All Chapters of She Never Looked Back: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

Dylan slammed on the brakes, his voice tense. "Where are you? Send me your location."He kept talking as he reached over with one hand and unbuckled my seat belt."Take a cab home."We were far outside the city. There were no streetlights, no cell service, and no one around.How was I supposed to get a cab out here?I didn't even have time to react before he pushed me out of the car. The door slammed shut, and his taillights soon vanished into the fog.I walked the dirt road in the dark for a long time. By the time I got home, my ankles were raw and bleeding from my high heels.Dylan never once checked on me, not even with a text asking if I was okay.Meanwhile, Jessica posted three new updates in a row. The first showed Dylan in an apron, cooking for Jessica.Her caption read, "Seven years later, I finally get to eat his cooking again."The second showed Dylan down on one knee, washing Jessica's feet."My personal masseur is on duty."The third showed them asleep in each o

I wiped the blood from the corner of my mouth and turned to leave. My lower abdomen twisted with pain, and my legs were shaking, but I kept my back straight.The moment I stepped out of the office, the tears I'd been holding back finally came. I cried for myself, for the child who would never be born, and for seven years of love wasted on the wrong man.My phone buzzed. It was the private investigator."Ms. Keller, I found something. The anonymous donor funding the account for your mother's medical expenses isn't Dylan Tate."For a moment, my mind went blank. My knees buckled, and I caught myself against the wall before I could fall. I should have suspected it years ago.A few years back, Dylan had run into financial trouble and nearly gone bankrupt. Even then, Mom had never missed a single dose of her medication, though each dose cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.That was when I'd quietly had someone look into it. I just hadn't expected it to take this long."So who is it?

Inside the box was the embryonic tissue I'd brought back from the hospital, in a sealed specimen container. Beneath it was the report confirming my miscarriage.Dylan suddenly remembered the day Jessica and I had clashed. He'd kicked me without thinking.He'd thought he hadn't kicked me very hard, but the blow had sent me crashing into the corner. Blood had soaked through my pants.He'd panicked and started toward me, but Jessica distracted him. Later, after taking her to get checked out, he'd meant to come back. Then Jessica suggested it might just be my period, so he let it go.He never imagined that kick had killed his own child. Regret, guilt, pain, and despair burned through him, nearly consuming him.Dylan called me again. Just as he'd expected, I didn't answer.Still grieving and angry, he suddenly remembered hearing the airport announcement for a flight to Marovia. He called Mom's doctor right away."Dr. Lane, how is Mrs. Keller doing?""She's already been transferred t

My words caught Dylan off guard. For a long moment, he couldn't make sense of what I meant. He had no idea what money I was talking about or what lie I was accusing him of.It took him a while to piece it together. After all, he'd spent ten years in business and was far too sharp to miss what I was implying.He pulled out his phone and called Amanda Fisher, the company's CFO."Pull the transfer records for every payment made toward Mrs. Keller's medical expenses over the past seven years. Print them and send them to me."As soon as Amanda hung up, she called her cousin, Jessica."Jessica, we've got a serious problem. Mr. Tate wants the transfer records for Mrs. Keller's medical expenses. What do I do?"Jessica forced herself to stay calm. "Don't panic. Stick to the plan."Ten minutes later, Dylan received an email containing seven years of transfer records. He went through the records transaction by transaction, then forwarded the file to the legal department."Look into this.

I finally realized that not every relationship felt the same. In all seven years with Dylan, he had never done any of these things for me.He never told me anything unless I asked. I was always the one waiting, asking, and guessing. On the rare occasions he bothered to message me, I'd be happy all day.He never once introduced me as his girlfriend. It was always just, "This is Ashley Keller," said so casually that I might as well have been nobody important.I was always the one waiting for Dylan to show up. Whether we were meeting at a restaurant, a hotel, or the airport, he was usually late. I never dared ask him to hurry, afraid he'd say I was being unreasonable.He didn't even know I was allergic to seafood. Once, at a group dinner, he ordered crab for practically the entire meal. I didn't touch any of it, and he just assumed I was dieting.All those small, ordinary things, good and bad, had built up so slowly that I barely noticed until they became overwhelming.I wasn't tryi