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Where are you?
My eyes drift around Connor’s apartment before typing out my answer.
Somewhere safe.
That’s not what I asked.
I know, Kiki…
I close my eyes, letting out a slow breath as I sink into the couch.
But that’s all I can tell you.
Soph…
What?
I know you’re really upset with him, but you should talk to him.
Why?
Because he sounds desperate to talk to you.
He keeps saying it’s not what you think.
Maybe I’m still a naive kid… But I think you should hear him out.
I let out a humorless laugh.
Not what I think?
Yes. Maybe Melanie misspoke.
He tripped and fell face first into her pussy.
Okay… Fair.
But you know he isn’t just going to walk away. He loves you.
My thumbs hover against the screen, not knowing how to respond, because I know she’s right. About him not walking away.
Vance needs me. He needs his wife living under his roof, and he needs the child I’m carrying. Without them both, he—and his family—could lose The Ashford Group. Even if he doesn’t care about me, he’ll never stop looking.
And as much as I hate admitting it, I don’t know whether I want him to. The truth settles over me painfully.
I still love him.
Vance Ashford, the man who blackmailed me into marrying him, the man who built our union on control, is incapable of loving me the way I need to be loved, and is fucking another woman.
Even after everything—or despite all of it—I still love him.
The logical part of my brain knows I should hate him. I should be angry, raging at him for all the things he’s done. And I am angry. I am hurt. But underneath it all, poisoned by his lies and deceit, is a stubborn, persistent, twisted kind of love that my heart refused to deny. There’s a part of me that will always love enough. Enough that I could almost forgive him for breaking my heart.
Almost.
This silent penthouse has been suffocating me in its emptiness for sixteen days, a constant reminder of Sophia’s absence. My phone buzzes on the granite countertop, the sound jarring in the stillness.
I glance at the screen—Kaden—and let it go to voicemail.
