All Chapters of Betrayed, Broken, Back for Revenge: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

(Maya)Dad is sitting up when I come in the next morning.His eyes seem clearer than yesterday, his voice stronger. He’s smiling as I walk towards the bed.“Morning, Maya,” he says. “Feels good to wake up and know I’m going to see you.”I sit beside him, relief loosening my chest. “You look better today.”I kiss his cheek.“I’ve thinking about all the fun we had. Remember when we used to go camping by the river? You’d beg me to roast marshmallows until I let you have half the bag.”I laugh softly. “You always burned them. You said that was the only right way.”He looks at me and then looks away. “I tried, Maya. I always tried. But I couldn’t give your mother what she wanted. She wanted more. Always more. And I wasn’t enough. I let her down. I let you down. I let myself down.”“Don’t,” I say quickly. “We don’t need to dig into that now.”He shakes his head. “I need you to know I’m sorry. All those times I wasn’t there. All those times I promised and didn’t show up. I could have done be

(Cole)She’s been gone for two days.I’m in the conference room on the forty-first floor, files spread across the glass table, the city a hard grid through the windows.Meetings are stacked down the hall, but they’re background noise I can ignore.The only thing that matters is that my daughter is out there and I have no idea where. Every minute without Lucy is another minute Owen could lose his life.And I’m questioning her safety with the mental stability of Maya right now. What will she do to keep Lucy away from us?Thomas Keane, head of legal, sits across from me. He’s five years at Vance & Co. He doesn’t do sympathy. He does outcomes.“Have we found a lead?” I ask.“No.” He taps the table, no hurry. “Security has assets on it. Surveillance logs are cross-referenced. Nothing solid. She’s covered her tracks well.”“With help,” I say. I think of Maya with Rhett and seethe.“You can’t wait for her to make a mistake. You make her react.”I look at him. “Make her react how?”“Trigger h

(Maya)It’s just after sunrise when I reach the city.I don’t notice the buildings or the traffic. I only notice the tightness in my chest and how much my hands shake on the steering wheel.Everything that used to feel familiar feels like it belongs to someone else. I lived this part of my life before but differently.For all I know I’m living on borrowed time. For all I know, I will still go up in flames with Lucy’s lifeless body in my arms.I don’t know, not really. But what I do know is that if I’m going, Cole Vance and Jade Mercer are coming with me this time.I park near Keaton Vale’s office. I breathe out. This is the man who’s going to take on Cole Vance… the man I once thought I’d grow old with.His billions against the chickenfeed I have in comparison. But I can’t give up. I have to believe that I will succeed in bringing the Cole Vance empire down. And stripping Jade of everything.Even her son.When the receptionist shows me into his office, Keaton stands to greet me. He’s

(Maya)In a few hours, the headlines have changed.Earlier they were calling me unwell. Now, they’re calling me dangerous. There are mixed reviews. Maybe it’s my mental instability or maybe I’m finally telling the truth.Most of them land somewhere in between. But it’s had the desired effect. They doubt anything Jade and Cole have to say bow and that’s what I needed. Keaton was right. It worked.No one is laughing at me now or feeling sorry for me. I’m not about to let them pity me either. I’ll show the world that There is life after Cole Vance and make him see exactly what he treated so badly and let go.But I’m also acutely aware that I have no place to go right now. So I need to scan for a rental as soon as I’ve checked in with Keaton on what he has gotten done today.I walk into his office, “did I do the job well enough?”He looks up, eyebrows raised. “You did great. Now you lay low a little until the media dust settles.”“Cole Vance and Jade Mercer. I want them both ruined by the

(Maya)The silence after those three words … I’m coming home… is deafening.Cole’s hand tightens around the paper.I can see the muscles in his jaw pulse. He stares hard and angry, as if the words on the page might rearrange themselves into something less humiliating.I feel the triumph. This is his own fault. We could have been happy if he’d just treated me right and not listened to that poisonous viper.“Why. Maya, why are you doing this to me?” His voice is quiet, but it’s the kind of quiet that means danger.I take another step closer. “Because you used me. You humiliated me. You never loved me like you should have.”“That’s not true. I loved you. I love you still.”I laugh in his face. “Really? I heard what you and Jade said about me. How I was nothing more than a baby maker. You married me to keep me around long enough to get what you needed for Owen.”“Okay.” He runs his hand through his dark hair, “that’s true and it was that way at first. But I did fall in love with you. I lo