That night, in that same house, still in my wedding dress, he handed me a contract instead of touching me.
“I’ve got someone I like,” he said, like he was talking about the weather. Cold. Detached. “She’s not from the right background, and my family won’t accept her. But give me five years.”
I remember just staring at him, my hands shaking as I held the paper.
Five years?
“For these five years, you stay as my wife in name,” he continued. “I’ll take control of the Hayes family, and when I do, no one will dare say shit about who I choose. After that…” He looked at me like I was nothing more than a business deal. “We divorce. Clean. Simple.”
That night, I signed the papers like he wanted. My hands didn’t even feel like mine when I wrote my name. It was just… done. Like I’d already lost before anything even started.
Then I locked myself in the bathroom and cried until morning. No sound, just shaking and choking on it, biting my sleeve so no one would hear. Like that would change anything.
Less than three months into the marriage, Amber disappeared. Just… gone. I heard they had a huge fight before that, but no one told me details. I didn’t need them. I saw what it did to him.
Hudson went crazy. He used every connection he had, every man under him, every dirty favor. A mafia boss like him, someone who could find anyone in this world… and still, he couldn’t find her.
I watched him break.
He stopped coming home most nights. And when he did, he smelled like alcohol and smoke and something darker. His eyes were always heavy, like he hadn’t slept in days. I wanted to ask if he was okay. I never did. What right did I have?
Then one night, he came back drunk. Really drunk. The kind where he could barely stand straight but still walked like he owned everything.
Before I could even say anything, he grabbed me.
“Hudson…” I tried, my voice shaking.
He didn’t answer.
He pushed me onto the bed like I weighed nothing. My heart was beating so fast I thought it would tear out of my chest. Was this… happening? Did he finally…?
But then his lips crashed onto mine and I froze. It tasted like alcohol. Bitter. Suffocating.
“…Amber…” his voice broke, rough and desperate against my skin. “Why the hell did you leave me, huh? Why’d you run off with that guy? You think I wouldn’t come for you? You don’t trust me that much?”