Listening to Layla's pitiful sobbing, Alex's heart ached for her.

He raised his foot, ready to kick me.

But right at that moment, a soft, childish voice rang out from the doorway.

"Don't you hit my Mommy!"

Conrad Henson scrambled down from the nanny's arms, his little legs pumping as he sprinted toward me.

He threw his arms wide and planted himself in front of me like a shield.

Then he scrunched up his face and glared at Alex. "You two big meanies are bullying my Mommy! I'm gonna tell Daddy!"

Alex froze mid-step. "What the hell are you babbling about, you little brat? Who's your mom?"

Conrad ignored him completely and threw himself into my arms.

"It's okay, Mommy. Super Conrad will protect you."

My eyes burned. I pressed a kiss to his forehead.

The moment Alex saw that, he exploded.

"Well, well, well, Felicia Pruitt! You went behind my back and cheated on me? You even had a son with some lowlife?"

"How could you betray everything we had?"

"Tell me! Who's the father?"

His fists were clenched so tight his knuckles went white, his eyes blazing with fury.

He looked exactly like a husband who'd just caught his wife in bed with another man.

Worried he might lose control and hurt Conrad, I steeled my expression, ready to tell him the truth. That Conrad was the son of the very billionaire he was so desperate to impress.

But before I could speak, Layla let out a sharp gasp.

"Oh my God, I just figured it out!"

"Three years ago, that baby you picked up off the street would be about this age by now."

Alex's heaving chest went still.

His gaze flicked to me, then to Conrad.

A second later, he couldn't hold it in. He burst out laughing.

"Oh, that's rich! Felicia, you really are something else!"

"You were so desperate to marry me that you actually believed some throwaway line I made up."

"Playing mommy to someone else's kid for free?"

"Come here, come here. Let me see if you fattened him up the way I told you to."

He reached for Conrad's arm. I slapped his hand away hard.

"Don't touch him. You can't afford the consequences."

Something venomous flickered behind Layla's eyes.

Then she turned to the crowd and shrieked at the top of her lungs.

"Felicia! How could you? You're a kidnapper! You tore apart a happy family!"

The word kidnapper hit the crowd like a match to gasoline. Nobody was walking away from that.

Every last one of them wanted to tear me apart.

Within seconds, dozens of outraged "good Samaritans" swarmed around me. Two burly men even volunteered to grab my arms, one on each side, pinning me in place as if I might bolt.

When someone pulled Conrad away from me, his desperate cry of "Don't hurt my Mommy!" was swallowed whole by the wave of shouting and cursing.

"Snatching children in broad daylight? You've got some nerve!"

"You don't even deserve to be called human! You're worse than an animal!"

"Call the police! Lock her up! She should rot behind bars!"

When someone pulled out a phone and threatened to call the cops, Alex, who'd been standing off to the side enjoying the show, suddenly went pale.

He rushed over in a few quick strides and pushed the man's hand down.

"No need, buddy. I already called them. Just rough her up a little, that'll do."

I jerked my head up to stare at him.

"Alex, have you lost your mind? You're the one who—"

Before I could finish, a stinging slap cracked across my face.

My ears rang, a sharp buzzing that drowned out everything except Alex's voice, deliberately low so only I could hear.

"That's for shoving Layla earlier. Consider it your punishment."

"If you want me to marry you, then shut up and take what's coming to you."

I stared at that smug, self-satisfied face, so sure of its own power, and I almost laughed.

The Felicia who once loved him down to the marrow of her bones had died the day he threw her away.

"Back off, all of you! Don't you touch her!"

Irene Lambert raised her broom, trying to drive back the crowd pressing in around me, but Alex kicked her square in the chest.

"What are you yelling about?" he sneered. "Felicia and I were never married. She was never the lady of the Delgado house."

Irene's back slammed into the corner of a glass display case. The pain buckled her instantly.

Layla tugged at Alex's sleeve, pouring fuel on the fire from the sidelines.

"Since when does the help get a say? Felicia probably bullied her into calling her that the moment you left."

Alex's face darkened. He kicked Irene again. And again.

"A dog that can't recognize its master. You're fired, effective immediately."

I shoved through the crowd and pulled Irene to her feet.

Then I turned, fury churning behind my eyes.

"If you're that blind, Alex, go see an eye doctor. Irene doesn't even work for you."

Alex finally looked at Irene's face. Recognition flickered, but not a shred of remorse followed it. He glared at me, jaw tight.

"So that's your game. You swapped in your own people."

"If I don't teach you a lesson today, next thing I know you'll have the entire Delgado estate signed over to your name."

Layla glanced at her watch, then leaned in close to Alex's ear. Whatever she whispered, it put a cold, vicious gleam in her eyes.

A chill ran through me.

I cursed myself for leaving the hotel alone.

I pulled out my phone, ready to call Melvin for backup.

But before I could dial, a sharp pain tore through my wrist.

My phone clattered to the ground.

"Calling for reinforcements?" Alex wrenched my arm. "Keep dreaming."

He dragged me toward the elevator. Behind us, Layla smiled sweetly at the dispersing onlookers.

"Don't worry, we'll make sure this kidnapper learns her lesson."

"You should all get going, though. When the police arrive, you don't want to be caught up in it."

She tilted her head, voice dripping with false sympathy. "After all, hitting someone is wrong, no matter the reason."

The moment the words left her mouth, the crowd scattered like startled birds. A few people even called Alex and Layla heroes on their way out.

Amid the cheering, Irene and I were shoved into the hotel's walk-in freezer.

The cold hit like a wall of knives. My body seized, trembling violently before the door even shut behind us.

Years ago, when a group of men had cornered Alex in an alley, I hadn't thought twice. I threw myself in front of him and took a blade meant for his back. The wound cut deep enough to scrape bone. I nearly bled out. Six months in a hospital bed before I could stand on my own two feet again.

Ever since, cold weather turned my body into a map of pain. Every old wound screamed at the first hint of a chill.

I remembered Alex kneeling in front of me back then, eyes red and swollen, swearing he would keep me warm for the rest of my life. He wouldn't even let me open the refrigerator door at home. He drew my baths. He warmed my blankets. He did everything.

And now, the same man had locked me in a freezer because I was in his way.

My lips trembled. My voice came out cold and steady despite the shaking.

"Let me out, Alex. Right now. Or you'll regret it."

"I'm Melvin's—"

A slap cracked across my face before I could finish.

"Regret?" Alex scoffed. "I've never regretted a single thing in my life. But go ahead, try me."

He straightened his cuffs. "I've got a birthday gala to attend. I'm not wasting any more time on you."

"Stay here and think about what you've done."

The steel door slammed shut with a deafening clang.

I curled into myself on the freezing floor. The old scar tissue along my ribs and spine screamed, each pulse of cold dragging the pain deeper. My vision blurred at the edges, consciousness slipping like sand through numb fingers.

Beside me, Irene's cries for help grew fainter and fainter.

On the other side of the hotel, Alex walked into the gala with Layla on his arm.

The first thing he saw was Melvin, phone raised to his ear, his expression dark as a storm.

The dozen-odd business moguls gathered around Melvin didn't dare so much as breathe too loudly.

Seeing this, Alex stopped in his tracks, about to ask someone nearby what had happened.

That was when a flurry of frantic footsteps and a child's sobbing echoed from the entrance.

"Daddy! Daddy, help!"