Chapter 1 The Betrayal

I licked my lower lips as I sipped the vintage Cristal wine I had bought for our second year anniversary few days ago, I still remember buying the champagne at $1,500 a bottle, and boy, it tasted like copper.

I remember the way the moonlight filtered through the weeping willow branches, casting long, skeletal shadows across the lawn of our private estate. It was our second anniversary, and we had to celebrate it. I had spent the day closing a thirty-million-dollar acquisition for my Tech company and I was excited that the empire I built from a garage startup while Jude was still trying to find himself was now a multinational company.

We had to celebrate our anniversary , plus I planned to break the news to Jude that I closed the deal I have been trying to figure out for months. There was another surprise I also wanted to share with him, so I thought the picnic blanket and the secluded spot near the edge of the woods were romantic. I got my domestic staff to do a thorough work on it, while I invited my husband and best friend Nora.

"To us," Jude said, raising his glass. His smile didn't reach his eyes. It never did anyway, but I was too blinded by my own loyalty to notice the frost in his gaze.

"To us," Nora echoed. My best friend, my sister, my maid of honor, my closest pal whom I told everything, or so I thought. She was wearing a silk slip dress that cost more than my first car, a gift from me.

I took a sip, and within seconds, I couldn't tell what was happening to me. The world began to tilt. The stars above skewed into jagged lines of light. My lungs felt like they were filling with wet concrete. I tried to speak, but my tongue was a lead weight in my mouth.

"The dosage is just perfect, Nora," Jude uttered, his voice dropping the facade of warmth. He caught me as I slumped sideways, but there was no tenderness in his grip. He lowered me roughly to the grass like a piece of unwanted luggage.

"Took long enough," Nora grumbled as she stood over me. She reached down and twisted the fifteen-carat diamond ring off my numbing finger. "God, I’ve hated watching you wear this ring, but I am sure it will fit me better" she said, sliding it into her fingers with satisfaction written all over her. You always thought you were so much better than me, Phina. Just because you had the intelligence and influence, and because you had the money too, now look at you at my mercy. You cannot even speak.

Well don't worry darling, you will be gone before you know, and I will take everything from you, including your handsome husband."

I wanted to scream that I had shared everything with her, I had loved her like my own sister. I wanted to ask Jude why but my body betrayed me, I was totally numb. They were not just killing me, they were killing my unborn child.

As if reading my thoughts, Jude knelt beside me. He stroked a stray hair from my forehead, a gesture that made my skin crawl. "You’re a genius, Saraphina. Truly. But geniuses are exhausting to live with. You’re so busy building the future that you didn't notice I was signing the power of attorney papers you left on your desk. Or that the board of directors already prefers my leadership to yours"

"Is she still conscious?" Nora asked, tapping her manicured nails against her glass. "The hole isn't going to dig itself, Jude, come on."

"She’s paralyzed, not dead. Not yet." Jude uttered.

"Then, let's bury her alive. There is no time" Nora uttered.

I could feel them dragging me. My heels furrowed the dirt I had spent thousands of dollars landscaping. They stopped at the base of the willow tree, where a dark, rectangular maw had been opened in the earth.

I watched them, trapped in the prison of my own skin, as they began to work. Digging, the sound of the shovels hitting the soil was rhythmic, a heartbeat of impending doom. They didn't even have the decency to look away. They laughed and mocked me. They talked about what they would do with the insurance money, how they would redecorate the penthouse, and how "tragic" my sudden disappearance would be to the press. They also talked about how they would get married in a few months time.

"I would tell everyone she had a breakdown," Jude screamed aloud, leaning on his shovel. "The pressure of the tech world. She just... walked away, and I don't know where she is. We’ll find your car near the cliffs tomorrow."

He looked down at me one last time. There was no remorse. Only the cold, calculated relief of a man who had finally eliminated his greatest debt.

"Goodbye, Phina. It was good while it lasted"

The first shovel of dirt hit my chest. It was heavy and cold.

The second hit my face.

The darkness wasn't just the absence of light; it was the weight of their betrayal crushing the air out of my throat. As the world vanished beneath the soil, my love for them didn't just die, it curdled into something black and jagged. Something that refused to stay buried, they buried me alive.