All Chapters of Betrayed, Broken, Back for Revenge: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

(Maya)“Listen,” I say. “I know this is hard to believe. Pull the cards. When Rhett calls, you need to tell him you are worried about me. I need him to still come to the mansion.She stares at me and lays out a spread face down.Five cards, a clean line across the coffee table: past, present, obstacle, ally, outcome. She breathes and flips the first.Our usual layout for life advice. Although she is more invested in this stuff than me. But today this might be the difference between me succeeding or being locked up for being crazy.Tess breathes out. Centers herself and flips the first card over. She talks as she looks at it.“Past: The Moon. Secrets, emotions kept hidden. Something you can’t see for what it is.”I don’t need her to tell me. I lived the hidden. I nod.She flips the second.“Present: The Tower.”She makes a small sound. The card is a jagged picture and her lips go thin. “Sudden collapse. Something burning down. A rupture,” she says. “This is now.”“Yes, exactly.”Her ha

(Maya)I wake knowing the world will move the same way it did the last time. That knowledge is a weapon now, not a chain.His scent is still on the pillow. He was here. He stayed.It tells me the sequence will follow, that the morning will run like a film and I can edit the cuts.Lucy isn’t in the house. I arranged that yesterday and it steadies me more than I expected. Lucy being safe means I can move without worrying that somehow, Jade will still get her somehow.It means I can be ruthless and all I have to worry about is getting myself away and back to Lucy. Then I’ll go somewhere and hide with her for as long as it takes.I will help Owen. I wouldn’t let him die. Not like his mother let my daughter die. Not like her own father didn’t care enough about her to double-check. To visit her and be with her during her recovery.This time will be very, very different.I dress slowly.There’s tenderness in the bruises on my ribs, in the ache that curls after Cole came to own me this mornin

(Maya)I call Tessa before I do anything else.She’s the person who will do what I need and not ask for a story. She answers on the second ring.“Tessa,” I say, clipped. “I wired funds to you to transfer to Rhett. He will be there to pick Lucy up. It’s okay. Let her go with him. Make sure she has all she needs.”My mind is clogged with the million ways this could go wrong.“Okay,” she says. “He’s on his way?”“I’m not sure exactly when. I’ll touch base with you when I’m ready to go to them.”“Copy that.” No questions. No drama.“Thanks, Tessa.”“Just be careful. The cards say there are things you can’t see.”“That’s life though, isn’t it. But I’ll be wary. I promise.”The list is complete.The wedding set is gone. All my other jewelry too.I have money to do what I need. To get Lucy to safety and keep her there.The independent DNA test sits sealed and stamped in my bag. Those facts cannot be denied.When he comes with the false tests, Jade will choke when she sees what I have.Then h

(Jade)Her car is already away by the time I get outside. The taillights are a smear.“Stop!” I scream. My voice breaks.I don’t care that it sounds raw. I don’t care if the neighbors hear. I run faster, the car takes the corner and it’s gone.Maya’s gone and so is Lucy. My lifeline for my son.She knew he was sick, she knew all about it. She overheard us talking. How could she do this to him? How could she deny him life to spite Cole?She’s just jealous of me of what I have with Cole that she can never have.He’s mine, he always has been.Cole catches up to me before I can throw myself at the pavement. He grabs my arm and I let him hold me as I cry and sob.“I hate her. I hate her. I’m sorry Cole, how could she?”“What did she do?” he asks.“She took her,” I say. The words come out thin. “Lucy was not in her room. She planned this. She is going to let our son die.”Cole goes very still.I have seen him angry in boardrooms and committees. This is different. This goes straight to the p

(Maya)The cheap sedan smells like stale cigarette smoke and old coffee.The heater rattles. The radio is dead. It doesn’t matter. It moves and that’s all I need.I pull over just on the outskirts of Las Vegas.I switched my regular phone off before I left the driveway. No pings, no accidental calls, no trace. I use the burner now… a scrubbed number, no contacts, no history.I type a message to Rhett.Me: Is Lucy okay?The dots pulse, then his reply fills the screen.Rhett: She’s fine. Don’t worry. Tessa’s with her.The breath I drag in isn’t calm, but it’s steadier.Tessa being there means Lucy isn’t just with Rhett who has no experience with kids, and my father who has but I’m unsure what state of mind he’s in right now.She also has the one person I trust completely. Relief floods through me.Me: Tessa? She’s there?”Rhett: Yeah. Said she wouldn’t let Lucy go without her. They’re settled. She’s feeding her now. Don’t do anything stupid, Maya.Tears sting my eyes, but not the broken