Chapter 11Olivia’ s perfectly made-up face contorted in fury.“Your daughter?” she shrieked, her voice shrill. “With that … that tramp?She’ s a bastard, Ethan! A nobody!”Ethan looked at Olivia.For the first time, he saw her cruelty, her possessiveness, her ugliness,with stark clarity.The veil of his obsessive guilt over her past, his twisted sense ofresponsibility, had […]

Chapter 10Ethan was with Olivia.She was recovering from a minor, unrelated procedure. Something toboost her “delicate” constitution.He was still focused on her general well-being, her every comfort.He was annoyed.Sarah wasn’t answering her phone.Her insolence was grating.He’d deal with her later.But the silence stretched.His annoyance grew into a nagging unease.Her last text: “We are done, Ethan.

Chapter 9Ethan dragged me away from Olivia, his grip bruising.My pleas for my father’s grave, for my parents’ memory, were ignored.Later that night, he found me huddled in my small staff room.He didn’t speak.He just held out his phone.A video played.Men, dark figures in the night, at a cemetery. A headstone, unmistakably my father’s, being

Chapter 8 Ethan’ s eyes were filled with a strange mix of anger and desire when hemade his vile offer.“Want me to help? Then be useful. Olivia’s health is delicate. I haveneeds.”He wanted sex in exchange for Lily’s medical care.I had numbly agreed. There was no other choice for Lily.Our degrading encounters continued. Always in

Lily, my daughter, recited the story I had taught her.“My daddy loved Mommy very much,” she told Ethan, her voice smallbut clear. “They were the bestest couple.”She said it to protect me.To shield me from the pitying looks, the whispered questions about afatherless child.Ethan’ s face had contorted with a strange anger.He had stormed out.Now,

The first rays of dawn were painting the sky when Mrs. Davies found me.I was collapsed by the edge of the pool.Soaked.Freezing.There was blood. A lot of it.Hypothermia, she’ d later say.Ethan appeared, drawn by her cry of alarm.He saw me, a crumpled heap.For a split second, something flickered in his eyes.Unease? Shock?Then Olivia, from

Back at the penthouse, the air was thick with unspoken tension.Ethan was cold, distant.Olivia, however, was energized by the events at the reunion.Her jealousy, always simmering beneath the surface, was now boiling over.She cornered me in the living room after Ethan had gone to his study.“So,” she began, her voice deceptively calm. “You and Ethan.

A few weeks later, Ethan announced he was taking Olivia to a college alumnireunion.It was also a charity fundraiser.“You’ll come too, Sarah,” Olivia said, her voice syrupy sweet. Ethan was in theroom. “I’ll need my assistant, of course.”My stomach twisted.Public.With them.A fresh wave of humiliation waiting for me.The ballroom was grand, filled with familiar faces

Olivia’ s handprint throbbed on my cheek.She picked up a small, porcelain figurine from a nearby table.She examined it, then looked at me.“You know, Ethan thinks I’m so fragile,” she said, her voice dripping withsarcasm.She threw the figurine.It shattered against the wall near my head.“But I’m stronger than I look.”I didn’t finch.I had expected this.

Lily’ s medical bills were mountains I couldn’ t climb.The latest one sat on my worn kitchen table, a stark white reminder of myfailure.She needed this next round of experimental treatment, the doctors said it washer best chance.But the cost was astronomical.I saw an advertisement tucked away in the free local paper.“Participants Needed for High-Risk