Ruin Me Softly | A.L. Wilder

Eden Whitmore was the perfect wife.

Polished. Composed. Silent.

From the outside, her life beside one of the most powerful men in the country looked untouchable—private planes, donor galas, admiration that followed them into every room. Behind closed doors, it was something else entirely. Control disguised as devotion. Violence hidden beneath tailored suits and carefully curated smiles. A marriage that functioned as a cage.

So Eden did the unthinkable.

She ran.

In a small town where no one knew her name—or her past—she rebuilt herself as Eliza Moore. She found work, community, and something she thought she’d lost forever: the right to exist without permission. She learned what it felt like to be seen without being owned. To be loved without conditions.

But monsters don’t release what they believe belongs to them.

When the man she escaped finally finds her, Eliza makes a choice that will change everything. Instead of running again, she walks back into the heart of his world—armed with the truth, a meticulously kept record of his crimes, and a plan that could bring down a powerful trafficking ring built on silence and fear.

What follows is a reckoning.

A violent, devastating collision between survival and justice. Between love that protects and power that destroys. Between who she was forced to be—and who she chose to become.

Ruin Me Softly is a harrowing, emotionally charged novel about coercive control, resilience, and the cost of telling the truth. It is a story of a woman who refuses to disappear quietly—and the people willing to stand beside her, even when the price is everything.

Because sometimes survival isn’t the end of the story.

Sometimes it’s just the beginning.

Tropes: Dark Emotional Romance, Escaping Abuse, Woman Reclaiming Her Identity, Healing After Trauma, Learning What Healthy Love Looks Like