Framed By Love, Unleashed By Vengeance

I was a top patent lawyer until my husband and his lover framed me, destroyed my career, and sent me to prison. For seven years after, I was presumed dead, living as a ghost in a warehouse. Then, they found me. My ex-husband, Edgar, and our son, Kody, showed up, shocked to see me alive. They lured me to Kody' s 18th birthday party, but it was a lie. The party was a surprise engagement celebration for Edgar and Celena, the very woman who ruined my life. In front of everyone, Edgar told me to "let go." My own son even begged me. "Mom, please," he cried. "Just say you're sorry." Sorry? For what? For surviving the car crash they orchestrated to kill me? I looked at the boy I once loved more than life itself. In the sudden silence of the ballroom, I smiled and asked, "Kody, do you remember the night Celena asked you to slash my tires?" Chapter 1 Abigail Cardenas POV: The familiar scent of damp cardboard and recycled plastic filled my lungs, a scent I' d come to associate with my new reality. Seven years. Seven years since I was Abigail Cardenas, the sharp-witted patent lawyer, whose life had been surgically removed and replaced with this monotonous routine. Now, I was just Abigail, a ghost in a warehouse, sorting boxes under fluorescent lights. A commotion near the loading dock pulled me from my thoughts. It wasn' t unusual for visitors, but the hushed whispers and sudden stillness suggested something different. I kept my head down, my hands moving automatically, taping another box shut. Then I heard it. A voice. Deep, familiar, like a melody I'd tried to erase but was still etched into the deepest parts of my memory. Edgar. My breath hitched. My body froze, a cold dread seeping into my bones. Seven years. He was supposed to be a phantom, a chapter slammed shut. "Abigail?" The voice was closer now, hesitant, laced with a surprise that felt like a punch to my gut. I didn't look up. Couldn' t. I just kept sealing the box, my movements stiff, robotic. My heart was a frantic drum against my ribs. A shadow fell over me. A hand reached out, tentative, almost brushing my arm. I flinched, pulling back as if scalded. The touch would have burned me, branded me all over again. Silence stretched between us, thick and suffocating. The warehouse noise faded into a dull hum, as if the world was holding its breath. Every fiber of my being screamed at me to run, to disappear back into the anonymity I had carefully built. The fluorescent lights above hummed, casting a stark, unforgiving glow on the dust motes dancing in the air. The faint smell of exhaust fumes from a distant forklift suddenly felt overwhelming, making my stomach churn. I felt dizzy, disoriented. "Abigail? Is that really you?" His voice was hoarse now, thick with disbelief. "They said... they said you were gone. Dead." I remained silent. My jaw ached from clenching it so tightly. What could I say? That I wasn't dead enough? That I had survived the wreckage he and his lover had made of my life? "We had a funeral," he continued, a strange mix of shock and relief in his tone. "Celena... she was devastated. Kody... he cried for weeks." My blood ran cold. The names, uttered so casually, were like venom. Devastated? Cried for weeks? The hypocrisy was a bitter taste in my mouth. Another figure moved beside him. Taller now, broader shoulders. Kody. My Kody. "Mom?" Kody' s voice, a raw, broken whisper, tore through me. My hands trembled, but I didn't stop working. I couldn't acknowledge them. Not here. Not now. Not ever. "Why didn't you tell us?" Edgar' s voice pleaded, stepping closer. "We thought... we thought we' d lost you forever." Lost me? They had thrown me away. I wanted to scream the words, but they stuck in my throat, choked by years of unspoken pain. Kody stepped forward, his young face etched with an emotion I couldn't quite decipher. "Mom, please. Just... say something." I closed my eyes for a fraction of a second, a sharp ache shooting through my chest. The word "Mom" felt alien on his lips. It belonged to a different life, a different woman. "I'm sorry, sir," I finally said, my voice flat, devoid of emotion. "You must have me confused with someone else." Each word was a tiny chip off the wall I had built around myself. Edgar reeled back as if I had struck him. "What are you talking about? It's me, Edgar. And this is Kody. Your son." He gestured to Kody, who looked ready to collapse. Kody, who was supposed to be my son. The boy I had loved with every fiber of my being. The boy who had helped push me off that cliff. "My son?" I laughed, a dry, humorless sound that felt brittle in the air. "I don't have a son." Edgar stared at me, his eyes wide with a mixture of hurt and disbelief. He took in my work uniform, the grime on my hands, the exhaustion etched on my face. His gaze lingered on the worn-out sneakers, the faded denim. His face crumpled. "Abigail, what happened to you? Why are you... here?" His voice was thick with what sounded almost like pity. "You look like you've been to hell and back." "Where else would I be?" I shot back, my voice still devoid of warmth. "The life you left me, Edgar, it didn't exactly come with a golden parachute." "But... why didn't you reach out? I could have helped you," he insisted, taking another step forward. "We could have fixed this." Fixed this? There was no fixing what they had done. I looked at Kody, who was now openly weeping, his shoulders shaking. The sight did nothing to soften the concrete around my heart. "You can't fix what is broken beyond repair," I said, my gaze hardening. "And you, Edgar, you left me with nothing but shattered pieces." He opened his mouth, but no words came out. He looked defeated, his usual polished demeanor replaced by a raw vulnerability I hadn't seen in years. "Please, Mom," Kody sobbed, reaching for me. "I missed you so much. We all did." I pulled my hand away before he could touch me. "You have no 'Mom' here," I said, my voice a flat line. "And I have no son." His face paled, the tears still streaming down his cheeks. "But... I'm Kody. Your Kody." "That Kody died with Abigail Cardenas," I stated, my voice echoing hollowly in the vast space. "And neither of them are coming back." A colleague, oblivious to the drama unfolding, called out, "Hey, Abigail! You done with that pallet?" I turned away from their stunned faces. "Almost," I replied, my voice steady, putting the final strip of tape on the box. Edgar tried to speak again, but I cut him off. "I have work to do. My shift isn't over." He tried to take another step, but I held up a hand. "Leave. There's nothing for you here." "Abigail, please," he began, "just talk to me. Let me help you." I finally looked at him, my eyes like ice. "Help me? You think I need your help?" I scoffed. "The only thing you can do for me is disappear. Again." He stood there, frozen, his face a mask of shock and pain. Kody, too, was rooted to the spot, his sobs now silent, replaced by a wide-eyed horror. "We just... we wanted to see you," Edgar stammered, his voice cracking. "Kody's birthday is coming up. He wants you there." My stomach lurched. His birthday. The reminder of what he used to be, what we used to be, was a cold knife twist. "I'm busy," I said, turning my back fully and pushing the pallet toward the loading bay. "Tell Kody Happy Birthday. From a stranger." The words hung in the air, a final, definitive severing. I heard Kody' s ragged gasp, but I didn't look back. There was nothing left to see.