Chapter 3

The door slammed shut.

And with it, everything I still felt for John was gone too.

But there was no time to grieve for myself.

John appeared in the doorway with Lois beside him.

His voice was hot with anger, none of the old gentleness left in it.

"I told you I'd handle it. Why did you have to be so stubborn!"

I stared at him, lost, and he threw his phone in front of my face.

Only then did I see it. The trending page had blown up.

Someone had exposed that a week ago Lois had deliberately lured me out to the suburbs, hoping I'd be assaulted so she could take my place and be with John.

And every single thing Lois had ever done to me before had been dragged out too.

"Lois Morton, bully" and "the manipulative other woman" were the top two trending topics.

Lois looked at me, her eyes rimmed red.

"I'm not like you girls with all your little schemes. If you have a problem with me, just say it to my face!"

The look John gave me now held disappointment.

My voice came out hoarse.

"I didn't do this…"

John cut me off before I could finish, his voice cold.

"You're going to go live and clear it up. Say it was all your own doing, that it had nothing to do with Lois."

I looked at him, unable to believe it.

Half a month ago, Lois had used John's name to lure me out to the suburbs late at night, saying there was a surprise.

I'd gone, happy, only to be pinned down by a masked man.

I fought with everything I had, ready to take him down with me, and only then did he get scared enough to let me go.

When John found out he flew into a rage and, ignoring their history, went after Lois in revenge.

John was the one who'd said he would never let me be hurt again.

And now he was ordering me to smear myself.

He gently wiped the tears from my face, his voice cruel in its tenderness.

"Kayla, your mom's letter is still with me."

My breath caught.

My mother was sick for years, and her greatest wish was to see me have a home of my own.

In the end she never got to.

At the very last, with the strength she had left, she wrote me a letter and told me to open it on my wedding day.

It was the last piece of her I had.

I'd developed severe anxiety over it, dreaming I'd lost the letter, seeing my mother's disappointed eyes.

John was the one who'd offered to lock it in his safe and keep it for me.

And now he was using my trust to threaten me.

I wept, my voice breaking.

"So if I clear it up, you'll let me go?"

John's body went rigid. In silence he pulled me in front of the camera.

A prepared script was shoved into my hands.

"I'm Kayla Sullivan. It was all my own doing. Lois Morton is innocent…"

But after I'd said it to the camera, John wrapped an arm around my waist and pulled me into him, burying his head against my neck.

"Kayla, you and I are meant to be tangled up together for the rest of our lives."

"I've already hired a professional team to plan a wedding of the century, to make up for the ceremony we never had."

"Everything you've suffered, I'll spend the rest of my life making up to you."

A sharp, stabbing pain shot through my lower belly, and I felt wetness spread beneath me.

White-faced, I turned to John for help.

"Take me to the hospital…"

But Lois, eyes red, grabbed John's arm.

"The security footage shows someone threw red paint all over my place, and they left a funeral photo of me at my door!"

"I'm too scared to go back…"

John's expression turned grim.

"Don't be afraid. I'll go with you and take a look."

I tried to grab the hem of his clothes, and he shook me off.

"Lois has been hurt this badly because of you, and you still want to throw a fit!"

The moment the door closed, I saw John slip off his coat and drape it gently over Lois's shoulders.

My vision went black, and I passed out completely.