Chapter 4

Jillian Chapman POV:

I shook my head, a slow, deliberate movement that conveyed a deep, unspoken refusal. My gaze was fixed on the wall, not on him. Adam. The son he stole. The living, breathing symbol of my ruin. How could I look at him without seeing the past, without feeling the phantom pain of every kick, every degrading touch I endured while carrying him? He was a constant, agonizing reminder of the man who had effortlessly destroyed me.

His presence in my life was a jagged shard of glass, forever embedded in my heart. No amount of love, no measure of maternal instinct, could completely dull the edge of that profound trauma.

"I can' t," I said, my voice flat. "Ida needs me. Always." It was a convenient truth, a shield. My daughter, my true anchor, required my full attention.

Grayson' s throat worked, a visible lump moving as he swallowed. He seemed to want to argue, to plead, but the words died in his throat. He clenched his jaw, then turned to leave, his shoulders slumping slightly.

I heard the soft click of the door closing behind him, a small sigh of relief escaping my lips. I gathered Ida' s things, the few worn toys and clothes we possessed. We were moving. Again. Grayson' s money might offer a gilded cage, but I wouldn' t be trapped by his pity. Not yet.

I left the journal on the bedside table, a silent, damning testament. He would find it. He would read it. And then, the real work would begin.

Even with the unexpected financial windfall, I sought work. Not because I needed the money, but because I needed the normalcy, the structure. And because I needed to be seen struggle. For him. For everyone who believed the lies. But finding work was a cruel joke. My past, the whispers of "institutionalized," "unstable," "scandalous professor," preceded me everywhere. Doors slammed shut before I even arrived.

So, I sought out the kind of work I knew he' d find me doing. The gritty, back-breaking kind.

It wasn't long before I found myself scrubbing floors in a grimy diner kitchen, the scent of stale grease clinging to my clothes. My hands, once delicate, skilled at turning pages of ancient texts, were now rough, calloused, stained with dishwater.

I was hunched over a sink, the hot, soapy water burning my chapped skin, when the back door creaked open. A shadow fell over me. I didn' t need to look up. The scent of an expensive suit, the sheer presence of him, was unmistakable.

"Jillian," Grayson' s voice was strained, laced with disbelief, almost a gasp.

I straightened slowly, my back aching, my hip screaming in protest. A sharp, familiar pain shot through my left side, the lasting reminder of a brutal beating. I pressed a hand to the spot, a grimace involuntarily stealing across my face.

He saw it. His eyes, wide with a horror I found perversely satisfying, darted to my hand, then to my face. "What are you doing here? And... your hands. What happened to your hands?" He took a step closer, his eyes scanning my tired face, my worn uniform. "Are you doing this alone? Raising her alone?"

Alone. The word echoed in my mind, a cruel anthem. You condemned me to this, Grayson. You left me to rot, to raise our child in secret, in poverty. I remembered the long nights, working two, sometimes three, minimum-wage jobs just to buy formula and pay rent. I remembered the cold stares, the whispered judgments. I remembered every single moment of struggle, every tear shed in silent despair. And then, later, the calculated, cold resolve that hardened me into the woman I was today.

I yanked my hand away from his outstretched one, my voice rough. "What does it look like, Grayson? I' m working. Something you wouldn' t understand." I pushed past him, my body screaming in protest, trying to make it to the sink, but my legs gave out. I stumbled, falling forward.

He caught me, his arms closing around my waist, pulling me against his solid chest. The scent of him-expensive cologne, faint traces of something vaguely familiar from long ago-filled my senses. It was a warmth I yearned to reject, a comfort I despised. His touch was a cruel echo of a past that had been irrevocably shattered.

This warmth. This deceptive comfort. It' s a lie. I remembered the last time he held me, not in tenderness, but in a mocking embrace, his words like daggers.

"You think you' re so smart, Jillian?" he' d sneered, dragging me by my hair across the cold, tiled floor of that isolated mansion, the one he' d called our "sanctuary." "You think you can just walk away from what you did? From what your father did?"

Kiera had stood there, watching, her eyes gleaming with malicious satisfaction. "She' s a disgrace, Grayson. And she knows too much. What if she talks?"

"She won' t," he' d responded, his grip tightening on my arm, twisting it until I screamed. "Because no one will believe a crazy woman. Especially one whose family is already ruined." He' d laughed then, a chilling, triumphant sound. "And besides, we have proof now. Proof your father was a pervert. Proof you seduced me. All neatly packaged. Your academic career, your reputation, your very sanity. All gone."

And then, the real truth, delivered with Kiera' s venomous smile. "Oh, by the way, Jillian. Your father didn' t just die in a car crash. He was running from the police, trying to escape the accusations. We made sure the evidence was... convincing. And your mother? She couldn' t take the shame. Too bad."

The world had spun. My father, running? My mother, dead by her own hand because of their lies? I' d lunged at Kiera, a primal roar tearing from my throat, my hands reaching for her throat.

Grayson had pulled me back, a brutal fist connecting with my abdomen. The pain was excruciating, searing. I' d slumped to the floor, coughing, blood filling my mouth. "You' re carrying my child, Jillian! You won' t harm Kiera!" he' d snarled, his eyes blazing with a terrifying fury. "You will pay for this."

The next day, the contractions started. Early. Too early. I was bleeding. I begged him for a doctor, for help, but he just watched, his face impassive. "You brought this on yourself," he' d repeated, again and again, like a mantra. When the pain became unbearable, when I felt the life draining from me, only then did he call for medical attention. By then, it was too late. Adam was born prematurely, fighting for his life, while I lay in a drug-induced haze, barely clinging to my own sanity.

A sharp rap on the metal counter pulled me from the terrifying memory. Grayson' s hand was on my forehead. My head was swimming. The pain in my abdomen was a dull throb.

"Jillian?" he murmured, his voice laced with genuine concern. His eyes were wide, confused. "What happened? You just... passed out."

Ida, who had been sitting patiently on a stack of overturned buckets, sprang to life. She' d been clinging to an old, worn doll, her sanctuary. She'd accidentally knocked over a small, brown leather journal. It skittered across the floor, coming to rest at Grayson' s feet. It was the one I' d left at the hospital.

He bent down, his gaze falling on the open pages. His eyes widened, fixing on the elegant script, the familiar handwriting. His sister' s handwriting. He picked it up. He read. His face crumpled. The last vestiges of his composure shattered.

A guttural cry tore from his throat, echoing through the silent kitchen. He stumbled back, clutching the journal to his chest, his eyes burning with a grief so profound it twisted his features into a mask of pure agony. He let out a strangled sob, a sound so raw and broken it chilled me to the bone. This was the sound of a man confronting a truth he had desperately buried.