William’s POV:I should have been elated to see Sophia again, but my thoughts constantly returned to that strange image I saw of Sophia, smiling girlishly beside a man I didn’t recognize. Caroline’s words still rung in my mind, and in my gut, I felt like something was off. Trying my best to ignore it, as I casually strutted into the villa and was greeted by the sight of my beautiful future wife.Sophia was curled up on the sofa, innocent and silent, not even looking up at me when I came in.“Sophia,” I called, walking over with a wide smile. “How’s my love doing?”She glanced up at me with a face full of surprise, as though she’d never heard me come in. “Oh,” was all she said at first, taking my kiss on the cheek with little reaction. When she spoke, her sultry voice sounded distracted. “William, you’re home.”“I am,” I hummed, giving her a quick peck on the lips. I noticed right away that she had a weary look to her, appearing completely lost in thought. “Is… is everything alright?”
Caroline’s POV:I woke up with a pounding headache and pains littering my arms and legs. Opening my bleary eyes, I myself trapped in a dark room, forced upright in a chair. I tried to groan in pain, only to realize that my mouth was duct taped shut. Panic overwhelmed me and I attempted to get the tape off of my face, only to find that my hands were tied behind the chair painfully tight, unable to move. I tried to get out of my binds, but the knot was firm, and the only thing I was accomplishing was giving myself rope burn.I screamed into the tape, trying to get the attention of any passerby I could, but after twenty minutes, my throat gave out and I knew it was pointless. I was no doubt in some secure location, locked away from the rest of humanity.My heart stopped when the door knob rattled and heavy footsteps entered the room. The perpetrator flicked on a lightswitch, activating a lamp dangling just above me. The light revealed that I was in what seemed to be a small storage area
Caroline’s POV:“Don’t move!” yelled a member of SWAT as an entire team armed to the teeth stormed in, all with their guns trained on the perpetrator. The man who had been preparing to carve me up like a turkey held up his hands in shock, fear plastered over his face. “I-it’s not what it looks like!” he pleaded, but he was fiercely knocked to the ground by one of the officers. The cop who had roughly thrown him down sneered at him with contempt. “Disgusting,” he scowled, before speaking to his fellow officers in a commanding tone. “The hostage is our main priority.” He glanced over at the figure looming in the doorway, the same one who had stormed in, bravely shot my attacker, and called out my name. “You did good in leading us here, sir. You saved her life just in the nick of time.”I looked up in amazement to see who had saved me and I could hardly believe my eyes: it was William! My lips parted in shock and I wanted to speak, but I couldn’t find the words. William had actually le
William’s POV:When driving on the road, it’s starting to hit me all that’s happened. Tonight, when my gaze fell upon the ominous text, I had to warn myself to stay away. This wasn’t my phone I would be prying into, it was Sophia’s. I loved her, and I had to respect her privacy, even if I was achingly curious. I wasn’t going to betray her trust based on some foolish doubts.All that trust and respect went out the window, however, when I saw the following text.“Honey, I did it for you. Are you going to give me a reward for all my hard work?”Rage swelled up inside of me like the rising tide. Was Sophia actually cheating on me? I didn’t want to believe it, but the blatant proof in front of me was so hard to ignore.Without a second thought, I opened her phone, quickly digging through the messages between my lovely fiancé and this strange man. A large majority of the messages were deleted, but the most recent (and most shocking) interactions were on full display.Doing a quick flip thr
William’s POV:I urgently arranged a team of SWAT to rescue Caroline. The fear of losing her was overwhelming. Thankfully, I wasn’t too late.When I successfully found Caroline, she looked so broken and damaged. I had never seen Caroline like that, beaten and tied up, and it was like something in me had broken. This woman meant nothing to me, and yet I felt so utterly distraught just seeing her so hurt. I care for Caroline, I realized, my eyes widening. I care for her deeply.This care hadn’t always beat in my chest, though. There was a time when I swore to hold nothing but contempt toward her in my heart.I had always managed to convince myself that I hated Caroline and her father with a passion. I swore to myself that I wouldn’t garner any affection towards Caroline. There were dangers to letting myself get attached. Above all, the target of my revenge was her wretched father.However, I was enraged just seeing her suffering so greatly, and I promised that her attacker would feel t
Caroline’s POV:William remained silent after we set off. He seemed like falling into some kind of memory. My body ached with the angry bruises that were surely forming on my arms and legs. Even in the safety of William’s car, my heart still pounded a mile a minute, reeling from everything that had happened. The cold kiss of a knife was still felt against my face, but things would have ended so much worse had William not saved me in the nick of time. It also didn’t change the terrifying fact that Sophia was trying to kill me. I was lucky to have survived, but what if another attempt on my life was made?Despite the very real danger I had just escaped, I couldn’t bring my derailing thoughts away from William’s strange behavior. The words “our home” rang in my head like the toll of a church bell. Did William really think that his villa was still a home to me? The home I knew had been callously destroyed by William the day he brought home Sophia. With that painful reminder ever present
Caroline’s POV:To find out that William had broken it off with Sophia (the woman he had cheated on me with and ended our marriage over) so quickly made my head spin. Was she not lovable enough for him? Had William come to my rescue just so I could be a cheap replacement for his disappointing bride? I was sure that in the days to come, William would find some petty reason to toss me out like garbage and coax Sophia back into his selfish web of lies. William may have been a billionaire, but his love was cheap. I now knew (all too late unfortunately) that when William loved someone, that person became his everything; the one he loved and adored above all else. Then, when he inevitably grew bored of his current plaything, he would callously abandon them with little hesitation.Even as William stood firm in the middle of the entryway glaring daggers at Sophia, he still kept me tucked close to his chest. My eyes curiously flitted between the two during their tense back and forth, both di
Caroline’s POV:“William, answer me,” I demanded, my voice ice cold. My eyes remained full of expectation as I patiently waited for William’s answer. Surely Sophia had been foolish enough to expose her true face to him. That was the only possible way he could have found me before I could meet a terrible fate. My ex-husband was many things, but I wanted to believe that one of them wasn’t dense. William, however, only continued to disappoint me.“Caroline, I hear you, and I know what you’re saying,” William sighed between clenched teeth, “but there’s so much going on in my head right now. I promise I’ll sort it all out. Just… just give me some time, alright?”I was unable to help the disbelieving laugh that escaped me. How foolish was I to think William would just wake up? I was so naive to believe that William would, for once in his life, stand by my side instead of falling for that witch’s lies every time. Even with the truth right in front of his face, William couldn’t bear to blame