Chapter 4Lioness

I couldn't process why he was with Jessica. All I could think about was saving Leo. I scrambled towards him and grabbed his sleeve.

"Mr. Evans, please! You have to help us! Get us out of here!"

He looked at me as if I were a complete stranger and pried my fingers off his arm, one by one. "My apologies, madam. I only take orders from Mrs. Harrison."

I felt a chill spread through my entire body. Mrs. Harrison. Jessica.

A thousand little details suddenly clicked into place. The late nights "at the office." The strange business trips. The 'LW' necklace he wore, which he claimed was his mother's, Loretta's. It stood for Lin Wei, Jessica's name in Chinese. No, in English it's Jessica... was it Jessica Williams? JW? Or... wait, her name was Lin Wei. LW. He had told me her name was Jessica. She was Chinese-American. The necklace was LW. For Lin Wei. A lie within a lie.

And what about me? Our eight years of marriage, building his company from nothing... what was all that?

Seeing my devastation, Jessica burst out laughing. "Some people just can't accept their place in the world. Always dreaming of a life they don't deserve. Tell me, Leo's mom, do you still insist you're the real Mrs. Harrison?"

"I'm sorry," I whispered, my voice breaking. "Please... Mrs.... Mrs. Harrison... have mercy on my son. I'll teach him better, I promise."

My knees gave out, and I knelt on the floor in front of her.

Even though Mark and I were legally married, Leo's life was on the line. I couldn't provoke her further. The more I humbled myself, the more she would gloat. And maybe, just maybe, Leo would suffer a little less.

"Like mother, like son," she sneered. "Trash begets trash."

"Mrs. Harrison, don't let her off so easy!" one of the other parents shouted. "Her son chipped a tooth today, who knows what he'll do tomorrow! He'll probably become a school shooter! And she wasted so much of our time! You need to teach her a lesson!"

Someone kicked me hard in the back. A coppery taste filled my mouth, and I coughed up a spray of blood onto the floor, splattering Leo's broken smartwatch. The thought of him, trying desperately to call me for help... my heart felt like it was being shredded.

"Since you all feel so strongly about it," Jessica announced, "I'll do you all a favor. For every walnut this little bastard cracks, I'll give you one hundred thousand dollars."

I looked up, my eyes bloodshot. She was going to kill him.

"No! He's just a child! He'll die!"

But my voice was drowned out by the greedy shouts of the parents. They swarmed around Leo, a pack of vultures. He cried out in terror as they pushed and shoved him, his small voice quickly lost in their taunts.

"I am Ava Prescott! My father is the chairman of the Prescott Group! If you stop now, I can forget this ever happened. Otherwise, I will hold every single one of you accountable!"

Ms. Davis laughed. "Leo's mom, that lie wasn't believable the first time. Why would it be the second?"

"Mrs. Harrison," another parent suggested, "I think we should just knock all of the little brat's teeth out. That'll stop him from growing up to be a liar like his mother."

Jessica smiled. "An excellent suggestion. I'll do it for free."

She pulled a small hammer from her purse and crouched down next to my son.

"NO! JESSICA, YOU PSYCHO, STOP!"

Leo was barely conscious, a broken doll in their hands. He heard my voice and struggled to open his eyes, to look for me. But I was pinned to the floor, helpless, forced to watch.

Jessica kicked Leo hard in the ribs, then pried his mouth open. She raised the hammer.

Just as she was about to bring it down, the door to the cabin was kicked open from the outside.

"What the hell is going on in here?"

The man standing there... it was Mark.