“This way, she’ll never be able to divorce me. Without her legs, let’s see how she manages it! If she insists on leaving, she’ll expose the secret about me buying Chloe a real designer handbag. When that happens, the stock price of the Carter Group will plummet, and my reputation as Mr. Carter will be destroyed. What about your grandmother then? What about our lives?”
“Your mother is too selfish. She’s willing to ruin everything just to satisfy herself. But even if she’s crippled, I can still take care of her for the rest of her life. She’ll never have to worry about food or clothing.”
“It was just one handbag—barely worth tens of thousands. And yet she has to compare herself with Chloe. Chloe doesn’t live nearly as well as your mother does. She wants to shame me, so I had no choice but to be ruthless.”
“And now that she’s crippled, she can’t go home. She’ll be stuck in the hospital. That means Chloe can pick you up from school, cook for you, and take you out for burgers. Isn’t Chloe the one you’d rather have as your mother?”
On the other end of the line, Emma clapped her hands in excitement:
“Yes, yes! I love Chloe being my mom! Every time she picks me up from school, she dresses like a fairy. Unlike Mommy—always showing up in an apron, looking like some country woman. She embarrasses me.”
“And Mommy’s so controlling. She forces me to eat green peppers, won’t let me have burgers or hot dog sausages. Chloe has the heart of an angel compared to her.”
My heart sank to the bottom.
So the child I carried for ten long months had turned into an ungrateful little traitor—choosing a mistress as her mother.
I cooked for her, forced her to eat green peppers for her health, and banned burgers because of the trans fats that would stunt her growth. But in her eyes, that became me being controlling.
I picked her up from school after cooking dinner, not even changing my clothes because I was afraid something might happen to her. And in her eyes, that became me humiliating her in an apron.
So it was Daniel who had hired those thugs. He wanted me dead, or at least crippled, so I could never bring up divorce again.
I no longer wanted such a husband or such a child.
When Daniel finished his call and left, I dialed Rachel Adams.
“Rachel, I regret everything. Is there still a position for me in the research lab?”