TRADING MY CHEATING HUSBAND FOR THE LYCAN KING novel Chapter 17

CHAPTER 13: HELP ME FORGET–1

EMBER’S POV

The second we leave the chaos, the world tilts.

Knox leads me through the lobby, hand possessive on my back. People part for us automatically–reporters, alphas, staff–all of them stepping aside like we’re radioactive.

Nobody meets my eyes, but I feel every single one burning into my skin.

I catch fragments of whispers: “That’s her-” “Did you see-?” “The Lycan King-” “Her husband-”

Cameras flash. Someone snaps a picture two feet from my face and I blink, vision exploding

with red dots.

We reach the elevator and Knox slams his palm against the button so hard the plastic

cracks.

When the doors finally open, he shepherds me inside and jabs the penthouse button. The doors slide shut, cutting off the white noise of the lobby in one clean motion.

Blessed silence.

No more questions. No more cameras. It’s onlt just my reflection in the polished steel, wild hair, smudged mascara, purple fingerprints on my wrist.

My knees give out.

I slide down the wall until I’m sitting on the carpet, dress bunched around my thighs, hands trembling in my lap.

That’s when it hits–the adrenaline crash, the humiliation, everything from the last hour replaying in brutal detail:

Gale’s hand clamped around my wrist exactly where he always grabbed me. The sound of Knox slamming him into marble. My own voice, small and broken, saying five words that ended eight years.

Eight years of training myself to stay quiet and submissive. Eight years of telling myself it wasn’t that bad, that Gale only got angry when I provoked him, that every broken glass and every bruise was my fault for not being a good enough wife.

Eight years, and I still flinched.

The shame is worse than the pain. It bubbles up until I’m shaking so hard my teeth chatter.

1/3

C CHAPTER 13: HELP ME FORGET-)

+25

05 Points

Sapphire tries to help–she’s always been the brave one, the one who swallowed down every hurt and hid it somewhere deep.

But there’s nowhere to hide now. Not when every camera just captured my flinch in 4K.

“Ember.” His voice is low, careful. “Does he ever hit you?”

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify