Chapter 3The Baby I "Killed"

I thought that night was just a fluke, a cruel twist of fate.

But the next day, two of Rhys’s men showed up. They didn’t say a word. They just overturned my cart, sending soup and bread spilling into the gutter, and smashed my equipment.

The official reason? Brooke had been hospitalized with food poisoning. And the only thing she’d eaten the night before was my grilled cheese.

It was an obvious, transparent lie. A setup.

I couldn’t understand it. She had Rhys. She had won. Why couldn’t she just leave me alone?

From that day on, it became a pattern. Rhys sent his men to harass me every single day. No matter where I moved my battered cart, they found me.

My business was destroyed. I didn’t know how I was going to make next month’s rent.

Finally, out of options, I called him. I begged him to leave me in peace.

“The food poisoning wasn’t me, Rhys, I swear it. Can you please, just this once, believe me?”

He didn’t. His voice was hard, unforgiving. “You want me to leave you alone? Fine. Get on your knees and apologize to Brooke.”

I was silent, stunned.

“You will kneel for twelve hours,” he continued calmly. “Then we’ll call it even. Otherwise, you can forget about ever selling a sandwich in this city again.”

This was the man who once claimed he would catch the stars for me if I shed a single tear. Now he was trying to break me, to humiliate me for Brooke’s amusement.

But even in poverty, even in desperation, I still had a spine.

I wiped away a hot tear of fury. “You know, Rhys, you’re a real piece of work. Tormenting a woman to soothe your girlfriend’s ego.” My voice shook. “I was so blind. I can’t believe I ever loved you.”

His breathing on the other end of the line hitched, becoming ragged and heavy, as if I’d struck him. “You think I give a damn about your love?” he snarled, the words tearing from him. “Sadie, you were nothing to me but a tool for my revenge.”

It was a vicious thing to say, but my heart was already so numb, so scarred over, that it barely registered.

I bit back with the first cruel thing that came to mind. “Good. Because to me, you were just a placeholder. Something to do.”

Before he could explode, I hung up the phone.