Chapter 1
When my husband’s ex’s daughter had a severe allergic reaction to my homemade apple pie and was rushed to the ER, everything fell apart.
Jackson stormed into the hospital and demanded I bring our three year old daughter immediately. In front of everyone in the waiting room, he had someone force me down in front of the vomit–covered apple pie.
“Finish eating this disgusting mess you made, and I’ll forgive what Emma and Vanessa went through tonight,” he said coldly.
I refused.
With calculated calmness, Jackson lit a cigarette, then casually peeled a shrimp and held it to our daughter’s lips.
My daughter, allergic to seafood, didn’t understand what allergies meant. All she knew was that her father, who normally ignored her, was actually feeding her something. She happily opened her mouth and swallowed the shrimp without hesitation.
Within minutes, her daughter’s body was covered in hives, her lips and tongue swelling up like balloons. Her eyes rolled back as she collapsed into the man’s arms, dry heaving non–stop–and then she straight–up peed and pooped herself.
As my daughter approached anaphylactic shock, I begged Jackson to let the doctors help her. Instead, he stepped back in disgust, letting our daughter fall into her own mess on the floor.
“Now you know how it feels?” he sneered. “Do you have any idea how Vanessa felt watching Emma suffer after eating your apple pie? How could you be so cruel? I never should have agreed to let you and your child replace Vanessa in my family,”
His words turned my blood to ice.
“You want to save your daughter? Then start eating. Finish that ple, and I’ll call the docton”
That night, I swallowed my pride and my nausea, licking that disgusting mess off the floor like a dog while everyone watched.
My daughter barely survived. They rushed her into emergency surgery, and for the next two weeks,
17:20
Chapter 1
I practically lived in that hospital hallway. I cried until there were no tears left, until my heart felt like an empty shell.
During these days, Jackson never showed up once. The minute Emma was discharged, he whisked her and Vanessa off on some luxury vacation abroad.
Eventually, I left with nothing but the clothes on my back and my daughter who’d barely escaped death.
“The title of Mrs. Harrison? I’ll give it back to Vanessa, and Jackson too.”
“Three million dollars to end my marriage to Jackson, and then your precious daughter can marry into the Harrison family with her illegitimate child without any shame. Sounds like a pretty sweet deal, doesn’t it?”
I stood by the hospital window, watching the picture–perfect family of three in the parking lot below. My face showed nothing.
The woman sitting across from me flinched, her hand slipping as she added another zero to the
check.
I took the check, feeling a weight lift off my shoulders. Thirty million dollars wasn’t just buying my way out of a mistake of a marriage–it was severing the twisted blood ties between me and the entire Anderson family.
Mrs. Anderson shot me a disgusted look, clearly repulsed by how eagerly I accepted the money.
“Your father and I never let you lack of anything, yet you’ve always been so unrefined. No wonder everyone prefers Vanessa to you. And by the way, Emma isn’t illegitimate–she’s Vanessa’s daughter and the true treasure of our family.”
17:20
