Chapter 1

When the men dragged me deep into the alley and pinned me to the ground, my fiancée and my childhood friend were sitting at the mouth of the alley, eating ice cream.

Fist after fist landed on my ribs.

I fought with everything I had, my fingers clawing bloody streaks down the wall, screaming Daniela Pruitt's name over and over.

But she never moved.

She even dipped her spoon into the ice cream, slow and unhurried, and held it out to Matthew Matthews.

Only when I had screamed myself breathless, my throat gone completely raw, did the men finally let go of me.

Daniela came forward and pulled me up from where I sat slumped on the ground.

"Matthew just earned his master's in psychology overseas."

"He says the only way to fully desensitize you is to recreate the trauma."

Three months ago, when I went to deliver the bid documents to Daniela, a group of men trying to rob me had dragged me into this same alley.

To protect the bag with the documents inside, I took a beating that broke three of my ribs.

After that, I fell into severe depression.

The sound of a man laughing made me shake.

Night after night I woke from nightmares, and the only way I could confirm I had actually escaped that beating was by hurting myself.

Seeing me sitting on the ground with my face drained white, Matthew smiled, pleased with himself.

"See? The shock treatment really does work."

"He went through something this intense and didn't hurt himself again. That means the self-destructive tendency has eased."

Daniela clearly let out a breath.

"You really do know how to handle it."

They looked at each other and smiled.

As though they truly had joined forces and cured me.

I looked down at my own bloody fingertips, and suddenly I was smiling too.

That night, brilliant fireworks spread across the surface of the river.

Alone, I walked out onto the bridge where I had once proposed to Daniela, and I jumped.

1

The cold river water flooded into my nose and mouth in an instant.

Just as my consciousness was slipping away, Daniela grabbed my arm and, with all her strength, hauled me back up to the surface.

When I opened my eyes again, I was lying on the bank.

The moment Daniela saw me breathing again, the terror in her eyes turned instantly to fury.

"If you wanted to swim, why not go to a pool?"

"Running into the river in the middle of the night, do you have any idea how dangerous that is?"

"What if I hadn't seen you? What were you going to do then?"

Matthew came over carrying a black gift box.

He glanced at the water, and there was something shaken in his voice.

"Good thing Daniela was out here tonight setting off fireworks for me."

"Otherwise, this late, no one would have seen you fall into the river at all."

I followed his gaze.

The fireworks on the far bank still hadn't ended.

Bursts of golden light rose into the night sky, one cluster after another, then mirrored on the churning river below.

So it turned out that while I was despairing enough to throw my life away, Daniela had been down by the river alone with Matthew.

In the instant the fireworks burst open again, I suddenly remembered two years ago.

I had proposed to Daniela on this same riverbank.

That night, I had spent every cent of my savings on a sky full of fireworks.

The light lit up her face.

I knelt on one knee before her, so nervous I could barely keep hold of the ring.

"Daniela, I'll do everything I can to make you the happiest woman in the world."

Back then, her eyes went red and she reached out her hand to me.

I slid the ring onto her finger, certain that at last I had someone who would never abandon me.

But just now, in that alley.

I had screamed my voice raw, calling her name over and over.

She had stood a few steps away, calmly watching me fall back into the nightmare.

And now, in the very place where we had gotten engaged, she had set off an equally grand display of fireworks for another man.