I loved Hudson Farley for ten years.
At eighteen, Hudson sponsored my way through college. I gave him my first time.
At twenty, I hid in the crowd and watched Hudson and Aria Fox's engagement ceremony.
That night, Hudson climbed into my bed and held me from behind. "Thelma Pruitt, once I take control of the Farley family, I'll call off the engagement and marry you."
At twenty-three, I gave birth to twins and handed them over to Aria to raise.
The first time I heard my own children—the babies I'd carried for nine months—call Aria "Mama," I cried the entire night.
At twenty-eight, Aria killed someone in a hit-and-run.
Hudson came to me, his expression strained. "Thelma, Colton and Willa can't grow up without a mother."
"Aria's already agreed. You take her place in prison, and she'll annul the marriage."
"The kids and I will be waiting for you when you get out."
I stared at the man I'd loved for a decade and realized, with a jolt of clarity, that this was the closest Hudson Farley had ever come to making me a promise.
I nodded. Said one word.
"Okay."
...
"Tomorrow I'll drive you to turn yourself in. Don't worry, I've already taken care of everything."
Hudson exhaled with visible relief, stood, and hurried toward the door.
"Colton's been fussing for his mom and dad to eat dinner with him. I need to get back."
"Thelma, I love you."
I sat where I was, watching his retreating figure until it disappeared, and sank into thought.
I'd walked out of a small mountain town on my own. Earned my way into Weston University on merit alone.
I was supposed to have a bright future. Instead, I'd become Hudson Farley's caged bird.
It wasn't supposed to be like this.
I pulled out my phone and dialed a number I hadn't called in years.
"That promise you made ten years ago—does it still stand?"
"Of course."
A deep voice came through the line. "Three days from now, no matter where you are, I'll come for you."
After I hung up, my first instinct was to pack.
But then it hit me: I was about to go to prison. What was there to pack?
I sat motionless on the couch all night. When dawn came, I picked up a pair of scissors and cut my waist-length hair short.
Hudson had once mentioned, offhand, that he loved my long hair. So I'd kept it that way for ten years.
Now, that love fell away with every strand.
The sun had barely risen when Hudson pulled up in his car.
His gaze swept over my cropped hair, and shock flickered across his face. "Thelma, your hair..."
He knew how much I treasured it. How much time and care I'd poured into it. How I used to wince over a single lost strand.
"It'll be easier to manage in there."
I looked up with an awkward smile, then turned to stare out the window.
The black Maybach sped down the highway and pulled up in front of the detention center.
"Thelma, it's only three years."
"I swear, the day you walk out, the kids and I will be right here waiting."
I didn't know what to say, so I said nothing at all.
Hudson didn't notice. He kept talking, laying out his plans for three years from now.
Three years. I'd already wasted ten on Hudson Farley.
Was I really going to waste three more?
I changed into the orange jumpsuit and walked through the prison gates.
A guard assigned me to a ten-person cell, impatience flashing in her eyes.
"Move it!"
"Keep your head down and behave yourself!"
She shoved me hard. I stumbled and hit the concrete floor.
A sharp hiss escaped my lips, but before I could even cry out, fists rained down on me from every direction.
"So this is the one the boss told us to give a warm welcome."
The women exchanged a look, and the blows came harder.
All I could do was curl into the corner and shield my head with both arms.
Chapter 2At some point, the one-sided beating finally stopped.
Three days. Just get through three days, and I'll be free.
The thought flickered through my mind as I curled into a corner and drifted into unconscious sleep.
On the first day, a guard rapped on the cell door.
"Thelma Pruitt, you've got a visitor. Clean her up, ladies. Make sure nothing shows."
The women laughed as they answered, smoothing my hair with deceptive gentleness.
"Don't even think about telling anyone," the ringleader hissed in my ear, her fingers finding a bruise and twisting until I nearly blacked out. "Or one day you'll just quietly stop breathing in here."
I stumbled to the visiting room in a daze. The moment I saw Colton Abbott, the tears came before I could stop them.
"Colton..." I picked up the phone, my voice shaking beyond my control. "It's Mommy. Colton, look at me. Please look at Mommy."
The little boy wore a crisp white shirt and black dress pants, styled like a miniature prince. I could see traces of Hudson in the line of his brows, the shape of his eyes.
But his gaze was cold. A stranger's gaze. When he heard my words, his small brow furrowed hard.
"Thelma!"
Hudson cut me off.
"We agreed on this. Aria is Colton's mother. What are you trying to do, embarrass her?"
"Looks like Aria was right. Every chance you get, you try to steal the children."
"Do you really want Colton to have a murderer for a mother?"
My heart felt like it was sinking through my chest.
"But—"
But he's my child.
I carried him for ten months. I gave birth to him. I never even got to see what he looked like as a newborn before Hudson took him away.
Then Colton spoke.
"You're a bad woman."
