Chapter 4

"Fine. Get out."

Maybe I was simply too disappointed. I felt calm, and I didn't want to say another word.

Marcus didn't care.

To him, after all, I only begged at the very last moment. Before that, I had loved him more than I loved myself.

He shielded the two of them out the door without sparing me a single glance.

My phone lit up.

"I've set them up somewhere else. They won't come back to see you. Everything you asked me to do, I can do it."

"Sweetheart, she and I really were an accident. I never expected it either. By the time I found out, she'd already gone and had the child in secret. I'm the one who wronged you, but don't be so petty about it. You're still Mrs. Fox, and nothing can change that."

It was almost as if he were saying: last life she was Mrs. Fox, this life it's you.

See? Fair to you, isn't it.

I didn't reply. I just blocked him and deleted him.

When a person reaches the very bottom of disappointment, they don't want a single thread still tying them to the other person.

My mother sent me a message.

"I'm back in the country. I've brought the lawyers with me. Wait for me."

I felt a little steadier. The company lawyers were people I could trust.

The next day, I was shaken awake.

"Where did you take Neddie? I knew you'd never change!"

My head was spinning. When my eyes focused, I saw Marcus's face.

There was a thread of gray at his temples, and his eyes were bloodshot.

He clamped a hand around my throat. The grip wasn't hard, but it was deeply humiliating.

"Back then you pushed Neddie down the stairs and broke his leg. This time you hired someone to kidnap him. Sophie, what is your heart even made of? How can you be this vicious?"

As he spoke, Marcus's tears dropped onto my face.

"I never should have expected anything from you. I should have left you at Southridge for the rest of your life and never gone soft enough to look at you even once!"

Right. When he had me locked away, he came to see me in secret, and he'd said it all so tenderly.

I laughed until tears came.

Marcus was so furious his teeth were nearly grinding to dust.

"You still won't repent. Tell me, where is Neddie?"

"I don't know."

His grip suddenly tightened, and in an instant I couldn't breathe.

"Sophie, tell me, and we're even. I won't blame you anymore. I'll let myself off too."

Marcus's eyes were red, as if he were repenting.

Just as I was about to black out.

The door was flung open.

"Marcus Fox!"