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Prologue

Grace

A chilly breeze twisted through the intense blue sky

A warning of the co winter

A cold, quiet whisper

A premonition

His voice twisted with seduction as he murmured the words close to my face “I warned you who I was”

Selfish

Greedy

Incapable of love

The devil

Maybe I’d been the fool who hadn’t believed hi better than the powerful, callous ht then

I hugged my arms across my chest as if it could shield me from the brutality of his words As if they could protect

“No, you’re wrong You’re so much more than that I know you are I’ve seen it”

“You only sahat you wanted to see”

“You told ”

“And look what that got you”

A gust of hipped through The spindly branches of the ancient oaks hissed and howled, sending a turound

It stirred the chaos that raged inside me

I don’t believe you

I don’t believe you

My spirit screaled to accept the reality The truth that he could hurt me this way

It ripped and tore at my insides

Loss

A grief unlike anything I’d ever felt

Hope scattering like the leaves

“How could you do this?” I forced myself to look up at his beautiful face

Too beautiful Too erous

“How could you, when you knohat is at stake? When you kno badly I need you? I trusted you” The last raked fro throat

As raw and aching as my heart

He reached out and brushed his fingertips down the side of my face

Tenderly

A stark contrast to the wickedness that blazed from his soul

Then his voice twisted with that dark, bitter hatred—hatred I was sure was completely directed at himself

“You shouldn’t have”

One