VENGEANCE. Hiding deep within the shadows of human nature, it smolders… Simmers… Waits. Only, for me, it was no longer a hibernating beast. The day I discovered the wrongs committed against me, vengeance clawed its way right through me. The beast had emerged from its lair with a burning need to destroy the man who tore my marriage apart. And now? Now, it was my lifeline. My dark lover. My. Whole. Purpose. REVENGE. They say it’s sweet in the end, and I believed them. I could almost taste that honey on my tongue, like a balm I needed to quell the bitterness. But it was all a lie. I was blindsided. And not once did I think about who I might hurt along the way. I never considered the casualties that may fall across my path of destruction. No… Revenge is not sweet. Retaliation does not end in reward. Vengeance is not justice. The promises whispered by that beast within? They’re all hollow. All it ever wanted was to be set free. In the end, I never expected things to be worse than when it all began. I never expected the wreckage left in my wake. I never expected her. *** "The Thorns Remain" is a contemporary romance standalone, previously titled "What We Deserve." ***