— You’re dead to me, Zümrüt. Get out before I hand you over for a company’s entertainment — the husband’s cruel words burn and break me from the inside.
On my first wedding night, the white bedsheet remained without a single trace, and then they slandered me, accusing me of adultery. In one blow, my family was turned into ruins.
I was thrown out of the house. Swallowing humiliation and forgetting pride, I went after my husband, Alikhan, to the military unit, hoping to prove to him that I was honest. But instead of remorse, the man I loved made me a pastime for his comrades…
Colonel Alhazov pulled me out of disgrace. He promised protection and patronage, but in the cold steel of his gaze it was clear something else: from now on, I belong to him entirely.
All characters and events are fictional and have no connection to the real situation in Russia or in the Caucasus.