a Greene

my head

ants me to surrend

r do something as monstrous as murdering

to win his

way, and I crumpled before Valerie, every last scrap o

e the only thing keeping me from drowning. "Don't take him

d miles over broken glass if i

had aban

hand, the heel grinding into flesh

n, I end

Et

tle as shattered glass. "You stole him from me, and he still came

no a

nly seemed t

otographs. Ethan wants me, not you. And when a man like Ethan decides what he wants, nothing st

e it past my lips. "No, this

out warning. My he

cing me to look at her. Tri

. "I could bury you beneath enough evidence to make you wish y

pulled out a gleaming credit ca

some miserable little room where you can lick your wounds in peace. Why cling to a man who

I stared at the card

an't. I l

" Her smile turned cruel.

ha

words still ha

orn fragment of fa

ying with every word. "When he's sober and tells me himsel

alerie's expre

er phone again. "Remem

deliberate precision. Then she thrust

Ethan, tangled in bed tog

ltry voice e

Ethan. I love

mach t

raspy voice as

e... I'm sorry

uiet moans, the intimacy of people who should never hav

my throat as I stumbled backwards,

broke. "No, no...

merely

as almost playful. "Shall we o

screen again.

y former gy

ame hesitan

n't right. Not withou

upted. Cold.

be the pills. Make certain they aren't l

Mr.

already three months along. It can't continue

le

wen's trem

alri

ng. Mo

h

her food. Be carefu

will be in your accoun

ording

mething i

cramps, the blood, the terror. The maid bringing my

was telling

for our children to die b

voice thick with satisfaction. "He

od ran

ed because you were too far along. Removing the child then would have re

pa

ill doubt

lieve

could think. My voice sou

understa

from my lashes w

ent pleased with the v

e're t

mph settled the last

ngs. The miscarriage. All of

man whose hands had plotte

oken me. But this. . . t

less laugh trem

lind

ly softened me. I

His insistence that I remain inside walls he owned, spending his money while he decided

n possession

use independence meant I might eve

neath the weight of

I had been something manageable-a beautiful ornament, a pliable soul dressed in silk and kept e

no m

bedient little p

better than this. He deserves

k this chain here, before he grows into t

ou," I m

ger left in my

take my son and disappear from his life," I swallowed. "

for an answer,

, gathering passports, documents, cash and whatever

I s

Ethan and me, frozen beneath a frame of golden light-s

from the wall. Smash the glass. Destroy

aiting. I had no

His little body curled instinctively against me, warm and trustin

e. She sat beside Ethan with feline ease, stroking his hai

itcase handle. The wheels whisp

e being married. And this was what I was han

proof and left. I did not look back. Not at Ethan. Not at

arms and the remains of a love I no longer