His voice was small, but every word reached me with perfect clarity. "Mommy told me. You're a bad woman. You tried to steal Daddy, so they locked you up."
I froze. My whole body trembled.
"Colton!"
Hudson's voice cracked like a whip. He crouched down to the boy's level. "That was very rude. You should call her Auntie Thelma."
Colton flinched, his eyes rimming red.
He pouted, then reached into his pocket and pulled out a folded drawing, pressing it flat against the glass.
Four people: Daddy, Mommy, Colton, Willa.
Colton pointed at the figures. "This is our family. You're not in it."
He folded the drawing back up and turned to leave.
Hudson picked up the receiver and offered a few careless words. "Behave yourself in here. I've already had a word with the right people. No one's going to give you trouble."
My eyes were locked on the small retreating figure. Without a word, I pulled open my prison uniform.
Pale skin covered in bruises. Layer upon layer of welts and wounds, mottled purple and black.
"This is what your word got me?"
Hudson's expression shifted the instant he saw the marks on my body.
"Thelma, you painted those on, didn't you?"
"Let me guess—next you'll say Aria ordered it?"
He pulled out his phone and held it up to the glass, showing me a string of messages from Aria.
"If Aria hadn't shown me the proof ahead of time, I might've actually believed you!"
"I've told you before—she's innocent in all of this. Stop trying to drag her name through the mud!"
"I'll come see you again tomorrow. Colton's upset now. He'll probably run straight to Aria crying."
I sat there, motionless, the dead tone of the phone still buzzing against my ear.
Ten years. I'd been with Hudson for ten years.
And he didn't believe a single word I said.
The glass still seemed to hold the ghost of that drawing. A family of four, sketched by my own son's hand.
I wasn't in it.
When I got back to the cell, a bucket of filthy water hit me square in the face.
Chapter 3I stood rooted to the spot, the stench of urine filling my nostrils, completely at a loss.
"Little slut, so you went and snitched, huh?"
The ringleader strolled over with her nose pinched shut and flung a basin of cold water over me.
"What did I tell you? You just let my words go in one ear and out the other, is that it?"
She grabbed me by the hair and kicked me into the bathroom.
My prison uniform was ripped off, and needles began piercing my skin, one after another.
"Ahhh—!"
A bone-deep pain ripped through me. I bit down on my lip so hard I tasted blood.
The cold needle traced across my skin, and I never knew when the next stab would come.
Through the haze of agony, my mind drifted back to the moment I'd just seen Colton.
When I gave birth, Hudson was away on a business trip.
During my postpartum recovery, Hudson was with Aria, hosting a one-month celebration for the children.
When I wanted to see my babies, Hudson only ever had one answer: "They're too young. It's not convenient."
So I waited. And waited. Until Colton and Willa started calling Aria "Mommy."
"Check it out! Look at the tattoo I gave this whore. Not bad, right?"
A violent surge of pain tore me out of my memories.
A crowd had gathered around me, staring down at the tattoos scrawled across my body.
Someone read the words aloud, one by one.
"Whore."
"Slut."
Every filthy word forced my eyes shut in anguish. If only this were a dream.
If I could just wake up, I'd still be that girl from the mountains.
I would never have met Hudson. Never would have willingly given him two children.
The next day.
The same routine.
I was dolled up like a ragdoll. Someone even smeared lipstick on my mouth.
Only after they made sure none of my injuries were visible was I taken to the visitation room.
Willa Acevedo stood timidly behind Hudson in a pink dress, peeking out at me from behind him.
"Daddy, is this the bad woman that brother was talking about?"
"Is she going to take you away?"
Those innocent words drove another knife straight through my heart.
I fumbled for the phone receiver, desperate to explain something, anything. But I didn't notice Hudson's gaze locked on my reddened lips.
"Willa, sweetie, go wait outside."
Hudson coaxed his daughter out of the visitation room, then turned back to me, his face dark as thunder. He slapped a stack of photographs down in front of me.
"Thelma, I really underestimated you."
"Are you that desperate? Even in prison you have to paint yourself up. How many men are you planning to find to satisfy yourself?"
"The privileges I arranged for you weren't so you could make a fool out of me!"
My mind went blank for a split second, and then I was shaking my head frantically. "No, I didn't! I would never!"
Hudson snatched the photos back up and pressed them against the glass in front of my face. "Then how do you explain these?"
"Thelma, you've really outdone yourself!"
I clenched my fists, looked over in a panic, and realized they were doctored photos.
Me, tangled up with several different men.
Legs intertwined. Lips pressed together. Explicit. Graphic.
Almost instantly, nausea surged from the pit of my stomach.
I dry-heaved, but no words came. I didn't know how to explain.
"I... I didn't..."
The wounds on my body began throbbing again.
I pressed myself against the glass partition, desperate for Hudson to believe me.
But in the end, the man left me with only two sentences.
"I'm never bringing the children to see you again."
