Chapter 4

I don't know how long she hit me until the neighbor heard the noise and pulled us apart.

A woman knelt beside me, asking if I was okay.

I snapped out of my daze, trembling as I searched my bag for medicine but couldn't find it.

A pair of feet stopped in front of me. White pills fell to the floor like pearls.

I was stunned and looked up.

Kieran stood over me, holding an empty medicine bottle, his smile cold and malicious: "Take it."

4

When I got engaged to Kieran, my condition was nearly stable. At my worst, I locked myself in my room, refusing food and water, clawing at my skin with my nails. Kieran felt sorry for me and took time off work to take me on trips, from warm Hawaii to frigid Iceland. He proposed in a lavender field in Provence, kneeling on one knee, his profile devout as he slipped a ring onto my finger. "Adeline, I’ll be with you for a lifetime."

I once saw Kieran as my lifeline. When I was teetering on the edge of the abyss, he was the only salvation I could cling to. During the times when self-harm and the will to survive tore me apart, he broke that balance.

He appeared in the darkest time of my life, like a savior, delivering me from suffering.