# Chapter 2

### Stacy POV

Tears flowed freely down my cheeks, hot and blinding, soaking straight through the paper in my trembling hands.

My entire body shook. This wasn't just a breakup; it was a systematic execution of my soul.

I had spent years believing I was the luckiest woman alive. I thought I had married the best man on earth. Ethan was supposed to be my safe harbor, my best friend, the sanctuary I ran to when the cutthroat corporate world tried to tear me apart. I had trusted him with every fiber of my being—my heart, my secrets, my dreams, my home, my wealth, and my family.

And now, I was discovering that the man I loved with every breath had been secretly sleeping with my own flesh and blood.

*My sister.*

How could they? How long had this festered behind my back? How many times had I sat across the dinner table from them, laughing and passing the potatoes, completely unaware that their eyes were speaking a language I couldn't read? How many times had my sister smiled warmly at me while plotting to steal my bed? How many times had Ethan kissed my lips right after tasting hers?

My stomach heaved. I clamped a hand over my mouth as a choked sob ripped from my throat.

"How could you do this to me, Ethan?" I whispered into the empty, echoing room, my voice cracking entirely. "You promised. You promised you would love me forever."

I looked around our master bedroom. Suddenly, everything felt foreign, toxic. The king-sized bed where we had whispered our dreams, the elegant wedding portraits hanging on the wall, the warmth of the memories we had built—it was all a monstrous, cruel lie.

I wiped the tears from my face, a sudden surge of blistering heat replacing the sorrow.

*My daughter.*

My baby girl. My heart seized.

"Why did they take her?"

I jumped to my feet, fury instantly eclipsing my grief. My sister and my husband had betrayed me? Fine. If they wanted each other so badly, they could rot together. I didn't care anymore. Let them run. Let them play house.

*But they had no right to take my daughter.*

"Why would they drag an innocent child into this?!" I screamed, the sound ricocheting off the mansion walls. "They could have left alone!"

Tania was entirely innocent. She was my flesh and blood, a piece of my soul that I had carried for nine agonizing, beautiful months. I had stayed awake through a thousand midnight fevers, kissed away her scraped knees, and shielded her from a harsh world. And now, these two parasites had ripped her away from me.

They were fools if they thought I would curl up and weep. They had no idea what a desperate mother was capable of.

"I will find you," I growled, clenching my hands into fists so tight my nails dug into my palms. "I swear to God, I will tear this country apart to find you."

Snatching my phone from the bed, my shaking fingers dialed emergency services.

"Emergency dispatch. How may I help you?" a crisp male voice answered.

"My husband just took my daughter!" Panic spiked my voice into a jagged shriek. "I need you to find them, right now!"

"Ma'am, please calm down. What is your husband's name?"

"Ethan Roberts!"

"And you said he took your daughter?"

"Yes! Exactly what I just said!"

"Ma'am... is Ethan Roberts her biological father?"

I froze, disbelief choking the air right out of my lungs. "Yes! What kind of a stupid question is that?"

"Then, ma'am, unless there is an active custody dispute or a court order on file, a parent leaving with their child is typically categorized as a civil family matter, not a police abduction—"

"A family matter?!" I shrieked, hysteria bubbling over. "My husband just kidnapped my child and fled with my sister! I don't care what legal term you want to use, you need to find him!"

"Ma'am, we need more information before we can—"

"Just find him!" I roared before slamming my thumb down on the disconnect button.

I stood there, panting heavily, chest heaving. "They're idiots. Absolute idiots if they think a piece of paper or a bureaucratic loophole is going to stop me."

My eyes dropped to the heavy diamond band resting on my left ring finger. For years, it had symbolized eternal love, unwavering trust, and unbreakable vows. Now, it felt like a shackle forged in malice.

With a sharp jerk, I yanked it off my finger and clenched it tightly in my palm.

"I don't want this marriage anymore," I whispered into the dark, my voice dropping an octave into absolute ice. "I want a divorce."

The moment the words left my lips, something inside me snapped cleanly in two. I had sworn my life to that man. But he had shattered the vows, thrown our family in the dirt, and stolen my child. So I would choose myself. I would choose my daughter.

And I would choose total, merciless destruction.

"They will pay for this," I muttered. "Every single second of it."

Suddenly, my phone buzed violently in my hand.

I flinched, looking down at the screen. It wasn't a call. It was a push notification.