"I'm afraid that with your blood running through their veins, they'll turn out just as worthless as you."
No. That wasn't how it was.
I screamed Hudson's name, trying to explain, begging him to tell Colton and Willa.
Chapter 4Their mother wasn't a bad woman.
My palm touched the glass, and I jolted awake.
Everything was different now. Everything had changed.
The Farley family would never allow their heir to have a wife with a tarnished reputation, nor would they allow Colton and Willa to have a mother who'd been to prison.
Back in my cell, the same familiar torment awaited me.
This time, I didn't fight it. I even found a kind of illusion in the pain—proof that I was still alive.
One more day. One more day and I could leave.
On the third day, I was called to the visiting room again.
My footsteps dragged through the corridor, heavy as lead.
Hadn't Hudson said he wouldn't come to see me anymore?
Why had he changed his mind?
As I rounded the corner, a shrill female voice cut through the air.
"Hudson, you've been running to this prison every single day. What exactly is that supposed to mean?"
My whole body went rigid. It was Aria.
"Don't tell me you've actually fallen for that backwoods nobody."
Her voice dripped with mockery, laced with a towering arrogance.
"If it weren't for the fact that I can't have children, do you really think I would've allowed Thelma to carry yours?"
"After all, everyone knows those children are set to inherit the Farley-Fox alliance."
I stopped walking. I pressed my back against the wall and waited for Hudson's response.
A long silence passed before the man's voice finally came, heavy with exhaustion.
"Aria, ten years ago, you were the one who chose Thelma. You engineered the whole thing—made her fall in love with me."
"I just—"
"Just what? Just felt sorry for her, so you fell in love with her?"
"Hudson, did you ever tell Thelma that the babies she carried for ten months were ours? Yours and mine?"
What did Aria mean?
I stood frozen in place. My mind went blank.
"She probably still doesn't know, does she? She was nothing more than a vessel for the pregnancy."
"Keeping it from her this long—that doesn't seem like your style."
So that was it. That was the truth all along.
My fists clenched so hard my nails broke the skin of my palms, and blood seeped between my fingers.
Hudson. Ten years of love—a lie. The children—a lie.
What between us had ever been real?
"Once Thelma is released, I'll send her abroad. Don't worry. She won't come back."
Hudson's calm voice reached my ears, and the irony of it was searing.
"You'd really let her go? She's been by your side for ten years."
But I never heard his answer. Not that time.
A guard appeared and escorted me to the visiting room.
Aria sat there in a custom-tailored dress, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. A diamond ring glittered on her finger.
She noticed where my eyes had landed and smiled. "Colton has such a gift for drawing. This morning he insisted on painting a ring for me. He said I'm his mom, and no one can ever take me away from him."
I said nothing. My gaze drifted to some empty point in the distance, thoughts dissolving into static.
The children weren't mine.
They had always been Aria's and Hudson's.
The truth hit me like a sledgehammer to the chest.
Without thinking, my hand moved to my stomach—the place where two small lives had once grown.
But they had nothing to do with me.
How absurd.
I laughed until tears streamed down my face.
"Miss Fox, did you come here just to flaunt all of this?"
My hatred for Hudson and Aria reached its peak in that moment.
I hated them for how easily they had made me their puppet.
I hated them for choosing me.
Aria's lips curled into a contemptuous smirk. "You heard everything just now, didn't you? My conversation with Hudson?"
When I gave no reaction, she continued without missing a beat.
"Honestly, I find the whole thing rather poetic. I'm the one who hand-delivered you to Hudson's side. I figured you were clean enough, simple enough—the kind of girl who'd never make waves."
"I have to admit, I never expected you to stay by his side for a whole decade."
"Do you know what Hudson said to me a few days ago? He said he wanted the children to call you their godmother."
Aria's brow furrowed tight, something uncontrolled flickering behind her eyes.
I listened without expression, finding her words almost laughable.
What was she trying to say—that Hudson had fallen for me?
"So today, I'm here to see you out of this world."
Aria flicked her wrist, and two dark figures appeared behind me.
"You made enemies in prison, got tangled up with the wrong people, and died behind bars as payback." She tilted her head. "How's that for a script?"
I tried to struggle, but I was no match for two grown men.
A needle slid into my skin, and dizziness flooded my brain.
I could feel myself being carried out of the prison, then tossed onto the dirt of some abandoned construction site, far from anyone who'd hear me.
Someone was digging a hole. They meant to bury the evidence.
Then, out of nowhere, blinding headlights swept across the dark lot.
A black Hummer screeched around a corner and skidded to a stop right in front of me.
"Thelma! Thelma!"
Footsteps rushed toward me.
"Don't worry. Those men—I've already taken care of them."
"Everything Hudson and Aria did to you will be exposed the moment you're out of the country."
I looked up at a face I hadn't seen in ten years, and let my eyes fall shut in relief.