I want my children in my life.
And I want her back.
And I always get what I want.
“You’re not going to get away with this, Josiah,” she huffs.
“I have already gotten away with it, sweetheart.”
“I’ll find a way to fight this. I’ll find a loophole or someone who is willing to help,” she scoffs.
“Kayla, the thing about money and power is that when you have enough of it, you can make anything happen. And you can stop anything from happening. You can do whatever you like to try and change the outcome, but thisishappening. Andyou should understand, if you try to get out of your contract with my firm, I will make sure that there isn’t a single company in this city that will touch your job application. I am your only opportunity here.”
“You wouldn’t….” But she can see I would.
I stare at her face, watching the emotions shadow over it. Watching as she bites back her arguments, her pleas, her complaints. She knows better than to try.
She thinks I’m a villain. I guess I am a villain right now. And I’ll play the villain as long as I need to in order to make this work.
And as it turns out, it’s a role I play very well.
Chapter 4 - Kayla
Josiah is so confident in everything he has pieced together that he lets me leave the office to go to my apartment to oversee the packing and make sure my baby girls are okay. He doesn’t send someone with me or have someone escort me; he just lets me leave.
Our girls. They aren’t my girls. They're our girls.
Is any of this real, or did I fall asleep and have the worst possible nightmare I could ever have dreamed up?
This has to be a nightmare.
Of all the people in the whole of Chicago, how did I end up right there in the same room as theoneman I wanted to stay as far as possible from?
I longed for Chicago. I longed to have my home back.
And I wanted, hoped, to make it possible and still avoid Josiah.
But now I’m married to him? Married?
This can’t be real.
It absolutely cannot be real.
The cab driver weaves through the last morning traffic, and I stare in disbelief out of the window. I’m numb inside. Maybe I’m in shock.
It’s like my body wants to cry, but I can’t allow myself that relief. I’ve slipped back into survival mode.
The same survival mode I go into when I have to solve any big problem in my life. Being alone after he left me. Being pregnant without support. Having twins and raising them on my own. Having a successful career and being a single mother.
Uplifting my twins and moving them to another city. Getting a new job.
And now…
Finding myself married to the man who absolutely destroyed me in the past.
Married to him, and apparently moving into his house.
Survival mode.
