Colton took the papers, his brows creasing.
“What agreement is this?”
Before he could even scan the first line, Kobe yanked the papers out of his hands, flipped straight to the last page, and shoved them back at him.
“What’s there to read?” he snapped. “Just sign the damn thing.”
“Who knows what she’s trying to squeeze out of you this time? Another storefront? Another piece of land? Hah. Has there ever been a year she didn’t ask for something?”
Kenzie dropped her gaze and let out a quiet, bitter laugh.
It turned out, in her brothers’ eyes, she had always been the one who kept asking.
But that was only because she had never been given a damn thing!
Every time she managed to hold onto something or anything, Kinsey would swoop in and take it from her.
At first, Kenzie had fought back. She’d argued. She’d complained.
And every single time, she’d been shut down with the same bullshit.
“Kenzie, you’re the older sister. What’s wrong with letting your younger sister have it?”
“Can you stop being so selfish for once?”
“If you hadn’t come back, those things would’ve belonged to Kinsey anyway.”
She’d heard those lines so many times they might as well have been engraved into her skull.
What they all conveniently forgot was that if Kinsey hadn’t been switched at birth, Kenzie would’ve been the Lundbergs’ real daughter.
Those things should’ve been hers from the very beginning.
She was just trying to take back what was already hers!
Yet in everyone else’s eyes, she was stealing from Kinsey.
Kendrick’s voice dragged her back to reality.
“Dude, it’s just a contract,” he said impatiently. “Hurry up and sign it. We still have to take Kinsey out for her birthday.”
Colton didn’t hesitate this time. He picked up the pen and signed his name at the bottom of the last page just like that.
Kinsey was immediately ushered away like royalty, surrounded on all sides, fussed over like a precious little princess.
For more than ten years, they had remembered only one thing. Today was Kinsey’s birthday.
They had completely forgotten something else. It was Kenzie’s birthday, too.
She knew it wasn’t that they didn’t remember. They simply didn’t care enough to celebrate her.
She used to wait anyway.
Now, she didn’t.
Some people get love. Others get money.
This time, she chose the money.
With her mind made up, she went down to the underground garage to get her car and go home to pack her things up.
Before she could even reach her parking spot, a car suddenly jerked forward and slammed into her, knocking her flat onto the concrete.
She had just given birth. Her body was already weak. The impact tore her stitches open, and blood spread fast across her clothes.
Kenzie clutched her abdomen as pain ripped through her, her body shaking uncontrollably before she collapsed onto the cold ground.
“C-Colton!” she gasped, struggling to breathe. “My wound… It tore open. It hurts… Please… take me to the hospital.”
Inside the car, Colton didn’t even bother getting out.
He rolled the window down halfway, irritation etched across his face.
“Oh, come on, Kenzie. What are you pretending this time?”
“My car barely touched you,” he scoffed. “And you’re acting like you can’t even stand up?”
“Today’s Kinsey’s birthday,” he snapped. “Just because you don’t want us celebrating with her, you’ll make up any bullshit now?”
“Hah. I’m not falling for it this time.”
From the passenger seat, Kinsey chimed in impatiently. “Colton, it’s the weekend. There are people everywhere. If we keep wasting time here, we won’t even get a table.”
Without another glance, he rolled the window back up and turned the wheel.
Panic and despair hit Kenzie all at once, tears blurring her vision.
“Colton!” she cried out. “I’m telling the truth! Please! Save me…”
But he didn’t hesitate for even a second.
The only thing he left behind was the cold blast of exhaust as the car sped away.
Kenzie curled in on herself on the concrete, her body folding inward as pain tore through her.
Warm blood kept flooding from her wound, no matter how hard she tried to stop it.
She knew then that if this kept going, she wasn't making it out alive.
As her consciousness began to slip, memories flooded in; it was the promises Colton had once sworn to her.
“Kenzie, marry me. I’ll protect you for the rest of your life.”
“Kenzie, I like you. Just trust me one more time.”
“Kenzie, let’s have a child. We’ll be a happy family of three.”
As her consciousness started to slip away, every promise Colton had ever made came rushing back into her mind.
“Marry me, Kenzie. I’ll protect you for the rest of your life.”
“I like you, Kenzie. Just trust me one more time.”
“Let’s have a child, Kenzie. We’ll be a happy family of three.”
They flashed through her head, slipping away before she could hold onto any of them.
At that moment, she regretted ever loving Colton.
She regretted giving him chance after chance to hurt her.
‘Colton,’ she thought bitterly, ‘if I survive this, then between us, this won’t end until one of us is destroyed!’
