Broken Strings

On the eve of my wedding, I was abducted and subjected to an agonizing, livestreamed nightmare.

As the captors snapped my fingers one by one, Julian stared desperately through the screen from the other end:

"Don't touch her! Take me instead. My life is worth more—let me be your hostage!"

When I was finally rescued, half my body was numb and incontinent. He refused to let anyone else carry me, holding me tight all the way to the hospital, unwilling to part for even a single second.

I thought he loved me.

Until glowing lines of text began drifting through thin air before my eyes.