The Blowback Chapter 1

I am the tenth in a line of martyrs, each of my foremothers born with a burden and a gift, each dying for a cause greater than herself.

So it was that from the moment I drew my first breath, a voice, ancient and genderless, whispered in the back of my mind: “You will have three wishes, granted without question. All they will cost is a small piece of yourself.”

For my first wish, I prayed for Ethan, whose body had been frail since birth. I asked that he be granted perfect health. The price was my right eye.

For my second wish, I asked for a happy marriage with him, a life of love and partnership. The price was the feeling in the left half of my body.

For my third wish, I prayed for Ethan’s success, for his ambitions to be realized. The price was a constant, searing pain, as if a thousand needles were embedded in my skin, every second of every day.

And then, on the second day after his name appeared at the top of the Forbes list, I was dragged onto an auction block.

Ethan sat in the front row, his arm draped around his “work wife,” Veronica. They were here to sell the rights to me.

I closed my eyes and said nothing.

Veronica’s sharp laugh cut through the murmuring crowd. “Look at her. Has the blind girl completely given up? She won’t even scream.”

But I wasn’t listening. I was focused on a new sensation. A flicker of warmth, a ghost of a pulse in the hollowed-out socket of my right eye. A forgotten strength, coiling in my veins, returning to me at long last.

If you want my life so badly, I thought, the words a silent prayer to the forces I’d bargained with, then you’d better be ready for the blowback when your wishes expire.

* * *

When I opened my eye again, the needle-prick agony was already washing over me. In a strange way, I was grateful for the price of my second wish—the paralysis that had claimed my left side. That half of my body was a silent continent, immune to the pain, a blessed void.

I looked down. Sometime, in the darkness, they had changed me into a flimsy silk slip. It did little to hide me, and the chill on my skin seemed to amplify the jeering voices beyond the bars of my cage.

“Seriously, Ethan, is your wife brain-dead?” a familiar voice drawled. “She’s not giving us any reaction at all. How boring.”

I lifted my head. Through the haze of my single eye, I could make out the sharp silhouette of Veronica, the COO of Ethan’s empire. His work wife.

“Hey, look at that,” she said, her voice sharp with surprise. “The little blind thing is glaring at me.”

She rose and sauntered to the cage, her fingers slipping through the bars to stroke my cheek. Her touch was cold. “Tell me, Ethan. A woman this beautiful, and she did all that for you. Don't you feel even a flicker of regret?”

The man who had once whispered promises of forever into my ear just chuckled. He pulled Veronica onto his lap and kissed her, a hard, possessive kiss. “If I felt regret, would you like that? Weren’t you the one who couldn’t stand the thought of her in my bed? Hmm?”

Ethan’s hand slid down to squeeze Veronica’s hip, but his eyes, cold and flat as river stones, were locked on me. “She’s served her purpose. Better to sell her for a good price than to keep her around and listen to you complain.”

I remained silent, watching them. From the moment the masked men threw the sack over my head, I knew. I knew it was Ethan.

I had tried, of course. I had screamed for him. I told my kidnappers, “I’m Ethan Carter’s wife!”

They had just roared with laughter. “We know! That’s why we’re here! Mr. Carter himself is paying us to do this. He offered us…” One of them flashed a number with his fingers, a blur I couldn’t decipher. I didn’t need to. I understood it was a fortune.

I knew people changed. I just didn’t realize how fast. He’d been on the cover of Forbes for a single day before he decided the pretense was over.

All that pain. All that sacrifice. For nothing.

A bitter smile twisted my lips. I met his gaze through the iron bars. “I have to ask something stupid,” I said, my voice hoarse. “Did you ever love me?”

For a second, just a second, something flickered in his eyes. A ghost of emotion. Then it was gone, his expression hardening into a mask of disgust. He shook his head. “How could I love a monster like you?” he said, his voice laced with contempt. “Loving you would be like making a deal with the devil.”