My mother is pale as a ghost.
“How could you?” Roland demands, low and furious, as I try to grapple with this new information. “She’s your daughter, too. Your blood. And you treated her like nothing.”
My mother’s eyes narrow, and she sneers when she looks at me, like I’m still that powerless girl she used to corner and tear apart with words that bled deeper than fists ever could.
“Blood?” she spits, laughing—sharp, cruel, ugly. She looks atme like I disgust her. “She was a stain. A mistake. I should’ve gotten rid of her like I did the others.”
Ethan’s arm tightens around me. I can feel the rage vibrating off him, but he stays still, grounded—for me.
Only Roland steps forward, his hands clenched into a fist on top of his cane.
“You hated her because she reminded you of me,” he says, voice rough and broken. “You hated her and because you couldn’t hurt me, so you hurt her instead.”
My mother’s smile twists into something monstrous. “You thought you won when you had those DNA tests conducted? You thought you won when you divorced me? Look at you now. Look at her. Broken little shit. She’s a whore, nothing more. If she had stayed pure, then at least Lucas could have circulated her amongst his colleagues, gotten some use out of her. But she had to go and humiliate him by sleeping with that man.”
The words slice into me like knives.
For a second, it’s like I’m back there. I’m the little girl locked out in the cold, begging to be let inside. The teenager flinching at slammed doors and snarled insults. The woman learning how to survive with scars no one could see.
Roland stares at her like he’s seeing the devil herself.
“You’re sick,” he says hoarsely. “You’re not a mother. You’re a monster.”
Her eyes burn with hate.
“And I’m not done,” she spits, her voice dripping with venom. “You think dragging her out of here saves her? She’s under Lucas’s conservatorship now. You will never have her back. I’ll kill this little bitch and send you her remains. Then you can have her.”
I always knew my mother hated me, but this is almost comical in some cruel horrific way. She despises my existence. She wants me to die. She wants me to suffer. She takes pleasure in it.
I stare at her, my fingers gripping Ethan. “You are pathetic. You are a pathetic woman, Mom. And you’re crazy to think your plan will work. No judge will buy your fake conservatorship papers. You and Lucas are insane.”
Police sirens sound outside, and Roland steps towards me. “I’m taking my daughter back now, Bridget. You and Lucas can enjoy the air of prison for a few years.”
“You’re not taking that bitch anywhere.” Lucas lunges at him.
“No!” I scream out. But Ethan is faster. He blocks Lucas’s attack, slamming him into the ground with one leg sweep along the floor and pressing his foot on his hand just as police officers storm in.
“I’ll kill you!” Lucas screams, his eyes filled with an insanity that is terrifying. “I’ll kill you both and that child. I’ll take everything you have, Ethan! I deserve it, not you! Let me go!”
“Let my son go!” My mother is struggling as the officer put them both in restraints.
I lean against Ethan, closing my eyes, trying to breathe. The turmoil of the past two hours is catching up on me, though, and I feel myself slump against him, the darkness taking hold of me.
At least I’m safe.
CHAPTER 28
NATALIE
The first thingI feel is pain. A deep, aching throb on every inch of my body that pulls me out of the dark. The second thing I feel is warmth. A hand wrapped around mine, strong, steady, tethering me to the world.
I blink against the harsh hospital lights, my vision swimming. It takes a second to focus—to breathe—but when I do, I find Ethan. He’s sitting beside me, his hair a disheveled mess, dark circles carved beneath his eyes. He looks like he hasn’t slept in days.
His hand tightens around mine when he sees me stirring, and the sound of his broken, relieved breath slices right through me.
“Ethan,” I croak, my voice barely there.
He leans in immediately, brushing my hair back from my forehead with a trembling hand.
