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“Are you sure you can win?”
My fists clenched tightly.
Tyler wouldn’t have dared challenge the old me.
But now,even a trust-fund kid like him could crush me.
I glanced at Ethan.“You said you’d give me a chance to prove myself.”
Ethan gave Tyler a look,then smiled oddly.
“Jessica,I changed my mind.”
My eyes widened.“You!”
His words gave a signal to Tyler,who pounced like a wolf.“You heard him.Pay up,or else we’ll take action.”
He grinned.“Your face could be worth a lot of money.”
His punks swarmed,surrounding me.
As the first hand touched me,I made eye contact with Ethan.
“Ethan!”
I refused to believe he’d hand me over to Tyler.
He was just teasing me.
I even suspected he’d staged this.
He wanted me to beg and break.
“Help me.I’ll agree to anything.”
Ethan’s lips curved,looking satisfied.“Deal.”
The punks backed off.
Tyler paled.“Mr.Caldwell,we agreed there would be no interference on your part.”
Ethan grabbed my hand,walking out of the room.“Money’s on its way to your account.”
I struggled to keep up,remaining silent.
His car stopped at an apartment near our old campus.
I’d lived there with him in college.
“What are you doing?”
He didn’t answer.
A bad feeling grew,reaching its peak at the moment when he pinned me against the door.
His tried to kiss me.I dodged instinctively.
It angered him.He gripped my chin.“Didn’t you say anything about it?”
I shut my eyes,looking resigned.“Just once.”
He tore my dress.“I had no choice.”
At the height of passion,he whispered,“Jessica,let’s have a child.”
I snapped awake.“No!”
His face turned cold.“Jessica,you hate me that much?”
“You’d carry Ryan’s child,but not mine?”
“You waited six months in London to miscarry—so attached to his child?”
I lay there,his words ripping open my deepest scar in my heart.
Tears slid down,one after another.
I was attached.
I knew the timing was wrong,that I couldn’t keep it.
So I delayed,until the last possible month of the pregnancy.
Seeing my tears,Ethan became gentle.“Jessica.”
“Stop fighting me,okay?”
I wiped my face,feeling cold.“I’m not fighting.”
“Ethan,I can’t have children anymore.”
I wasn’t lying.
The miscarriage was at a very late term,and London’s costly healthcare left me physically and emotionally drained.
With poor recovery,pregnancy was near impossible.
