Chapter 5 - THE SCARS ETHAN LEFT BEHIND
Jack did not ask me to return to the restaurant.
He sent a physician to examine my burned hand and arranged for a licensed security company to protect Ruth's building.
He also sent a message through Rocco.
No one will approach your son without your permission.
I wanted to believe him.
But believing powerful men had never ended well for me.
Three days later, I received a call from Ethan.
I hadn't heard his voice in six weeks.
“Lily.”
My stomach tightened.
“What do you want?”
“I heard you got involved with Jack Moretti.”
I froze.
“Who told you that?”
He laughed.
“People talk.”
I looked toward Noah, who was building a tower from plastic blocks.
“Stay away from us.”
“Relax. I'm just checking on my family.”
I almost laughed.
“You left your family.”
His voice hardened.
“Don't start.”
Then he said something that made my blood run cold.
“Nice apartment Ruth has. Third floor, right?”
I ended the call.
My hands were shaking.
For years, Ethan had used fear to keep me quiet.
He mocked my weight.
Called my scars ugly.
Told me nobody else would ever want me.
The worst scar ran across my lower abdomen.
A thick, uneven line from the emergency surgery that saved Noah's life.
Ethan used to stare at it with disgust.
“You ruined yourself,” he told me once.
I had believed him.
Not completely.
But enough to avoid mirrors.
Enough to change clothes in the dark.
Enough to think love was something I had to earn by becoming smaller.
Now I looked at Noah.
The child who existed because my body had survived something terrible.
And I understood how cruel Ethan's words had been.
My scar was not evidence of failure.
It was evidence that I'd fought to bring my son into the world.
My phone rang again.
This time, it was Jack.
“Lily?”
I swallowed.
“Yes?”
“Rocco found something.”
“What?”
“Marco made calls before the meeting.”
I closed my eyes.
“One of them was to Ethan Bennett.”
The room seemed to tilt.
May you like
My ex-husband wasn't simply calling to frighten me.
He was part of the conspiracy.
