The Cost of a Label

Logan Cartwright made Vivian Siegel change costumes again and again. He took her in one position after another, biting at her with an almost animal ferocity.

His eyes gleamed with vindictive satisfaction, but beneath it was a longing he couldn't hide.

Caught up in the heat of the moment, Vivian cried out and bit down hard on his lip.

"Logan, this won't end until one of us is dead!"

Logan only kissed her harder. When he finally spoke, his voice was vicious.

"Fine. I'll see this through to the end. Just make sure you can handle it!"

Summer Bennett's phone lit up with another message.

"They're still at the hotel, and they're about to go for round seven. If you hurry, you can catch them in the act."

Summer went cold. She grabbed a knife and raced to the hotel, following the location she'd been sent.

She burst into the room and swung the knife at Vivian, but Logan stepped in front of her. The blade sliced deep into his left arm.

He barely grunted, but his voice came out unusually hoarse. "Summer, don't do anything stupid. If you're going to hurt someone, hurt me instead."

Summer's lips trembled. "And what if I hurt her anyway, Logan?"

Vivian screamed and passed out.

A murderous look flashed in Logan's eyes, and Summer's heart clenched. She'd seen that look before when he'd faced the people who'd come after her for revenge.

Logan's face was pale, and sweat ran down his forehead. He pulled on his clothes and carefully lifted Vivian into his arms.

As he carried her out, his voice was ice-cold. "I don't care what you do to anyone else. But don't you dare touch her."

Summer watched him leave. Then her knees buckled, and her assistant, Andrea Finch, caught her.

She'd heard those words before.

Back then, Vivian had mocked Summer in front of the entire school for being born out of wedlock, then dumped trash all over her.

Logan had grabbed a stool and charged at Vivian, swinging it at her in a rage.

"You want to pick on someone? Try me. But don't you dare touch Summer!"

Andrea cried out in panic, "Ms. Bennett! Your nose is bleeding! I'm taking you to the hospital!"

After the examination, Summer waited in a hospital room for her test results.

Andrea held out a stack of papers, looking uneasy. "Ms. Bennett, there's something I think you should know."

Summer stared at the long list of bank transfers and purchases. Logan had even bought a house at auction on the outskirts of the city just four months earlier.

The papers slipped from her fingers.

For three years, Logan had been paying Vivian's expenses while carrying on an affair with her.

It had all started shortly after the Siegel family's downfall, when Summer and Logan were just beginning to build their careers.

But back then, Logan had only had eyes for Summer. He'd wanted Vivian to pay ten times over for everything she'd done to Summer.

Everyone they knew had seen how fiercely Logan and Summer loved each other. For ten years, their devotion had bordered on obsession.

Even when Logan was flat broke, he'd rather beg on the streets than let Summer go without a birthday present.

He'd always seemed so devoted to her that whenever another woman so much as touched him, he acted as though he needed to wash it off.

For Logan's sake, Summer had become a woman no one in the business world dared cross. She'd made countless enemies just to secure him a seat at the table.

Logan was the Cartwright family's illegitimate son, a disgrace in their eyes. Summer was the illegitimate daughter the Siegels despised.

They'd both been treated like dirt, but together, they'd fought their way into the ranks of the rich and powerful.

The day their company went public, Logan rented every digital billboard in the city to celebrate their success.

He took Summer's hand and said, "Summer, this is our victory. From now on, no one will ever dare look down on us again."

Fireworks lit up the sky all night, every bit as dazzling as the light in his eyes.

Yet now, after everything they'd been through together, he wasn't even trying to hide his affair. He'd made a complete fool of her.

When the test results came back, the doctor looked grim.

"You have a malignant brain tumor. You need surgery as soon as possible. You should call your family."

"Family?"

Summer gave a bitter smile and shook her head.

Just half an hour ago, she'd still had Logan. Now she had no one to call.

Logan didn't come home that night. Instead, he sent her a single text.

"You scared her today. She can't sleep, so I'm not coming home tonight."

Early the next morning, Summer and her men grabbed Vivian at the restaurant and hauled her back to Summer's house.

Summer took one look at Vivian's cheap waitress uniform and scoffed. "Who do you think you're fooling? After all the money Logan's spent on you, you expect me to believe you're waiting tables?"

Vivian lifted her chin, every bit as arrogant as she'd been when she bullied Summer in school.

"I don't want your filthy money. You and Logan will always be bastards. You'll never belong in high society, and your money's just as dirty as you are!

"And keep your husband in line. If he's that desperate, tell him to find a hooker. I don't want him touching me. He makes me sick!"

Summer gave her bodyguards a nod. "Slap her."

One of the guards slapped Vivian again and again until her face swelled. Even with her mouth full of blood, she sneered.

"Don't kid yourself, Summer. You're just a bastard who got lucky. You don't deserve any of this. One day, your luck's going to run out, and it'll be the end of you!"

Logan burst into the room, his eyes bloodshot. He kicked the guard away from Vivian. His expression was icy as he bit out each word.

"Summer Bennett! Didn't I tell you not to touch her?"