Chapter 5

Claire's POV

Emma went to get her car from the parking lot and told me to wait outside the restaurant.

I'd barely stopped when I heard high heels clicking down the steps behind me.

Chloe walked up beside me. The tear tracks on her face had dried, and one cheek was still red, but her eyes were full of triumph as she looked at me.

“Claire Bennett, how did that slap feel?”

“That's what you get for refusing to let go of Julian Prescott. Do you finally know your place? Then get lost already. Stop hanging around him, being an eyesore and asking to get hit.”

She was smiling now just as gleefully as she'd cried so pitifully inside the restaurant.

Julian would never see this side of her. Or perhaps he wouldn't care even if he did.

I pulled my coat tighter around me, not even bothering to look her in the eye.

“You picked up the trash I threw away and treated it like treasure. You really haven't seen much of the world.”

Chloe's smile froze.

She'd probably thought that after Julian slapped me, all I could do was cry.

“Who are you calling trash?”

Gritting her teeth, she raised a hand to hit me.

I didn't dodge. I lifted my eyes to hers.

“Haven't you been slapped enough?”

Her hand stopped in midair. The red mark on her face hadn't faded yet. Apparently remembering how much it had hurt, she finally lowered her hand in frustration.

“Just you wait.”

She glared viciously at me but didn't dare come any closer.

Suddenly, a deafening engine roar came from the intersection.

A black sedan barreled straight toward us without slowing down.

The headlights blinded me, and I instinctively stepped aside.

“Chloe!”

Julian's shout exploded behind me.

He rushed out of the restaurant, yanked Chloe into his arms, and shielded her as he moved out of the car's path.

As he lunged past me, his elbow slammed into my shoulder.

I was already standing at the curb. The force sent me pitching straight into the road.

By the time the brakes screeched, it was too late for me to move.

The front of the car struck my side at the waist, throwing me through the air. My back slammed hard against the ground.

Pain radiated from deep inside my bones. I opened my mouth, but no sound came out.

A heavy, dragging pain pulsed through my lower abdomen, and warm liquid trickled down between my thighs.

My vision began to blur. With difficulty, I turned my head toward the sidewalk.

Julian was holding Chloe, cradling her face and checking her over, his face tight with worry.

“Are you hurt anywhere? Does anything hurt?”

His hands were shaking, his eyes filled with lingering fear and concern.

Chloe huddled in his arms without so much as a speck of dust on her clothes. She looked at me over his shoulder, the corners of her mouth lifting.

Julian stood just a few steps away from me, but he never once looked in my direction.

I closed my eyes and lost consciousness completely.

When I woke again, the smell of disinfectant filled my nose.

Emma was slumped over beside the bed. Her eyes were red and swollen, with dark circles underneath. It looked as though she'd stayed with me until morning.

When she saw me open my eyes, she sat bolt upright, tears spilling down her face.

“Claire Bennett, you're finally awake.”

She held my hand and tried several times to speak before finally choking out the words.

“They couldn't save the baby. You were ten weeks pregnant. Did you know?”

I froze.

The doctor had told me I would have difficulty conceiving, so when my period was late, I'd assumed all the turmoil Julian and the Bennett family had put me through had thrown off my cycle.

I rested a hand on my lower abdomen. It was flat. I couldn't feel anything.

But my baby had really been there.

After my mother died and Lily was sent abroad for school, no one in the Bennett family treated me like family anymore.

For all those years, Julian had been the only person who was good to me.

That was why I'd clung to him so desperately. To stay by his side, I'd humbled myself until I no longer recognized who I was.

I'd dreamed of having a home with him.

A child with eyes just like his.

On weekends, we'd build things with our child out of blocks in the living room.

At night, he'd sit beside the bed and read bedtime stories while I listened with my head on his shoulder. Once our child fell asleep, we'd turn out the light together.

I'd imagined those scenes countless times.

Now our child had really come into my life, and I'd lost it before I even knew it existed.

Tears slipped from the corners of my eyes and soaked into the pillow.

The door to the room opened. A nurse came in to change my dressing and looked at Emma.

“The patient's family still hasn't come?”

“No. If there's anything we need to know, just tell me.”

The doctor followed her in, looking through my chart as he spoke to me.

“You lost a lot of blood, and you're very weak. You'll need plenty of rest while you recover. If your friend hadn't called an ambulance right away, we wouldn't have been able to save you.”

The nurse added from beside him,

“We kept calling your family while we were trying to save you, but no one answered. Your friend was the one who stayed with you.”

My family contact was Richard Bennett.

Ever since my mother died, he hadn't cared whether I lived or died. Whether he answered that call made no difference to him.

When I lost my mother, I lost my father, too. Lily was the only family I had left in this world.

She was the only reason I'd swallowed all those years of humiliation in the Bennett household.

After the doctor and nurse left, Emma couldn't hold back anymore.

“I used your phone to call that bastard Julian Prescott. He saw it was you and hung up. I called several more times before he finally answered, and all he said was, ‘I'm not letting you off so easily this time.’ Then he hung up again. He didn't even let me speak!”

Her eyes were red with anger, and the hand gripping mine was shaking.

“I saw everything. He knocked you into the road! He almost got you killed! He must be blind to fall for a bitch like Chloe Reed. Sooner or later, he's going to regret it!”

After venting, she softened her voice and tucked the blanket around me.

“Claire Bennett, don't be sad. Getting away from him is a good thing.”

I looked at her and smiled.

“Don't worry about me. I'm not sad.”

“I've already let him go. Nothing he does can hurt me anymore.”