A bank alert.

Frowning, I unlocked the device and opened my banking app. My blood ran completely cold.

> **DEBIT ALERT**

> **Amount:** $10,000 USD

> **Type:** Wire Withdrawal

> **Account Balance:** Low

>

"What?"

My fingers flew across the screen, pulling up the master transaction history for my corporate and personal accounts. My breath hitched.

Ten thousand dollars. Gone.

I refreshed the page. Another withdrawal. Fifty thousand dollars.

My heart hammered against my ribs like a trapped animal. I swiped faster, my vision tunneling as line after line of unauthorized transfers flashed before my eyes. Hundreds of thousands of dollars, bleeding out of my accounts in real-time.

Ethan had access to our joint accounts, of course—we had built everything together in the early days. And my sister? She had worked as a high-level executive at my firm for years. She knew the internal routing numbers, the passwords, the blind spots.

They hadn't just emotionally butchered me. They had looted me dry.

"Those absolute bastards!" I hurled my phone onto the bed, shaking with a cold, terrifying rage.

They hadn't just run away together. This was a military-grade operation. They had planned this for months, smiling in my face, sharing my bed, eating at my table, all while preparing to strip me down to nothing.

What else did they want?

My company? My entire empire?

Panic clawed at my throat as I snatched the phone back off the mattress. I navigated to my enterprise banking portal. My fingers trembled so violently I could barely hit the keys.

Then, another notification banner slid down across my screen.

It wasn't a bank alert. It was an email from my corporate legal department.

The subject line made my heart stop entirely:

> **URGENT: PENDING CHANGE OF COMPANY OWNERSHIP REQUEST**

>

With numb fingers, I opened the file.

My eyes scanned the digital paperwork, and the ground felt like it dropped out from underneath my feet. Someone had initiated a hostile legal transfer of corporate ownership.

My company. The multi-billion-dollar empire I had built from the dirt with my own bleeding hands.

Who authorized it?

I scrolled frantically to the signature block.

There was my husband's name: **Ethan Roberts.**

And right beside it, co-signed as an executive stakeholder: **Tania Roberts.**

My sister.

The room spun violently. They weren't just running away. They weren't just stealing cash. They were executing a hostile takeover of my entire life, leveraging my absence, my trust, and my legal marriage to strip me of everything I owned.

A terrifying, chilling realization washed over me, freezing the tears on my face.

*What if Ethan never loved me at all? What if my sister had never looked at me as family?*

What if the affair, the marriage, the sweet words, and the family dinners had all been an elaborate, multi-year conspiracy designed for one single purpose: to wait until I built an empire rich enough for them to steal?

Slowly, the trembling in my hands stopped. A terrifying, dead calm settled over my bones.

I looked down at the diamond wedding ring resting in the palm of my hand. Then, I slid it into my pocket.

A cold, humorless smile touched the corners of my lips.

"Okay, Ethan. Okay, Tania," I whispered into the empty house. "If you want total war..."

I tapped my phone screen, pulling up my chief corporate attorney's direct extension.

"...consider it declared."

# Chapter 3

### Stacy POV

The night stretched out like an endless, suffocating abyss.

I lay rigid on the vast expanse of the mattress, my eyes fixed blindly on the shadowed ceiling while hot, silent tears carved continuous paths down my cheeks. The house was dead—wrapped in a heavy, unnatural stillness—but the cacophony inside my mind was deafening. Every time I blinked, I was trapped in a agonizing loop of phantom memories: my daughter's radiant smile, her tiny hands reaching out, the familiar patter of her bare feet echoing down the hallway.

*"Mommy! Mommy is home!"*

I could hear her voice so clearly it physically ached in my chest.

I rolled over, my hand instinctively reaching across the mattress. Ethan's side was empty, cold, and smooth. The sight of it drove a fresh stake straight through my heart. My husband had betrayed me. My sister had gutted me. But none of that monumental pain mattered in the face of the singular, agonizing truth that consumed my soul:

*My daughter was gone.*

My baby was out there somewhere in the dark, held captive by two monsters who had ripped her away from everything she knew. I crushed her abandoned pillow against my chest, burying my face in the fabric as a ragged sob tore out of my throat.

"Are you okay, baby?" I whispered into the empty air, the words shattering against the dark. "Are you scared? Do you want your mommy?"

