Kayla’s POV”Are you actually this stupid?!” Sarah yelled, throwing her hands up in the air as she paced across the small room.
“You are sitting here broke, jobless, homeless for all practical Reasons.
What are you going to do, raise a kid on air and tap water?!
You want to run away?
Fine, go ahead!
Run off to the middle of nowhere and struggle until your fingers bleed, but don’t sit here and act like pride is going to feed this baby!”
”I don’t care!
I will work two jobs, three jobs, I don’t care what it takes, but I will not sell myself out to Lucien Throne again!” I shouted back, my own anger flaring up to match hers.
“You don’t get it, Sarah! That night destroyed my life, and keeping his kid is already terrifying enough without him looming over my shoulder!”
We were screaming at each other at the top of our lungs, the small examination room echoing with our noise, when the door suddenly swung open.
A nurse stood in the doorway with a clipboard, looking thoroughly unimpressed and deeply annoyed.
“Excuse me,” the nurse said sharply, tapping her pen against the paper.
“This is a medical clinic, not a boxing ring. You need to keep the noise down for the other patients. Besides, your discharge papers are cleared, so take the argument outside and go.”
Sarah scoffed, crossing her arms and rolling her eyes so hard I thought they would get stuck.
“Fine. We’re leaving.”
We walked out of the clinic and hit the cool evening air of the sidewalk.
The sun was dipping low, casting long shadows across the crowded street, but neither of us bothered to lower our voices.
We still kept arguing as we walked down the block toward the main road to catch a taxi.
“I’m just saying you don’t think straight sometimes Kayla,” Sarah muttered, glaring at the pavement.
“You have leverage for once in your miserable life, and you’re just throwing it-”
She cut off mid-sentence.
Her footsteps stopped dead on the concrete.
I took another step before realizing she wasn’t beside me, and when I looked back, she was staring straight ahead with her mouth slightly open, frozen like a statue.
“Sarah? What is your problem now?” I sighed, turning around to follow her gaze.
My breath caught in my throat. This chapter is updated first at g.com.
My heart completely stopped beating.
A few yards away from us, stepping out of a sleek, black luxury car parked outside an upscale hotel, was Lucien Throne.
He looked as intimidating and impossibly sharp as ever.
He wore a tailored blue suit that fit his tall, muscular frame to perfection, his jawline carved like marble, and an aura of absolute cold power radiating off him.
Walking with him on both sides were four massive, broad stone faced bodyguards in identical black suits, clearing the path as he walked.
My entire body went ice cold.
The world around us seemed to blur into noise and motion, leaving only him in sharp, terrifying focus.
He’s here.
Why is he here?
Before my brain could process a single thought, I looked over at Sarah.
The thoughts were turning in her head, and I could practically see the dangerous, impulsive idea forming behind her eyes.
“Wait here,” Sarah whispered, her voice tight with sudden excitement.
“Sarah, no! Don’t you dare-” I whispered, grabbing for the sleeve of her jacket.
It was too late.
Before I could even close my fingers around her coat, Sarah took off running across the pavement straight toward the group of men.
“Hey! Mr. Throne! Wait, you need to hear this! Kayla is—” Sarah shouted, waving her arms frantically as she charged right toward the center of the sidewalk.
She didn’t even make it three steps past the curb.
Before she could get within ten feet of him, two of the massive bodyguards moved with terrifying speed.
They didn’t hesitate for a single second.
One of them stepped directly into Sarah’s path, placing a heavy hand firmly against her chest and shoving her backward with enough force to send her stumbling hard onto the pavement. Get faster updates on NovelPing.
“Back off. Stay away,” the bodyguard barked, his voice a deep, with a warning that could freeze blood.
Lucien didn’t even break his stride.
He didn’t turn his head, he didn’t look down at the commotion, and he didn’t give Sarah so much as a single glance.
To him, she was nothing more than an annoying bee buzzing near his ear.
He kept walking straight ahead, disappearing through the grand glass doors of the hotel lobby with his bodyguard walking right behind him.
I stood frozen on the sidewalk, my hands shaking uncontrollably as Sarah got back up to her feet, dusting off her jeans with a look of absolute shock and furious disbelief on her face.
As the heavy glass doors clicked shut behind him, a cold, heavy dread settled deep in my stomach.
He was right here.
In my city.
And carrying his child suddenly felt like holding a ticking time bomb.
After that terrible encounter, We didn’t say a single word all the way back to Sarah’s apartment.
The energy inside the taxi was thick, heavy, and suffocating.
My mind was spinning so fast I thought I was going to throw up all over again.
Seeing Lucien Throne in the flesh, breathing the same city air, brought every terrifying reality crashing down on my shoulders.
Once we walked through the door, Sarah threw her keys on the counter and turned to me, her chest heavy.
“Did you see that?!” Sarah threw her hands up, her voice rising in disbelief.
“That man was right there, Kayla!
Ten feet away!
And you just stood there like a statue while I tried to get his attention!”
”I panicked, okay?” I snapped back, dropping my bag on the floor and wrapping my arms tightly around myself .
“You don’t understand, Sarah. You didn’t look into his eyes that night. Men like that don’t just hand out child support and walk away. If he finds out about this baby, he will take it from me. He will control everything!”