The year Victor lost everyone who mattered, I left him. Then he clawed his way up to become the Godfather of the New York Mafia — and forced me to marry him. Everyone said I was the one who got away. His untouchable. His obsession. Until he started parading a college girl around town. A girl who looked just like me. Overnight, I became a joke. I didn't cry. I didn't fight back. When he used the money meant for my pain injections to buy her gifts, I just turned and walked away. He lost it. He pinned me against the wall, teeth clenched. "Would it kill you to bend, just once?" He didn't know. I was the one dying. Every day he spent punishing me, I was quietly counting down the days I had left.