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073 Choices That Aren’t Choices
Last Updated:
2025-12-04 13:52:59
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Betrayed, Broken, Back for Revenge 076 Finding The Memories
(Maya)Tessa hasn’t changed since I sat with her last.The steady rhythm of her breathing, the quiet sound of machines. But she is calm. I sense it. Calm and at peace and removed from the drama.I lift Lucy onto the bed and watch her crawl straight into the space under Tessa’s arm. She settles quickly, eyes heavy.I sit, adjusting the blanket over Lucy, trying to push down the tight feeling that’s been growing since the committee met. There’s too much to manage. Too much uncertainty.And Rhett… God, Rhett… every passing hour makes the dread sharper.He might already be dead. I have no way of knowing.I look up because I feel I’m not alone in here. I jump when I see a young woman in the corner. Calm. Silent. Watching with a steady expression.“Oh crap, sorry I didn’t know anyone else was here. We can go if you need privacy.” I say awkwardly.I’ve never seen her before but there are a lot of Tessa’s friends I don’t know.She stands as soon as she sees me looking. “You must be Maya.”I s
Betrayed, Broken, Back for Revenge 075 Why Does He Have To Affect Me This Way?
(Maya)Owen’s room is quieter than usual.Lucy is in my lap at the little table by the window, stabbing pieces of banana with a plastic fork while I try to coax a few spoonfuls into her.She’s impatient, squirmy, but at least she’s eating. More than Owen can do right now.Owen’s color is still too pale but not terrifyingly so. Stable but still critical, the nurse said.Stable is good. Stable is our new version of hope.Stable is what Cole wants us to project to the world. But no amount of pretending and wishing might save this young boy’s life. Not even my so-called advantage of hindsight might work.It makes me angry to think I came back and I made things worse for Owen. In the last life he had gotten through the procedure. He was able to have and attend his ninth birthday out of the hospital.That’s a month away. The timeline is different. Have I changed things for the worse? I don’t know how grave his situation was back then. I was not told how ill he was. I was drugged and barely
Betrayed, Broken, Back for Revenge 074 I See You
(Cole)I should feel victorious as I walk away.She agreed. She said yes. She’ll let me back into the mansion.She’ll play the part. She’ll let the world see us as a family again.I should feel like I won.But all I can feel is the echo of her voice in my head:“I hate you.”“You’re a monster inside.”“I’ll never love you again.”“I hope Owen never grows up to be like you.”The words don’t just sting. They detonate.The worst part… the part that makes something tight and ugly twist inside me… is that she’s probably right. About all of it.My father. My grandfather. My uncles. Me.Every Vance man she’s ever been warned about.I hear their voices in my head. Their lessons. Their rules.The legacy I uphold.Power first. Control always. Vulnerability is weakness. Emotions are weakness. Caring about emotions is weakness and not allowed. Not ever.People are pieces. Women are assets. Family is leverage.And I see myself… truly see myself… for the first time without the filters I hide behind
Betrayed, Broken, Back for Revenge 073 Choices That Aren’t Choices
(Maya)Cole lifts his phone, and for a moment my mind refuses to make sense of what I’m seeing.Then it does, and everything inside me folds in on itself.It’s my body. My voice. My reactions. Angles I never saw, moments I didn’t know he recorded.All of it captured without permission and stored away for the day he wanted power back.I’m such an idiot for letting it happen. Of course that is why he wanted me in that room at the hospital. He wanted to get rid of Rhett and he wanted this leverage over me.Cole really is a terrible human being. I’ve always believed that he wasn’t. That he showed me a side of himself that was the real Cole. That he was worth saving. Even up until now something inside me wanted to be right about that.Now I see how much of a fool I’ve been.And what hits me even harder is that none of this really surprises me.Of course he recorded me. Of course he waited until he felt control slipping to pull out something devastating. This is who Cole is. This is who he
Betrayed, Broken, Back for Revenge 072 Drawing the Line
(Maya)“No.” It’s the first thing out of my mouth after Cole says the sentence I can’t even believe.Owen and I are moving back into the mansion.This mansion… the crown jewel of the Vance family, the place I forced him out of, the only real win I’ve had… and he says it like it’s a foregone conclusion.“No,” I repeat. “You’re not coming here. You don’t live here.”He steps toward me, hands raised slightly. “Maya… please. Just listen.”I stay exactly where I am.“The kids need each other,” he says. “You saw Owen. You saw how his whole body responded when Lucy was with him. She’s his strength. She keeps him here.”My anger rises. How can he use sick children to justify whatever he wants?I know Lucy and Owen need each other. That part is not the problem.The problem is him.He keeps going, voice cracking around the edges. “Lucy needs him too. The way she held onto him… Maya, they need this. They need each other.”I don’t say a word. I know he takes silence as permission. He always has.
Betrayed, Broken, Back for Revenge 071 Corporate Bloodbath
(Cole)My phone buzzes just as I step out for some air.It’s my father.Emergency board session. Top floor. Now.No context but I know this cannot be good.It never is and there hasn’t been anything this serious since my older brother stepped down and left me to be CEO.I don’t want to leave Jade alone right now with Owen, not even at the hospital.“I’ll drop you home and pick you back up. You can shower and freshen up. I’ll do the same. Once I take care of some business matters.”She doesn’t argue and I drop her at my penthouse and head to the Vance head office.When I walk in, the boardroom table is full. Every chair. Every executive.My father. My uncles. My grandfather… who hasn’t been here for years. My older brother, Robert. That’s strange. He’s had zero time here since he stepped down.And the room goes dead quiet when they see me walk in.My father gestures at the seat across from him. “Sit.”I sit. A stack of printed papers is pushed in front of me.My uncle Barnaby flips the
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