Something venomous flickered behind Layla's eyes.
Then she turned to the crowd and shrieked at the top of her lungs.
"Felicia! How could you? You're a kidnapper! You tore apart a happy family!"
The word kidnapper hit the crowd like a match to gasoline. Nobody was walking away from that.
Every last one of them wanted to tear me apart.
Within seconds, dozens of outraged "good Samaritans" swarmed around me. Two burly men even volunteered to grab my arms, one on each side, pinning me in place as if I might bolt.
When someone pulled Conrad away from me, his desperate cry of "Don't hurt my Mommy!" was swallowed whole by the wave of shouting and cursing.
"Snatching children in broad daylight? You've got some nerve!"
"You don't even deserve to be called human! You're worse than an animal!"
"Call the police! Lock her up! She should rot behind bars!"
When someone pulled out a phone and threatened to call the cops, Alex, who'd been standing off to the side enjoying the show, suddenly went pale.
He rushed over in a few quick strides and pushed the man's hand down.
"No need, buddy. I already called them. Just rough her up a little, that'll do."
I jerked my head up to stare at him.
"Alex, have you lost your mind? You're the one who—"
Before I could finish, a stinging slap cracked across my face.
My ears rang, a sharp buzzing that drowned out everything except Alex's voice, deliberately low so only I could hear.
"That's for shoving Layla earlier. Consider it your punishment."
"If you want me to marry you, then shut up and take what's coming to you."
I stared at that smug, self-satisfied face, so sure of its own power, and I almost laughed.
The Felicia who once loved him down to the marrow of her bones had died the day he threw her away.
"Back off, all of you! Don't you touch her!"
Irene Lambert raised her broom, trying to drive back the crowd pressing in around me, but Alex kicked her square in the chest.
"What are you yelling about?" he sneered. "Felicia and I were never married. She was never the lady of the Delgado house."
Irene's back slammed into the corner of a glass display case. The pain buckled her instantly.
Layla tugged at Alex's sleeve, pouring fuel on the fire from the sidelines.
"Since when does the help get a say? Felicia probably bullied her into calling her that the moment you left."
Alex's face darkened. He kicked Irene again. And again.