Traded For A Brother His Vows Were Lies Chapter 1

Owen Davis was cheating.

The day I caught him, Owen was cheating.

To stop me from walking out, he staggered into the kitchen, snatched a steak knife, and drew the blade savagely across his own wrist, sobbing so hard the sound choked in his throat.

"Liz, if you won't forgive me, I swear, I’ll kill myself."

Blood sprayed, flecking my face, blurring my vision.

A sharp, sick ache tightened my chest, and my eyes burned. Looking at Owen, I felt utterly cold.

"Owen, if you truly want to die," I said, my voice flat. "Don't do it in front of me."

I walked over, took the knife from his slackened grip, and gave him the final word.

"Owen, we're calling off the wedding."

* * *

"No! I won't call it off!"

Ignoring the deep gash on his wrist, Owen lunged, clutching me in a hug so tight I could barely breathe. All I could hear was his ragged, crumbling voice.

"I am not breaking up with you!"

"Eliza Reed!" Owen grabbed my hand, his fingers slick with his own blood, and slapped it hard against his face. "Hit me, then!"

"Slap me, scream at me, do whatever you want!"

"Just don't call off the wedding, please! Don't leave me!"

I watched the scarlet seep steadily from his wrist. The warm, sticky blood smeared my hand and his face, coiling around my heart like a vicious vine, tightening until I was suffocating. As my eyes met his, for a flashing moment, I remembered.

I remembered Owen using that same face, those same desperate eyes, driven by pure, raw need, while he was buried in another woman. The image hit me, and I shoved him away with all my strength, stumbling to the bathroom. I vomited until my entire body ached and I felt hollowed out, but through the roar in my ears, I could still hear Owen's voice.

"Wife, we're getting married right away!"

"Wife!"

"You're going to be my wife! My life depends on you!"

The truth was, I never thought I would leave Owen. I never imagined there would be a hole in my life where Owen used to be. Just like I never imagined I’d find him naked, intimately tangled with someone else, shattering the illusion of our love.

"Get out!"

I backed away frantically until I hit the wall, cornered. I saw the look of wounded, complete devastation on his face as he screamed.

"Get out!"

Owen’s complexion turned stark white. He dropped to his knees in front of me, pleading, saying sorry, saying he’d made a mistake, that it was only a moment of madness, that he’d been drunk, that he couldn't help himself.

"Liz."

"You are the only one I have ever loved!"

"I love you!"

Owen lost too much blood.

At the hospital, I sat in the silent hallway, watching the red light above the Emergency Room door. I was chilled to the bone, feeling trapped in a dead end. That's when his phone, which I still held, rang. It was the other woman.

She called his name. Receiving no answer, she asked me, "Where is Owen?"

"Who are you?"

My throat was raw, like I’d swallowed glass. Before I could speak, I heard her voice, silky, yet confident.

"You must be Eliza Reed."

"Owen's fiancée."

"But so what?" she purred. "As long as you haven't made it official, who's to say Owen will actually marry you?"

"Eliza Reed."

"I hear you were holding out on him, saving yourself for the wedding night, thinking that's what a good woman does. Well, you shouldn't blame Owen for straying and finding love elsewhere. Eliza, this is your own damn fault."