Framed by the Man I Loved

My husband, Kael, was convinced I had something to do with the sudden disappearance of his mistress, Cassia. And to punish me for it, he crossed a line I never imagined—he kidnapped my younger brother.

He shoved his phone into my hand. The screen glowed, and a shaky video played. Wind screamed through the speaker like a warning.

My brother stood at the edge of a steep cliff, blindfolded, wrists tied behind his back, swaying with every gust as if the air itself was ready to push him over. One wrong step, and he’d be gone forever.

“No…” The word broke out of me, strangled. My legs buckled. “Please, Kael… don’t. Please.”

But the man I once thought would protect me for life only stared, ice-cold, detached, as if this wasn’t my brother’s life on the line. He held the phone out casually, like he was showing me the weather forecast.

“What?” His voice snapped sharp and merciless. “You’re still refusing to admit where Cassia is?”

I tried to form words, but my throat locked tight with terror.

Kael’s jaw twitched as he thrust the phone closer to my face. “Do you think I’m blind? Are you trying to humiliate me, Amara?” His tone hardened, every word dripping with accusation. “You’re the reason she disappeared, aren’t you? You chased her away!”

Tears streamed down my cheeks as I lifted my head. “For her? Just for her—you’re willing to kill my brother?” My voice splintered. “Kael, I’m your wife!”

But he didn’t even blink. The word wife slid off him like it was meaningless.

“Tell me where she is,” he barked again, louder this time.

It was the fourth time.

The first time, I kept silent. He had thrown cruel accusations at me before; I thought it would pass. The second, I swallowed my agony. The third, I let his rage spill without resistance—I was used to it by then. Letting him believe his twisted fantasies was easier.

But now… now he dangled my brother’s life just to protect his mistress. The same woman he once told me meant nothing when we married.

“Kael, I swear—” I tried, desperate.

“Don’t feed me lies!” he roared.

“I’m not lying!” I sobbed. “She left on her own—I didn’t do anything!”

The fury in his eyes sharpened into something lethal.

And suddenly, memories clawed their way back.

The last time I saw Cassia, she had cornered me in the hallway. The sickly sweetness of her perfume clung to the air, her lips curved into a triumphant smile.

“He’ll never love you, Amara,” she whispered smugly, tossing her hair. “Why not save yourself the trouble and walk away? You’re just in his way.”

“We’re married,” I told her, voice icy but steady. “Five years of marriage. You’re the one destroying a home, not me. You’re the one who should leave.”

“A home?” She scoffed, rolling her eyes. “Don’t flatter yourself. You’ve been nothing more than a stand-in for the past five years. I’ve always been his first love. His only real love. Now that I’m back, you have no place anymore.”

I turned to go, but her next words froze me.

“Fine. If you won’t leave, then I’ll make sure Kael pushes you out himself.”

I spun around. “What are you planning?”

Her smile widened. “I’ll disappear. I’ll make it look like you chased me away. Then let’s see who Kael believes. Let’s see who he chooses.”

Back then, I brushed her off. Kael had flings before—they came and went like storms. I thought Cassia would be no different. But I was wrong. She wasn’t just another woman. She was the woman—the first love he never got over. That’s why when she returned, he discarded five years of our life together as if it were nothing.

Five years I thought were real. Five years of love I believed in. All of it—a lie.

And now, because of her scheme, I was being punished.

“She framed me…” The words slipped from my lips in a whisper, as though speaking them aloud would somehow make him see reason.

But Kael only glared, hatred twisting his features, his grip on the phone so tight I thought it might shatter. “You think I’ll let you humiliate me like this?”

“I didn’t do anything,” I pleaded. “Please… don’t hurt him. He’s just a boy. He’s all I have left!”

But my desperation meant nothing.

Kael’s gaze fell back on the phone before flicking to his men. “She’s not talking. Throw him over.”

“NO!” I shrieked, rushing forward.

Before I could reach him, one of his aides stormed into the room with a file in hand.

“Sir! Urgent. We intercepted a travel record—Madam Amara booked a flight to Greece last week.”

My blood ran cold. What? No. I never—

“Greece?” Kael’s voice dropped, dangerously low. His eyes cut into me.

“No,” I whispered. Panic clawed at my throat. “That’s not me. I didn’t—”

“So that’s it,” he growled. “You bought her ticket. You sent her away. And then you lied to me.”

“It’s not true!” I cried, voice cracking. “I don’t even know where she is! I swear, Kael, I wasn’t the one who—”

“Useless,” he spat, his contempt striking like a whip. “If anything happens to her, it’s your fault.”

And without another glance at me or at my brother’s life hanging on the edge, he stormed out—chasing after her.

The door slammed. His men’s voices echoed immediately after:

“Drop him.”

I ran.

I didn’t feel the jagged gravel shredding my feet or the wind tearing past me. All I could see was my brother. All I could think was don’t let me be too late.

When I reached the cliff, horror swallowed me whole.

His body had crashed into the trees below, tangled in branches, broken, bleeding. The woods had caught him before the ground could claim him, but he lay motionless.

A scream ripped out of me, raw enough to tear my throat.

Paramedics came. They lifted him, checked him.

Alive. Barely.

Broken bones. Swelling in the brain. A coma.

I sat in the hospital at his bedside, my trembling hands clasping his cold fingers. His battered face looked so fragile, so pale. His lips moved faintly, as if even unconscious, he was trying to fight back.

I cried until my eyes ached, until I couldn’t tell if the tears were for him, for myself, or for the woman I used to be—the one who believed love and loyalty actually meant something.

Kael never came. He never even called.

He chose her. He nearly killed my brother—for her.

And there, in that sterile hospital room, staring at the boy I swore to protect, something in me finally broke.

The tears stopped.

My hand reached for my phone. My voice was steady when the line connected.

“Ms. Amara?” My lawyer answered. “What happened?”

“I want to file for divorce.”