Prologue

~ Helen’s POV ~

Years later,

Standing before me is the man who once made me feel loved. Who held me like I was rare. Who whispered promises in the dark. Who told me I mattered.

Now he stands here... to take everything from me.

His presence alone feels like a blade. His silence, a sentence. The courtroom is packed with people in polished shoes and judgmental eyes, but all I see is him. The man who once kissed my fears away now tries to erase what little joy I have left.

Sebastian Hartley.

He threw me out of his life after all those nights, all those whispered dreams, after making me believe I was more than a secret... he now stands to take the only thing that ever truly belonged to me…my son, Hazel.

The child who kept me breathing through heartbreak. The one who gave me purpose when everything else collapsed.

And I can't stop him.

I stand frozen, unable to scream, to move, to breathe. My heart shatters in pieces so sharp, my world shattering right before me.

He’s taking Hazel from me.

My son, my strength, my only source of joy. He’s taking the only proof that something real ever existed between us. The only truth that remained after all the lies and betrayals. He’s taking him away too.

My knees buckle. My voice comes out in a scream I don’t recognize as mine. I launch myself forward, trying to get to my child, but hands grab me…rough, tight and unrelenting.

“Hazel!” I cry, my lungs burning, my body fighting like a wild animal caught in a cage. “Please! Don’t take him from me!”

Two officers pin me down to the courtroom floor, my arms twisted behind my back. I scream my lungs out not caring how I sound, not caring about the flash of cameras, the judge's banging gavel, or the crowd gasping in horror or judgment.

I’m a mother. And my child is being stolen right before my eyes.

“You've taken everything from me!” I sob, struggling beneath their grip, graveling like a woman unhinged. “Please... just let me hold him. Just let me be with my son...”

“Your son?” he says with a smirk, towering above me as if I’m filth beneath his shoes. “You low-life. You stole my son. My blood. And you dare to call him yours?”

My chest closed not from his words, but from my Hazel. He cried with me, tears streaming down his eyes.

The way he says it. Like Hazel never belonged to me. Like I’m nothing but a thief. Like the nights we shared, the pain I endured, the love I gave…never meant a thing.

The judge banged her gavel, calling for order, her voice stern and commanding. But I don’t care. I don’t hear her.

All I hear is Hazel crying.

All I see is his tiny face, tears rolling down his cheeks, arms stretched toward me. His eyes,my eyes begging for comfort, for safety, for me.

I wrench myself free from the officers and run to him, dropping to my knees.

“Hazel, I’m your mother.” I cry, holding him so tightly, as if I could fuse our bodies together and no one could ever tear us apart again. “No matter what they say, no matter what happens—you’ll always be my son. Always.”

His little arms wrap around me.

“Mama,” he sobs. “I want to go home…”

My heart.... My heart is breaking. Every piece as a reminder of his betrayal.

Without hesitation.

Without a single flicker of remorse.

Sebastian rips Hazel from my arms like I’m diseased, and shoves me back with so much force, I land hard on the polished wood floor, pain radiating through my spine.

He looks down at me with utter disgust.

“You should’ve known better,” he sneers, adjusting his cufflink like he’s brushing off my existence. Then he turns and walks away with my son in his arms..like he’s won something.

Like I’m just another one of his conquered mistakes.

“Please!” I scream, dragging myself to my feet, running toward the judge with shaking legs and a voice nearly gone. “Hazel is my son! Please..don’t let him take him away!”

The judge barely looks at me.

Her voice is flat. “We are letting you go. Not to punish you… for stealing the child.”

I stop breathing.

Stealing?

What did she just say?

My body shakes violently as her words settle like poison in my veins.

That’s my son.

I carried him.

I bore the weight of swollen ankles and stretch marks and sleepless nights. I nursed him through fevers. Sang lullabies when we had no roof. I gave everything for that child.

And now she calls me a thief?

I scream inside.

I want to tear the world apart.

I want every wall in this courtroom to collapse under the weight of what they’ve done.

But no one moves.

No one helps.

The man I once loved has painted me as a liar, and now the whole world believes him.

He left me with nothing but grief… and now he’s taken even that. Even Hazel.

I run after his car as it pulls away from the courthouse.

Barefoot. Bleeding. Out of breath.

“Hazel!” I cry, my voice cracking into a thousand desperate shards.

But the car speeds off.

And I fall.

My knees slam into the concrete. My palms scrape across gravel. I hit the ground like a woman who’s lost everything...because I have.

“No…” I whisper.

“No, no, no…”

Cameras flash in my face. Reporters bark questions. The whole world watches as I shatter in public.

But I don’t care about them.

I only care that Hazel is gone.

I should have listened.

I should have never let him get into my head, my heart and in between my thighs.

I thought he loved me.

But he turned out to be the beginning of my end.

And if I could turn back time…

I wouldn’t fall for him.

But Hazel… Hazel wouldn’t be my son.

I walked through hell for him, to give him the best life.

I wish I never came back....if I hadn't returned to this city, my baby would still be with me.

Slowly my vision began to blurr…suddenly everything faded.