s fading embrace still lingered on my skin, a phantom comfort. His words, "Don

e was closer now, laced with an ugly mix of anger an

the divorce certificate. I pulled away,

game are you playing now? Who was that guy with you? You think you

face drained of color, his jaw slacked, and his breath hitched. "No," he whi

he looked disheveled, her eyes puffy from crying, but a calculated

placing a hand on his arm, her gaze sweeping over me with a venomous sneer. "Don't tell me this pathetic woman

Aliyah, it's just sad. You can't even give a man a child, and now you want to hold Chase hostage with you

rying to paint me as the crazy, infertile woman, the one deserving of his a

is own escalating panic. "She's trying to trick me, Faye! She's always been manipulative!" He turned back to me, his eyes blazing.

that boy! What was he to you, Aliyah? Your new lover? Trying to re

e only one who had truly cared. That finally broke through my cold c

AC

unding. His head snapped to the side, a crimson mark appearing inst

ising to touch the red imprint of my palm on his face. "You.

r insulting someone who actually has a shred of d

out to lash out at her. The baby in the stroller, startle

sound of the baby's cries. His attention immediately shifted to the stroll

re turning to Faye and the crying baby. He started cooing to the

had fluttered to the ground, and straightened it car

out, grabbing my wrist, his grip painfully tight. "You're

ds held power. "We made a vow, Aliyah!" he insisted, his voic

mily. His "forever" had been a lie, a gilded cage he trapped me in. I looked at the hatefu

up the divorce certificate directly in front of his face. The official seal, the s

d calmly, each word a hammer blow to his delusion.

ching for a flaw, a loophole, anything to prove me wr

Polla