During her shift at the bridal shop, Emberly Holmes accidentally brushed a customer's hair while helping her into a wedding gown. The customer slapped her, then pointed at the floor. She wanted Emberly on her knees. Over a strand of hair.

"My hair is worth more than your pathetic little life!" the woman spat.

Emberly cradled her stinging cheek, anger and humiliation burning through her. "You moved suddenly—that's why I touched it," she tried to reason. "What gives you the right to hit me?"

The woman smirked. "You're nothing but a shop girl. I could hit you the way I'd hit a stray dog."

Before Emberly could fire back, her coworker Brittany Zariyah stepped in to smooth things over. "Miss Meadow," she said, "your fiancé just got here. He's downstairs."

Footsteps sounded on the staircase behind them.

Meadow Price hurried over, her voice turning honey-sweet. "Look at this clumsy attendant. She pulled my hair."

"Let me see. Does it hurt?" The man's voice was drenched in indulgence.

Something about that voice stopped Emberly cold. She turned—and shock punched the air from her lungs.

The tall man Meadow was clinging to was Ezrah Hunt. Her Ezrah. The boyfriend who'd been with Emberly just last night, promising her a wedding abroad.

For half a second, Ezrah hesitated when he saw her. Then his face shuttered, and he looked right through her as if they'd never met.

Emberly's eyes welled. She rushed forward. "Ezrah—you have a fiancée? You've been lying to me this whole time?"

"Who is she, Ezrah? What does she mean by that?" Meadow cut in sharply, her gaze darting between them.

Ezrah patted Meadow's shoulder. "I've never met her. You know how some women are—they'll do anything for money. She's probably trying to scam us."

A scam? The word hit Emberly like a fresh blade. He'd dismissed her—them—as if she were nothing.

"Ezrah, I gave up my chance at college to save you. My parents died because of what happened to you. And now you're standing here pretending you don't even know me?"

A year earlier, Emberly had found Ezrah bleeding beside a trail near her parents' small home in the Colorado Rockies. He had escaped an attack by men tied to a former business associate. With the road washed out and no cell service, she had brought him home and paid a local nurse to help keep him stable until they could reach a hospital. By the time the police caught the attackers, her tuition savings were gone—and her parents were dead. The men had found the house. Her parents had helped Ezrah escape and paid for it with their lives.

Back then, Ezrah had knelt before her parents and sworn he would love and protect Emberly for the rest of his life.

Soon after, he took her from her struggling mountain town to New York, settled her in a house, and promised marriage once his family approved.

But it had all been a lie. He'd had a fiancée the entire time. He'd deceived Emberly and treated her like a mistress.

Ezrah parted his lips as if to speak, but Meadow stamped her foot. "Ezrah, do you know her or not?"

"No," he said. "I don't." Not a flicker of hesitation.

Emberly's breath snagged in her throat. Tears slid down her face and landed on her hand, ice-cold.

"Good," Meadow said with a little laugh. "Since you don't know her, Ezrah, darling, you should handle her punishment for pulling my hair. Hmm?"

"What punishment?" he asked quietly.

"Make her kneel and apologize." Meadow tilted her head, all coy sweetness. "Ezrah, darling, she must be jealous of my beauty. I think that's fair. Don't you?"

Ezrah's answer came soft and easy. "Of course." He did not look at Emberly. "She owes you an apology."

Emberly dragged in a breath and fought to keep the tears back.

"This is insane," she said. "Kneel over a strand of hair? I'm done. I quit."

She turned sharply to leave.

"Ezrah, don't let her go!" Meadow cried.

Emberly made it one step before a sharp burn ripped across her scalp. Ezrah had grabbed her hair from behind and yanked her back. His voice was ice. "Did you not hear my fiancée tell you to kneel and apologize?"

The pain in her scalp was nothing compared to the splintering in her chest. Meadow's hair was precious to him. Emberly was dirt—as if she couldn't feel pain at all.

She struggled, defiance flaring. "Why should I kneel? It's just hair! I may be poor, but I have dignity. I won't apologize!"

"Shut up!" Ezrah growled, forcing her shoulder down until her knees hit the floor.

The cold shock of it shot up her legs. Something inside her seemed to crack and shatter.

Tears streamed down her face. "Ezrah, you swore to my parents you'd take care of me forever. How can you do this to me?"

Ezrah yanked her hair harder. "Who dumped you to make you this deranged? Stop spewing nonsense."

Then he shoved her head down against the floor.

"Say it," Meadow demanded, laying a single strand of hair in front of Emberly. "Apologize. Let everyone hear you."

Ezrah ordered the guard, Enrique Wells, to hold her down. "Keep her there until she apologizes."

