Her beautiful eyes were wide with sheer terror. She didn’t even know how she’d made it back; the scene she’d just escaped was fermenting in her mind, leaving nothing behind but a bone-deep, suffocating dread.

"Maximus!" The moment her gaze landed on him, Rose Harrison lunged forward, clinging to his coat as if he were a life raft. Her voice trembled violently. "I—I finally found you."

Her teeth chattered, a rhythmic, hollow sound. She hadn't yet snapped out of the nightmare that had just unfolded.

"Rose?" Maximus Anderson froze for a fraction of a second, his expression hardening. His voice was cold, razor-edged, and riddled with suspicion. "How did you get out?"

Get out?

She froze. How did he know she’d had to escape? Had he known what happened before it even ended? Or had he been watching the whole time?

His words dropped into her chest like a stone in an icebox, turning her blood to slush. Her face drained of color, going deathly pale. She stared at him, her lips quivering, searching his eyes for even a flicker of empathy.

"I asked you a question," Maximus said, his patience snapping like a dry twig. "Are you deaf, or just playing stupid? How did you escape?"

"Maximus, what—what are you saying?" Rose’s fingers dug into his sleeves until her knuckles turned white. A metallic, coppery taste of blood welled up in her throat, and she swallowed hard to keep from choking on it.

Maximus locked his cold, dark gaze onto hers. A cruel, thin line tugged at the corner of his mouth. "What exactly are you looking for, Rose?"

"Maximus..." His gaze sent her stumbling back two steps, the sheer terror mounting. "What do you know? Or is this... you said you had a surprise for me."

She was shaking, staring at him in disbelief.

He had told her today was their first wedding anniversary. He had told her to meet him at the Imperial Plaza Hotel. He had promised her a surprise to celebrate the occasion.

Rose subconsciously reached for her stomach. She hadn't even had the chance to tell him yet—she was pregnant. For a year, she had stubbornly convinced herself that if she just waited, the ice would melt. She had truly believed this was the start of their happiness.

Now, it felt like the floor of the world had dropped away, plunging her into a hellish abyss.

"A surprise?" Maximus let out a dry, jagged laugh. He began to pry her fingers off his sleeves, one by one, with deliberate, bruising force. "Didn't I give you a surprise? I went through all the trouble of arranging two sturdy men to fill that empty, needy body of yours. Wasn't that enough?"

Every word hit her like a rusted blade, carving straight through her heart.

Tears welled up, blurring her vision, but she lunged forward again, gripping his hand with desperate, pathetic fervor. "Maximus, you’re lying to me, right? Tell me you’re lying." Her voice was a ragged plea.

She didn't care if it was a lie. She just needed him to say it.

"Get out." Maximus shoved her away with a violent, disgusted motion.

Her slight frame reeled backward, her back slamming against the wall with a sickening thud. The pain was sharp and blinding, but she kept her eyes locked on him, an agonizing, stubborn need for an answer written all over her face.

"God, you are pathetic," Maximus spat, his voice heavy with malice and cold, calculated rage. "I already arranged for men to satisfy you, and yet you’re still crawling back to me? Why can’t you just get the message?"

The last of the color drained from Rose’s face. Her entire body shook with the force of her heartbreak.

"Maximus, don't you know how much I love you?" she whispered, her voice breaking. "Why would you do this to me?"

Her eyes were pools of hollow, shattered despair. Her heart felt like it was being shredded, piece by agonizing piece. Love—that cruel, burning flame she had flown into like a moth—had finally turned to ash.

Maximus’s lips curled into a cold, ruthless smile. It was a pity, really. But all he wanted was for the high-and-mighty Miss Harrison to be ruined, to have her name dragged through the mud until there was nothing left. That was all.