Chasing a Statue: Eight Years Lost

I spent eight years of my life trying to warm a statue. For six years, I chased Brooks Kane, the "Saint of Wall Street," and for two more, I lived in a hollow, unconsummated marriage, believing my love could melt his icy heart.

I was wrong. The truth wasn't another woman; it was a doll. I found my husband in a secret chapel, praying to a life-sized doll with the face of his adopted sister, Chastity. He confessed his forbidden love for her, calling our marriage a cage he had to endure.

When I tried to leave, Chastity smashed a bottle over my head. I woke up in the hospital with twelve stitches, but Brooks wasn't there. He was comforting her, tending to a scratch on her cheek while I bled. He even used his power to make my police report disappear, calling it an "unseemly family matter."