Prologue

You can run from your past, but not from the man who owns it.

"Sign it," he said coldly, sliding the marriage contract toward me.

My fingers trembled around the pen.

"This is blackmail."

"No," Ryan murmured, stepping closer. "This is salvation. For your sister."

He smiled—cruel, confident. "Or would you rather I return her to the same monsters who took you years ago?"

His words sliced through my chest like a blade, the shadows of a forgotten trauma tightening around me.

I didn’t remember the nightmares that haunted me.

I didn’t remember the reason I woke up screaming.

I didn’t even remember who I used to be.

But I knew one thing—I had to save her.

So I signed.

Not knowing that I was offering myself to the very devil I was trying to escape.

And as he placed the ring on my finger, leaning in with a promise I couldn’t yet understand, he whispered:

"You’ll remember everything, Anvitha. One day. And when you do, I wonder… will you still belong to me?"