From Pawn to CEO Queen

litting the quiet

the screen.

we' d been together. He was supposed to be here

is voice rushed.

"What do you mean, you can't make

it's Chloe. She's having another panic at

d appeared in our lives a few months ago, a friend of a friend, al

" I whispered, my voice breaking. I was standing in a cold, sterile hallway, w

g one. Chloe... she isn't like you. She needs me.

ne wen

just choose her. He called me strong as an excuse to leave m

ard wooden chair. I felt nothing but a hollow ache in m

and quiet. I called him. No answer.

denly spoke in my head. A vo

have exceeded the threshold. Do you wi

"new life" with Mark three years ago, promising me ha

voice weak even in m

robability of repeated abandonment. Con

ed, curling into a ball on th

n? This pain se

. The way he held me after a nightmare. The promises he made. Were they

alked in, looking exhausted. He didn't come to me. He w

at me, his expre

ing up?" he asked

d, Mark. And you

n emergen

with her is

hand through his hair. "Don't

your father left you... Chloe's been having a really hard ti

mind going blank. He

re you

be you could sign it over to her. It would solve all

thing I had left of him. He

s a deliberate, cruel-hearted betrayal. He wasn't just abandoning me. He was

ce was a quiet hum in the back of m

nt, I knew. This