Chapter 2

Cade Sterling didn’t hesitate. He spun her around and took her again, this time with a savage, punishing force.

He grabbed her by the throat, his anger a palpable thing between them. He couldn’t get past it. She had, in his mind, willingly aborted their first child, and now here she was, selling her body to save the child she’d had with Julian Kinsley.

The accident six years ago was the root of all this misery. The doctors told him he might never walk again. And she, refusing to be burdened by a disabled husband, had terminated her pregnancy. If he could, he would tear her apart piece by piece, just to make her feel the agony he’d endured for their lost baby.

Her words from that day still burned in his memory. “Cade, I won’t raise a child with a cripple. Julian Kinsley is the man I want to have a family with.”

“Cade, the thought of sleeping with a man who can’t even walk disgusts me.”

The memory was vivid—the shattered glass of the car window, the warm slick of his own blood on his face. But the warmth of his child’s potential life had been extinguished by her cold betrayal.

Blinded by a fresh wave of hatred, his eyes turned bloodshot. He lost all interest in her body. He pulled out, zipped his pants, and smoothed the creases of his bespoke suit. In an instant, he was the powerful, untouchable tycoon once more.

He tapped his phone, and a notification pinged on hers. A second transfer. Fifty thousand dollars. “Aria, you are a filthy woman!”

Aria endured the searing pain that shot through her body. She shivered as she picked up her phone to check the amount.

She saw it. Only fifty thousand.

“Cade, our agreement was one hundred thousand,” she said, biting her lip.

“What? I was so disgusted by your body I couldn’t even finish. You think you deserve the full amount?”

She bit her lip so hard she tasted blood. His words were a continuous, vicious assault. “Aria Montgomery, you disgust me. Now, get out!”

She knew his temper. This was all she was getting tonight. The hospital bill was due tomorrow. She would have to beg them for a few more days, plead for grace until she could get more money from Cade.

Her eyes were blurred with tears. She stumbled, almost walking into the doorframe on her way out.

Their love story had once been a thing of beauty, a fairytale whispered about in New York’s elite circles. How did it end like this? How did it curdle into such ferocious hostility?

He’d had the accident six years ago. She had wanted to stay by his side, more than anything. But someone had threatened her father’s life. The only condition was that she leave Cade. So she did. She pretended she’d had an abortion and hurled cruel lies at him, hoping he would let her go, hoping it would keep her father safe.

But before she could explain, she was framed for her father’s murder. She was arrested, chained, and thrown into prison.

She was released five years later, but no explanation could penetrate the wall of ice he had built around his heart. He was convinced of her betrayal, beyond any shadow of a doubt.

Aria looked down at her right hand. It was useless now, the nerves permanently damaged. The hand that once painted masterpieces, that held a brush with such grace, was now just a painful reminder of everything she had lost.

Her hand had been destroyed in prison. That place was an abyss of darkness she was still trying to escape.

Leo was asleep when she finally reached the hospital. He seemed to be having a nightmare. His small brow was furrowed, and a tear slipped from the corner of his eye. “Daddy…”

“Daddy, why don’t you come see me? Did I do something wrong?” he mumbled in his sleep, his voice filled with a child’s despair.

“Daddy, I promise I’ll be good. Daddy, I want you here.”

“I don’t want to live without my daddy. Daddy. Daddy…”

Aria covered her mouth and fled the room, her own sobs choking her. She leaned against the cold hallway wall, tears streaming down her face. No amount of crying could ease the agony in her heart.

Leo always told her he only needed her. That he didn’t care about his father.

But she had just discovered how deeply her son yearned for the man she could never give him.

There was no time to cry. A sudden alarm blared. Leo’s condition had crashed. He was rushed into the operating theater for an emergency procedure.