My voice broke completely. I pressed my face harder into the pillow. *I want you, too. I'm coming.*

Hours bled together. The millions they had looted from my accounts, the hostile corporate takeover emails, the multi-billion-dollar empire I had built with my bare hands—all of it had evaporated into dust. I didn't care about any of it. I only wanted my child.

Then, like a bolt of lightning piercing the fog of my grief, a forgotten lifeline flashed in my mind.

*The phone.*

My eyes flew open in the dark.

Months ago, purely for her safety, I had purchased a specialized smart-device for my daughter—a secure, custom gadget embedded with a high-grade military tracking application. It was designed so I could always trace her location in an absolute emergency.

In the chaotic terror of the night, my panic-stricken brain had completely forgotten it existed.

My heart hammered against my ribs with violent, desperate hope. I threw off the covers and sprinted across the cold floor toward my study, my bare feet hitting the hard wood like rapid-fire gunshots.

Seating myself at my desk, my trembling hands nearly dropped my laptop. I forced my fingers to steady, booted up the system, and logged directly into the emergency family safety portal. I entered my daughter's unique secure identifier.

For a terrifying three seconds, the screen loaded a blank, spinning wheel.

I held my breath, chest locked tight.

Then, the digital map snapped into crystal-clear focus.

A single, blinking red dot pulsed brightly near the center of the screen.

My breath caught in my throat. I leaned so close my nose almost touched the glass display.

"She's here," I whispered, a hysterical laugh bubbling up through my tears. "She's right here."

My daughter was alive. She was close by. I zoomed in on the interactive map. The blinking coordinates pinned a well-known luxury hotel on the outskirts of the city.

Ethan and Tania hadn't fled the state yet. They had stopped there to rest, arrogant enough to believe I was cowering in my bedroom, blind, helpless, and broken.

They had severely underestimated me.

I whipped out my phone, capturing a clear screenshot of the address and room block. It was 3:00 AM. The dark of night offered no comfort, but it offered cover. I didn't care. I was going to get my baby back.

I didn't sleep a wink for the remainder of the night. By the time the first pale streaks of dawn began to bleed through the heavy silk curtains, I was already dressed in dark, functional clothing, my face carved from stone.

I walked straight out to the front drive. My loyal family driver was already standing by his vehicle, looking confused and exhausted by the early hour.

"Where are we going, ma'am?" he asked carefully.

"The police station," I replied, my voice chillingly flat.

He blinked, stunned. "The police station, ma'am?"

"Yes. Right now."

Thirty minutes later, I strode through the heavy glass doors of the metropolitan precinct.

My hair was pulled back into a harsh, tight knot, my eyes swollen and bloodshot, my clothes stiff from lack of sleep. I looked like a woman pushed to the absolute edge of sanity—and I was.

Ignoring the staring officers, I slammed my hands down onto the front reception desk.

"I need two plainclothes officers, right now," I demanded.

The duty sergeant looked up, frowning. "Ma'am, slow down. What is the nature of the emergency?"

"My husband kidnapped my daughter last night. I have tracked her exact GPS coordinates, and I know where they are holding her."

The sergeant raised an eyebrow, exchanging a skeptical look with his partner. "You tracked her? Ma'am, unless you have a formal—"

"Listen to me very carefully," I cut him off, leaning over the counter, my voice dropping into a lethal, commanding whisper. "I am Stacy Roberts. I don't have time for bureaucratic red tape. My child is with a kidnapper. You can either come with me right now and help me recover her legally, or I will walk into that hotel with a private security army and tear the building down brick by brick. Your choice."

The sheer, unfiltered terror and rage in my eyes told him I wasn't bluffing.

Ten minutes later, two seasoned detectives—stripped of their uniforms to avoid drawing attention—were riding in the back of my vehicle as I directed us straight toward the hotel coordinates flashing on my screen.

The drive felt like crawling through molten lead. Every second stretched into eternity as I stared down at the blinking red dot on my phone screen.

*Please stay there. Please don't move.*

When the sleek, modern facade of the hotel finally loomed into view, my pulse roared in my ears like a freight train.

"They're here," I muttered, turning back to the two officers in the backseat. "Stay close behind me. Do not let them see you coming."

We stepped out of the car and walked into the grand, quiet lobby. The morning sun was just beginning to spill through the high glass windows. I approached the front desk, where a bored receptionist was filing her nails.

