Chapter 3

"He only married you for the Fuller name, you know," Sabrina said, tightening the belt of my robe. "He needed your family's record label. He's always been mine, Jocelyn. He just needed a stepping stone, and you were conveniently placed."

Her words were meant to be the final, killing blow.

I was beyond tears, beyond anger. I was just empty.

"Get out of my house," I said, my voice hollow.

"I'm not going anywhere," she sneered. "This is my house now."

I looked at her, at the smug satisfaction on her face, and a strange calm washed over me. "Fine," I said. "You can have him. You can have all of it. Just leave me alone." I was desperate. I would have given them anything for peace.

Sabrina's face twisted with rage. My surrender wasn't what she wanted. She wanted me to fight, to scream, to break.

"You think you can just walk away?" she shrieked. She grabbed a crystal vase from a side table and smashed it on the floor. Then, she picked up a sharp shard of glass.

Before I could react, she dragged the shard across her own cheek, drawing a thin line of blood.

"Help!" she screamed, just as I heard Ethan's footsteps approaching from the bedroom. "Ethan, she attacked me! She's crazy!"

Ethan appeared in the doorway, taking in the scene: Sabrina crying with a bleeding cheek, me standing frozen, the broken vase at my feet.

He didn't hesitate. He didn't ask a single question.

"You bitch," he snarled at me, his face contorted with fury. He rushed toward me.

"She's lying, Ethan," I pleaded, but he wasn't listening.

"Sabrina told me a psychic warned her you would try to ruin my career," he spat. "That your firstborn would be my downfall. I see it now. You're a manipulative liar."

He shoved me. Hard.

I lost my balance and fell backward, the corner of the heavy glass coffee table slamming into my abdomen.

A sharp, searing pain shot through me. I gasped, looking down. Blood was starting to soak through my dress. A lot of blood.

Ethan looked down at me, his eyes cold and devoid of any emotion.

"You see what you made me do?" he said, his voice low and menacing.

He then turned, put his arm around Sabrina, and walked away, leaving me bleeding on the floor.

The pain was immense, a deep, tearing agony in my womb. But it was nothing compared to the pain in my heart.

With the last of my strength, I crawled toward my purse, my hand leaving a trail of blood on the polished floor. I fumbled for my phone and dialed 911.

"I'm bleeding," I whispered to the operator. "I think... I think I'm losing my babies."

Then, the world went dark.

I woke up in a sterile white hospital room. The first thing I saw was the flat expanse of my stomach beneath the thin blanket. They were gone. My babies were gone.

The ten years of love I had for Ethan Scott evaporated completely, replaced by a cold, silent void. There was no grief, no sadness. Just the chilling realization of what had been done to me.

The next morning, my phone rang. It was Ethan.

I answered, my voice a dead monotone. "Hello."

"Are you ever coming back to clean up this mess?" he demanded, his voice sharp with annoyance. "There's blood all over the rug. It's disgusting."

He didn't ask if I was okay. He didn't ask about the babies. He complained about the stains.

"And don't forget," he continued, "you have to be at the CMA after-party tonight. Our partnership with your family's label is being announced. Don't you dare embarrass me."

He hung up.

A minute later, another call came through. It was Sabrina.

"Just so you know," she purred, "if you don't show up tonight, or if you try to pull anything, I'm leaking the video. The whole world will see what a pathetic whore you are."

The threat hung in the air, a promise of complete and utter ruin. I was trapped.

A wave of terror and despair washed over me. I had lost everything. My babies, my husband, my dignity. And now, they were threatening to take the last thing I had left: my name.

My hand shaking, I scrolled through my contacts and found the one person I knew I could trust. My brother.

Andrew Fuller.

I pressed the call button.

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