Two customers stopped in the doorway. One raised her phone; the other whispered that someone should call the police. Brittany reached for the shop's landline, but Enrique blocked her way. "The manager is handling it," he said. Nobody came to help.

Emberly felt suffocated by the humiliation. She'd grown up poor, but her parents had taught her to hold on to her dignity. Now the man she'd loved most was grinding that dignity into the floor.

"I… I shouldn't have pulled your hair," Emberly whispered through her tears. Desperation clung to every word. "I'm sorry."

She had to bow her head. She just wanted the nightmare to end—to get out of this place, to get away from Ezrah Hunt.

Meadow scoffed and slapped a wad of cash against Emberly's face. "This ought to buy your dignity, right? A poor girl like you talking about dignity—that's a joke."

Then Meadow swept away, arm in arm with Ezrah.

Ezrah didn't look back at Emberly once. Not once.

Emberly scrambled to her feet and staggered into the dark storage room.

Clutching her chest, she curled into a ball and finally let herself sob.

Emberly Holmes had cried until she felt hollow. Once she pulled herself together, she went back to Ezrah Hunt's house to pack her things.

After bringing her to New York, Ezrah had installed her in a house on his Westchester estate. She had told him she wanted to apply to college again, and he had seemed supportive. He had even made her an authorized user on a credit card she had never touched.

Over the past year, she had rebuilt her application, updated her test scores, and earned offers from universities in the United States and Britain. Columbia's aid package made it the practical choice. Staying in New York would also mean staying with Ezrah. Two weeks earlier, she had accepted her place and declined her other confirmed offers.

Ezrah had covered her living expenses all year, but she didn't want to go to college on his dime. So before classes began, she'd taken a job to earn her own money. Then, during one shift, she'd been blindsided by the sight of Ezrah with his actual fiancée.

There was no way she could stay in that house. She needed to cut all ties with Ezrah.

A fresh wave of emotion threatened to overwhelm her, so Emberly packed in a hurry and forced herself toward the door. Just as she reached it, Ezrah walked in.

One look at the packed bags and Ezrah understood her plan. His eyes narrowed as he approached. He hooked an arm around her shoulders and pulled her back inside.

"Let go of me! Get away!" Emberly shouted, thrashing against him. Her punches and kicks did nothing.

Her chest heaved with fury as she spat, "Ezrah, you liar! I never want to see you again!"

Ezrah pinned her to the sofa with infuriating calm. "What did I lie to you about?" he asked softly.

Emberly shook her head in disbelief. "What did you lie about? You said you loved me, that you owed me. And now?"

"I didn't lie," Ezrah replied coolly. "You're a girl from humble beginnings, yet here you are living in a house, carrying designer bags, eating gourmet meals from around the world. Haven't I treated you well?"

"Do you think giving me things equals kindness?" Emberly shot back. "You've turned me into a mistress! You have a fiancée!"

Ezrah released her and stood, his face partly hidden in shadow.

"You never asked if I had a fiancée. And with your background, there's no way my family would accept you. I was willing to give you a private ceremony overseas. Isn't that proof enough of my love?"

"A ceremony," Emberly repeated. "You mean a performance. You were never going to be my husband." She gave a bitter laugh. "Your love is what made me apologize to your fiancée?"

Ezrah frowned. "Emberly, you need to understand that Meadow will be my lawful wife. We're of the same social standing, and I have to make sure she gets the respect she deserves. As for you, a little temporary humiliation is nothing in comparison. I promised I'd make it up to you."

Emberly started to clap—slow, mocking applause—but soon tears were streaming down her face again.

"So to you, my dignity and self-worth are worthless just because of where I come from. You and your fiancée can walk all over me as much as you please."

Emberly stood abruptly and faced him head-on. "I don't want your charity. From now on, we're done!"

She headed for the door. Ezrah didn't move. "You won't be able to leave," he said from behind her.

Emberly opened the door and realized what he meant. Two bodyguards stood at the entrance, blocking her way.

Furious, Emberly stormed back to confront him. "You have no right to keep me here against my will! I'm calling the police!"

"It won't do any good," Ezrah said calmly.

She dialed 911. Before she could give the dispatcher the address, Ezrah took the phone from her hand and ended the call. When it rang again, he carried it into the hallway. She heard him say there had been a mistake.

"You don't get to decide that," she shouted. He closed the door.

She did not know what he told the responding officers. She knew only that the guards moved her upstairs, away from the windows, and no one came to speak to her. The call had not failed because he was above the law. He had kept her from being heard.

Frustration pushed her to the brink of madness. She tried to escape through the window and found more guards stationed outside.

She threw insults at Ezrah, who sat there unmoved. When she tried to hit him, he simply pinned her back down on the sofa.

