You just hired a few thugs to beat him to within an inch of his life, to make sure he could never have children!"

Cassia advanced on Kaelen, step by step, her slender fingers slowly unbuttoning his shirt.

"Kaelen Rivers, whatever you did to Aidan, I'm going to do to you tonight."

"Take him to the front gate and make him kneel!"

With that, Cassia ripped the shirt from his body and threw it to the floor.

Two bodyguards emerged from the doorway. "Yes, Ms. Thorne."

The blood in Kaelen's veins turned to ice.

"Stay away from me!"

He was her husband, but in Thorne Manor, his words were worth less than air.

The bodyguards’ faces were blank masks as they dragged him out and threw him at the main gate.

Then came a sickening thud.

One of the guards forced him to his knees, his kneecaps slamming brutally onto the hard stone.

He sucked in a sharp breath against the searing pain, but he still didn't give up.

"Cassia, I've been home all day! I haven't gone anywhere! The staff can prove it…"

BANG!

The heavy iron gates slammed shut.

Kaelen’s voice was swallowed by the storm.

He stared at the sealed entrance, a bitter taste filling his throat.

Aidan Vance was Cassia’s childhood sweetheart.

Infinitely more important than the man she’d been married to for three miserable years.

How could he, why would he ever dare to lay a hand on him?

The rain intensified, the darkness and the water amplifying the biting cold.

An entire night passed.

Kaelen, barely clothed, his skin bruised and purple from the cold, knelt shivering at the gates of Thorne Manor.

Then, Cassia appeared. Dressed in a haute couture gown, her slender figure glided out from the courtyard. Her features were cold as she spoke, her voice a low, chilling murmur.

"Do you have anything else to say?"

"I really didn't hurt Aidan Vance!" Kaelen cried, looking up at her.

He didn't do it. He would never admit to it.

Cassia stood there, a vision of elegance, her eyes filled with nothing but contempt.

"Do you think I'd do this without proof? Do you have any idea that Aidan has had a complete psychotic break because of this?"

Aidan had lost his mind?

Disbelief flooded Kaelen’s eyes.

"How could that be?"

Cassia bent down, her fingers tracing his jawline, her voice a blade of ice. "You should be asking yourself that question."

A sudden, terrible premonition seized Kaelen’s heart.

Then he heard Cassia's next words.

"Still won't admit it after a night on your knees? Ten of you, drag 'Mr. Thorne' to the backyard!"

Kaelen’s pupils shrank in terror. "What are you going to do?"

A chilling frost settled over Cassia’s beautiful eyes. She leaned in, her lips brushing against his ear.

"If you won't confess, then I'll just have to let you experience exactly what you did to Aidan!"

A violent shudder wracked Kaelen’s body, as if a thousand knives had just pierced his heart.