Chapter 4

There were two seconds of silence on the other end.

"Always."

Only when I started looking for legal representation did I realize how ruthless Sean and his family truly were.

I made seventeen phone calls. Every single attorney hung up the second they heard I was suing Sean Miller for divorce.

A close colleague finally told me the truth:

"Lynn, it's not that we don't want to help. The Miller family put the word out across the city. Anyone who takes your case is picking a fight with the entire local Bar Association."

When Sam heard this, his jaw clenched.

"Do you want me to pull some strings?"

I shook my head.

"Just help me dig up the evidence."

"I'll represent myself."

I was too naive.

On the day of the hearing, the judge dismissed every piece of my evidence on grounds of 'unlawful acquisition.'

I lost the case.

As I walked out through the heavy bronze courthouse doors, a rotten egg shattered against my temple.

"Heard she's the one who cheated! Got caught red-handed in bed and still had the nerve to drag her husband to court!"

I looked up. A hostile crowd was waiting by the steps.

Most of them were disgruntled opponents and shady characters from cases I had prosecuted over the years.

"She probably slept her way through law school! Whichever scumbag pays the most gets her loyalty!"

"Disgusting whore! Doing whatever it takes for dirty money!"

"I heard she even brought bad luck that got her own mother killed! Stay away from that jinx..."

More rotten vegetables and garbage rained down on me.

Sean stood just a few yards away. The moment he tried to step forward, his mother grabbed his arm.

"Let her learn a lesson."

Barbara didn't even bother keeping her voice down.

"She needs to realize that without the Millers, she's nothing. Then she'll come crawling back where she belongs."

He stopped dead in his tracks.

He stood there, watching a mob slander and humiliate me, without taking another step.

Right then, Hannah came sprinting out from the crowd.

"Lynn, please, I'm begging you! Give me my baby back!"

She clamped onto my arm, sobbing hysterically.

She thrust her phone into the air, displaying a grainy surveillance clip.

In the video, a blurry figure carrying an infant hurried out of an alley—wearing the exact same trench coat I was wearing today.

"Just because you lost the lawsuit, how could you kidnap my baby to get back at Sean?"

Hannah choked on her sobs, nearly hyperventilating.

"He's just an innocent baby!"

The crowd erupted in fury.

Sean shoved his way through the mob, pulling Hannah behind him and glaring at me with raw hatred.

"Lynn, if you have an issue, come at me!"

"What kind of monster targets a defenseless child?"

His voice shook with rage. "Where is he? Tell me!"

He shoved me hard, sending me crashing against the freezing marble wall.

"I didn't take your baby."

"Fine. You're not talking?"

Sean's eyes turned dead and merciless.

"Take her."

Two burly bodyguards grabbed my arms, dragging me away.

I fought wildly, barely managing to hit 'send location' on my phone before someone snatched it and smashed it to pieces on the pavement.

I was thrown onto the cold concrete floor of a windowless basement, my hands and feet bound tightly with coarse rope.

"I'm asking you one last time. Where is the baby?"

My voice was hoarse. "I didn't take him. How the hell would I know?"

The last shred of restraint drained from Sean's face.

"Fine."

He looked down at me coldly, turning to the two thugs.

"Do whatever it takes to make her talk."

He paused, adding flatly, "Dead or alive. I don't care."

The second the words left his mouth, a heavy boot slammed into my stomach.

Agony ripped through my body. Before I could even catch my breath, another blow struck my ribs.

Sean paused at the doorway, his back to me.

"I never wanted to hurt you, Lynn. I really didn't."

"You brought this on yourself."

The heavy metal door slammed shut. Darkness swallowed me whole.