Chapter 8 - THE BABY HE TRIED TO PUNISH.
Sophia went still.
For one awful second, even her father’s presence could not protect her from the meaning of those words. Ryan had not only lied, cheated, and staged theft. He had reached for the child.
Mr. Carter’s voice lost what little warmth it had left.
“Your office called her insurer and claimed the policy was fraudulent because the marriage had been ‘terminated.’”
Ryan straightened his jacket with shaking hands. “I was handling legal exposure.”
“You were trying to make my daughter beg,” Mr. Carter said.
Sophia pressed her lips together, remembering the call she had received that afternoon, the hold music, the confusion, the fear that made her come to the ballroom instead of the courthouse.
“That’s why you texted me not to ‘force a public disaster,’” she whispered. “You wanted me desperate before the wedding started.”
Madison stared at him like she no longer recognized the man in the tuxedo. “You were willing to threaten prenatal care to protect your image?”
Ryan lunged toward Sophia then—not to strike, but to snatch her phone.
Security intercepted him instantly.
Gasps broke into full murmurs across the ballroom. The performance was over. Everyone could see him now. Not as a groom. Not as a victim. As a man whose confidence existed only while a woman was alone.
Sophia clutched her stomach and inhaled slowly.
May you like
Then she looked at Mr. Carter and said, “Dad… tell them why he was so terrified of me walking in with that clutch.”
Because there was still one thing in it she had not shown.
