Forbidden Fruit

Summary

Ruth Ancaster, porcelain-perfect in veil and vitriol, steps toward the altar only to find Edward’s ring a snake devouring its own tail—his infidelity a many-headed hydra of chorus girls, cigarette girls, and hotel clerks. Betrayal crystallizes into a blade; she weds Henry, Edward’s confidant, in a venomous parody of devotion. But Edward, lounging in the shadows like a malignant choreographer, uncovers Henry’s forgery—a stock certificate signed in counterfeit—and tightens the noose. The bargain: Ruth’s body for Henry’s freedom, a transaction measured not in coin but in skin, breath, and the slow erosion of her name. What follows is a danse macabre of glances, ledger books, and half-lit boudoirs where every whispered promise leaves teeth marks on the soul.

Synopsis

Ruth Ancaster is about to marry her fiance, Edward, when she discovers that he has been cheating on her with a variety of different women. Angered, she marries Henry, Edward's best friend. Edward sees a chance to take his revenge on both of them when Henry, in financial trouble, forges Edward's name on a stock certificate and is caught. He offers to drop the charges against Henry if Ruth agrees to "pay the price"--and he doesn't mean money.