"Good morning," I said, forcing my voice to remain frighteningly calm.

"Good morning, ma'am. Welcome. Are you looking to check in?"

"No. I'm looking for a party that arrived last night. A man, a woman, and a young child."

The receptionist's polite smile slipped just a fraction. "I'm sorry, ma'am, but hotel privacy policy strictly prohibits giving out guest information—"

"I don't care about your policy," I hissed, slamming my hand onto the counter. I pulled a thick stack of hundred-dollar bills from my bag and slammed them onto the mahogany wood. I added another stack right beside it. "Tell me their room number right now, or I will own this entire hotel by noon tomorrow."

Her eyes widened as she stared at the cash. Swallowing hard, her hand darted out, scooping the bills off the counter.

"Room 306," she whispered breathlessly. "They checked in late last night."

"Thank you."

I spun on my heel, the two detectives hot on my trail. We bypassed the elevators, taking the service stairs up to the third floor to maintain the element of surprise.

My heart hammered violently against my ribs as we crept down the plush-carpeted hallway of the third floor.

*Room 302... Room 304... Room 306.*

I stopped dead in my tracks. The heavy wooden door stood right before us.

I raised a hand to signal the officers to hold position. Lowering myself slightly, I pressed my ear flat against the cold wood of the door.

From inside, muffled voices leaked out into the hall.

A man's voice. Ethan.

And then a sickeningly sweet, venomous voice. Tania.

> *"She's your new mom now, sweetie. You have to get used to it."*

>

My entire body turned to solid ice.

Then, a small, terrified voice pierced the silence of the room—a voice that shattered what little was left of my soul.

> *"No!"* my daughter screamed, sobbing hysterically. *"I don't want her! I want my mom! I want my mommy!"*

> *"Stop crying right now,"* Ethan snapped, his voice hard, sharp, and cruel.

> *"No! Let me go! I want my mommy!"*

>

Tears of pure, blinding rage erupted from my eyes. They were terrorizing my baby. They were trying to force her to accept the home-wrecking bitch who had stabbed me in the back as her mother.

I looked back at the two detectives. Their faces hardened instantly, their hands resting on their concealed tactical gear. One of them stepped forward, nodding grimly.

I turned back to the door, my knuckles whitening as I clenched my fists. A burning, demonic fury coursed through my veins, incinerating every last piece of the gentle woman I used to be.

Inside, my daughter's tear-choked voice cried out one last time:

> *"Mommy...!"*

>

I locked eyes with the lead detective.

"Three," I mouthed silently.

"Two."

My hand dropped.

"One."

With a deafening crash, the detective threw his full weight forward, kicking the reinforced hotel door clean off its hinges.

"bang"

Chapter 4

### Stacy POV

The hotel door swung inward with a violent, splintering crash.

The moment Ethan and Tania looked up to see me standing on the threshold—flanked by two towering, plainclothes detectives—the blood drained completely from their faces. Shock, raw and jagged, locked their features in place. They stared at me as if they were looking directly at a ghost returned to haunt them.

I didn't blink. I didn't breathe. My gaze swept past their pale faces, searching the room with frantic, desperate urgency.

And then I saw her.

Tania was standing near the foot of the bed, and huddled right behind her—her little face streaked with tears, red and swollen from crying—was my baby.

Our eyes locked across the space.

*"Mommy!"*

The heartbroken shriek tore through the room. Without a second thought, my daughter bolted across the carpet, her small body hurling itself straight toward me.

"Baby!"

I dropped to my knees, throwing my arms wide open just as she crashed against my chest. I caught her tight, wrapping my entire body around her as a fierce, shuddering sob broke from my own lips. I buried my face in her soft hair, breathing in her sweet, familiar scent like pure oxygen after drowning.

"My baby," I whispered, pressing frantic, tearful kisses to the side of her head. "Mommy's here. Mommy's got you."

She clamped her tiny arms around my neck with all her strength, clinging to me as if the universe itself might try to pull us apart again. "I knew you would come for me," she sobbed into my shoulder. "I knew it!"

Her shattered little voice broke whatever remaining restraint I had left. I pulled back just enough to frame her tear-stained face between my trembling hands, my eyes desperately scanning every inch of her.

"Did they hurt you, sweetheart?"

She shook her head furiously. "No, Mommy."

"Did they scare you?"