When her energy was gone and she was too exhausted to fight anymore, Ezrah would say, "Emberly, you need to learn to keep your composure."

Through it all, Emberly was the only one suffering—heartbreak, rage, despair. From the moment his lies came out, Ezrah stayed calm through every confrontation.

Finally, Emberly understood what it meant to be driven mad by someone who watched her break down with chilling detachment.

Drained, she lay on the floor, staring up at the ceiling, tears sliding silently down her cheeks.

Emberly Holmes was trapped in the house, where the staff came on schedule to cook and clean. Anything she asked for was delivered fast. On the surface, her life looked almost normal—Ezrah had returned her phone, but the guards searched her bag whenever she approached a door. After the first call, he had warned her that another attempt to get help would cost her access to her passport and laptop. She could browse and text. Getting someone to her before he intervened was another matter. But she was painfully aware of how completely her view of Ezrah Hunt had shifted.

She was sprawled on the couch, scrolling through her phone, when she saw her name among the trending topics. At first, she brushed it off as a coincidence. Then curiosity got the better of her, and she clicked.

Her stomach dropped. The screen lit up with a video from that humiliating day at the bridal shop—now public for the whole world to see. The title was brutal: "Columbia Admit Exposed as Billionaire's Other Woman."

In the video, Ezrah's and Meadow's faces were blurred out. Emberly's wasn't. Her personal information had been exposed and plastered beside photos of her and Ezrah from all different events. Horrified, she scrolled through the comments, straight into an avalanche of venom.

"She'll do anything for money. She deserves to be punished. A simple apology is too easy—why not let her suffer?"

"People with no morals shouldn't take spots at elite universities. Revoke her admission!"

"I heard her parents met a tragic end. Probably because of their disgraceful daughter."

Emberly read every scathing comment, each one dragging her back through the public humiliation. She hugged herself tightly, feeling utterly lost.

Should she try to clear her name? But the truth was obvious—Ezrah did have a fiancée. And even if she told everyone she'd been deceived, would anyone believe her?

A sound at the door cut through her thoughts. Emberly jumped up, hope flaring in her chest. Maybe it was Ezrah, coming to defend her. But it wasn't. Meadow Price walked in, flanked by several others.

Without warning, Meadow slapped her hard across the face. "So it's true. You really were involved with Ezrah, you shameless little homewrecker."

Stunned and off balance, Emberly didn't hit back. Instead, she tried desperately to explain. "Please, just hear me out. I honestly didn't know Ezrah had a fiancée. If I had, I never would've gotten involved."

Meadow's lips curled into a cruel smile. She glanced around the room with open disdain. "People like you will do anything for money. So are you ready to give up this luxurious little life and stop being the other woman?"

"I may not be rich, but I refuse to wreck someone's home," Emberly said firmly. "Ezrah was injured in the Colorado Rockies when I helped him. If I'd known about his engagement, I never would have come to New York with him."

Meadow stepped closer and tapped Emberly's cheek mockingly. "Such high ideals. If you hadn't tempted him, do you think he'd ever notice a girl from nowhere? You play the saint, but you're the one who tricked Ezrah."

"Me? Trick him?" Emberly's patience snapped. The false accusation lit a fire in her chest. "He's the one who lied to me. He told me he loved me and that he was planning a wedding abroad. I had no idea he was engaged. You saw the guards at the door—he's the one keeping me here. Otherwise, I'd be out of his life forever!"

Meadow's face hardened, jealousy sparking in her eyes. "Are you bragging about Ezrah's love for you?"

Emberly couldn't understand her twisted logic. There was nothing enviable about being lied to and trapped.

Seeing that talking was useless, Emberly let out a breath. "Let me go. I promise you'll never see me again."

Meadow laughed coldly. "Playing hard to get now, are we? Hoping Ezrah will come find you and turn against me? Trying to cause trouble between us? No. You don't get that chance."

She signaled to the guards. They moved fast, pinning Emberly to the floor. Meadow stood over her, sneering. "You think saving Ezrah and a pretty face will keep him interested? Once that face is gone, he'll feel guilty and compensate you generously. You'll thank me for it."

Then she took the knife one of the bodyguards handed her and advanced on Emberly, slow and deliberate.

Panic surged through Emberly. She struggled, but she was powerless against the professional strength holding her down. The cold blade grazed her skin, sending a shiver through her entire body.

Breathing hard, she pleaded, "I'll leave for good—I swear I'll never show my face to Ezrah again. Just don't do this!"

Meadow's lips twisted into a menacing smile. Her eyes glinted with malice. "Too late. You dared touch my man, and you'll regret it for the rest of your life."

She raised the knife. Emberly squeezed her eyes shut—

"Meadow!"