In a basement thick with the stench of blood and betrayal, Lachlan Kelley-Mayer awakens to a nightmare. Chained to a rusted mattress, her body bruised and her heirloom wedding ring stolen, she realizes her husband, Jack, has orchestrated her kidnapping—a $5 million ransom for a life he's already written off. But Lachlan is no pawn. A philanthropist with a razor-sharp mind and a lifetime of parsing Jack's lies, she turns survival into a lethal game.
With her captors—Marek, a mercenary with a wintermint smile, and Jenna, a reluctant accomplice—Lachlan dances on a knife's edge, unraveling Jack's web of offshore accounts and hollow vows. Flashbacks of their opulent marriage—diamond pendants, charity galas, and whispered threats—fuel her resolve. As deadlines loom and bodies pile up, Lachlan must outwit a man who taught her to play poker... and forgets she learned to cheat. A pulse-pounding thriller of marital deceit, acid pits, and the ghosts of trust, Brighter When Broken asks: How far would you go to burn the person who vowed to love you?