Chapter 4

My eyes locked on what he was holding.

He was holding the phone my mother had left me!

When her cancer became terminal, my mother knew she didn't have long.

She spent her final days recording messages for me on that old phone, telling me how much she missed me and how worried she was about me.

I reached for it without thinking, but Walker pulled it away.

"Walker, what are you doing? Give it back!"

My eyes burned as I glared at him.

On the anniversary of the night we'd met eight years earlier, Walker had noticed the silver phone my mother had left me.

That day, he had dropped to one knee and proposed, promising my mother, whose face filled the screen, that he would always take care of me.

Now he was using that same phone to force me to protect Anna.

"Take the evidence down. Post a statement saying you were jealous of Anna and made up those lies to ruin her reputation."

Walker's cold voice left no room for argument.

"Think it over. Every minute you wait, I'll delete another recording."

My breath caught. My blood ran cold.

Those recordings were all I had left of my mother's voice.

If he destroyed them, I would never hear her again.

A minute passed before I knew it. Walker hit play, and my mother's voice filled the room.

"Sweetheart, all I want is for you to be healthy and happy. It's my dearest wish."

Before she could finish, the recording suddenly stopped.

Walker had deleted it.

My hands trembled. Regret hit me hard.

When I still didn't give in, his thumb hovered over the screen again.

I threw myself out of bed and lunged at him, grabbing his hand with all my strength.

I clenched my teeth and tasted blood in my mouth.

"Fine! Fine! I'll post the statement. Give me the phone. Don't delete anything else!"

Walker refused to let go of the phone, his expression unreadable.

"I'm watching you post it."

Shaking all over, I typed exactly what Walker told me to write.

"I need to clear something up. Everything I said about Anna being the other woman and trying to steal my fiance was a lie. I was jealous of Anna, so I made it up. I faked the evidence too. Anna has never interfered in anyone's relationship."

After I posted it, I looked up at Walker.

"Satisfied?"

He nodded.

"Why couldn't you have just listened to me from the beginning? You're too damn stubborn."

Tears spilled down my cheeks as I clutched my mother's phone to my chest.

Only after Walker left the room did I stop recording on my other phone.

Anna's soft voice came from the hallway.

"Walker, after what you did to Valentina, do you really think she'll still marry you?"

Walker answered without hesitation.

"Valentina has loved me for years. She won't leave me. Who else could she possibly marry?"

Eight years.

So he hadn't forgotten.

He knew exactly how much I loved him. He just thought that love gave him permission to hurt me because I'd never leave.

While the internet celebrated Walker and Anna's wedding, nude photos of me spread everywhere.

Walker didn't notice the abuse directed at me until after the wedding.

He sent me a message.

"Anna's had her wedding. I've taken care of the photos online too. Stop sulking. One o'clock. Meet me at the county clerk's office."

I put the phone down.

The Los Angeles sun blazed outside the airplane window.

I couldn't wait to return to Florence.