She hesitated, her lower lip trembling violently. Her wide, frightened eyes flicked past my shoulder toward Ethan and Tania.

My heart turned to molten iron. I didn't need her to utter another word.

I looked up, locking eyes with the lead detective behind me. "Please hold my daughter."

The officer stepped forward gently, but my daughter immediately panicked, clutching desperately to my coat sleeve. "Mommy, don't leave me!"

"I won't, baby," I promised, pressing one last fierce kiss to her forehead. "I'm right here. I'm never leaving you again."

With agonizing care, I unspooled her tiny fingers from my jacket and handed her over to the detective, who scooped her safely into his arms.

Then, slowly, deliberately, I stood up.

I turned around to face them.

My eyes landed on Ethan. My husband. The man I had loved more than my own life, the man who had promised to stand by me through every storm, the man who had sworn a sacred oath before God and our family.

He stood in the center of the room—hollow-eyed, pale, and shaking. For the first time, I saw genuine, naked fear written across his face.

"How?" My voice didn't shake. It was flat, lethal, and laced with absolute venom. "How could you do this to me?"

Ethan swallowed hard, his throat working as his voice barely scraped out a rasp. "Stacy—"

"Don't!" I snapped, raising a hand to slice through his words. "Don't you dare say my name as if we are having a normal conversation. You betrayed me." Hot tears spilled over my lashes, burning my skin, but I didn't wipe them away. "You betrayed your wife."

I rotated my hand, pointing a rigid, unyielding finger straight at my sister. "And you did it with my own blood!"

Tania averted her gaze, her jaw tightening defensively.

I let out a harsh, broken laugh that held no humor at all. "Do you know what the sickest part is, Ethan? I used to look at you every single day and thank God for giving me a husband like you. I genuinely thought you were too good for me."

A single tear tracked down my cheek, catching the harsh hotel light. "I thought you were a good man. But I was blind."

Ethan stepped forward, his hands raised in a desperate, pleading gesture. "Stacy, please. I'm sorry. I never wanted to hurt you."

"Sorry?" I stared at him, my disbelief morphing into pure, unadulterated fury. "You never wanted to hurt me? You packed up and abandoned our home! You stole my child! And you expected me to just sit quietly while I discovered my whole life was a lie?"

I pointed a finger straight at my own chest. "Tell me, Ethan. Which part of that grotesque little performance was supposed to spare my feelings?"

He opened his mouth, but no sound came out.

I shook my head, my eyes hardening into solid ice. "I used to think you were out of my league. But I was wrong. You weren't too good for me at all." I flicked a lethal glare at Tania. "You two deserve each other."

I spun around to face my sister head-on. "And you."

Tania finally snapped her head up, her eyes flashing with sudden, defensive venom. "What, Stacy? What do you want?!"

"I gave you everything," my voice trembled with rising rage. "I brought you into my home when you had nothing. When you needed money, I handed it to you without counting. When you needed a career, I built a path for you. I trusted you! I trusted you inside my home, around my husband, around my child!"

Tania crossed her arms tightly over her chest, her face twisting into an ugly sneer. "Are you quite finished with your speech?"

I froze. "What?"

"Shut your trap, Stacy," she spat, her voice dripping with poison.

The hotel room plunged into a suffocating, heavy silence. Even the detectives behind me stiffened at the sudden sharpness of her tone.

I stared at my sister, utterly paralyzed. After everything I had sacrificed for her, after every safety net I had thrown her way, she looked me dead in the eye and told me to shut my trap.

Tania stepped forward, her high heels clicking sharply against the floorboards. "Why do you always play the victim? Why do you act like such a saint?"

"What are you talking about?!" I choked out.

"You knew I loved him!" Tania screamed, pointing a shaking finger directly at my face. "You knew I loved Ethan before you ever even looked his way!"

I whipped my head toward Ethan, then back to my sister, my mind reeling. "What?!"

"He knew me first!" Tania shrieked, tears of pure bitterness spilling over her cheeks. "I loved him first! Ethan and I had a history long before you ever swooped in with your billion-dollar ego and your corporate money to trap him!"

"So that's your justification?" I laughed, a cold, sharp sound. "You sleep with my husband behind my back because of some high-school crush?!"

"You stole him from me!" she raged.

"Stole him?" I turned my glare back onto Ethan, who stood mute and paralyzed. "Was he a piece of property sitting on a shelf? Did I kidnap him into marriage?"

Ethan remained completely silent, staring blankly at the carpet.

I turned back to Tania, my voice dropping an octave into absolute ice. "Your problem isn't that I 'stole' Ethan, Tania. Your problem is that out of the two of us, he chose to marry *me*. That's what has eaten away at your soul for years."

Tania's face distorted with rage, her mouth opening to scream another insult, but I raised my palm, cutting her off completely.

"I'm done," I whispered, exhaustion finally pulling at the edges of my fury. "I'm done listening to your pathetic excuses. You love each other? Fine. Keep each other."

Ethan's head shot up, sheer panic flashing in his eyes. "Stacy, wait—"

"No," I cut him off, holding up a firm hand. "I don't care anymore. You two want to play house? Do it. My husband, my sister—take him, Tania. He's all yours."

Ethan looked as though I had struck him across the face. "Stacy, please—"

"The divorce papers will be drafted by noon today," I said, my voice dead and unyielding.

"Stacy, no, don't do this—"

"And there is one thing," I stepped forward, my eyes locking onto his with terrifying intensity, "that you will *never* have."

Ethan froze in his tracks.

"My daughter."

"Stacy, she's my daughter too!" Ethan protested, desperation cracking his voice.

"She is *my* child," I hissed, closing the distance between us until I was staring right up into his face. "You forfeited any right to call yourself a father the moment you plotted against me and dragged an innocent child into your filth. If you want to play house with my sister, go ahead. But my daughter has nothing to do with your betrayal."

Ethan's eyes reddened, tears spilling over as he dropped his gaze to the floor, his voice breaking. "Please don't take her away from me, Stacy. Please. I love her."

I stared at him in sheer, unadulterated disbelief.

"You love her?" I echoed, my voice shaking with disgust. "Then why did you rip her out of her bed in the middle of the night? Why did you traumatize her?"

"I was scared!" he sobbed, completely breaking down. "I was terrified you'd shut me out, that you'd use your lawyers and your money to never let me see her again!"

"You brought this on yourself the second you betrayed our family," I said coldly, turning my back on him.

I raised my hand and signaled the two detectives standing near the door.

"Arrest them."

Ethan's head snapped up. "What?!"

I pointed a steady finger right at his chest. "They stole from me. They looted hundreds of thousands of dollars from my corporate and personal accounts."

Tania panicked instantly, lunging forward. "Stacy, you can't—that's a lie! We didn't—"

"Then let the financial crimes unit figure that out during the investigation," I retorted without flinching.

The two detectives stepped forward, closing in on them.

Ethan turned pale as a sheet. "Stacy, please, don't do this to me! Think of our history!"

"Ethan!" Tania screamed as the second officer grabbed her arms to cuff her behind her back.

She began thrashing and fighting against the officer, crying hysterically. "Stacy! Please! Don't do this to your own sister! Please!"

I stopped. For a fraction of a second, the heavy weight of our childhood flashed before my eyes—the laughter, the shared secrets, the illusion of a family that loved me.

Then I remembered the cold betrayal in the letter. The empty house. My daughter's terrified cries from inside this room.

My heart turned back to stone.

Without looking back, I walked over to the detective holding my daughter. He handed her safely back into my arms, and I buried my face against her shoulder, shielding her eyes from the chaos behind us.

"Let's go," I told the officers, stepping toward the ruined doorway and turning my back on them forever.

I had won. I had found my child. I had dismantled their pathetic little lives and exposed them for the parasites they were. It was over.

Or so I thought.

As I crossed the threshold into the hallway, a desperate, broken cry echoed behind me.

"Stacy!"

I paused, my spine stiffening. I didn't turn around.

"Stacy, please! Listen to me!" Ethan's voice cracked, thick with a terror that had nothing to do with the police.

I closed my eyes, tightening my protective grip on my daughter.

And then, the man who had just tried to destroy my entire empire said the one thing that made the air freeze in my lungs:

"I love you!"

My entire body turned to solid ice.

The hallway went completely, terrifyingly silent, save for the low hum of the overhead lights.

Slowly, against every survival instinct screaming at me to keep walking, I turned around.

Ethan was staring at me past the steel cuffs binding his wrists, tears streaming freely down his face, looking at me with an expression so intensely desperate it made my stomach churn.

"I love you, Stacy," he choked out, his chest heaving. "I swear to God, I love you. It was always you."