The cuffs never stayed on for long.
Less than an hour after I gave the order, a call came down from the mayor' s office. Hilton Austin was a pillar of the San Francisco economy. His company, "Nexus," was a titan. An arrest, even for a misdemeanor, would affect the stock price. It was bad for the city's image.
The charges were dropped. It was a classic display of power, the kind of move my own family was famous for. This time, it was used against me.
I stood silently in the precinct lobby, a ghost in my own professional space, as Hilton emerged. He didn't even glance at me. His focus was entirely on Ciera, who was dabbing at her dry eyes with a tissue. He wrapped his arm around her, pulling her into his side, a protective gesture that was like a physical blow to my gut.
He was a knight shielding his princess from the dragon. And I was the dragon.
I watched them leave, his black Maybach purring as it pulled away from the curb. The world saw a billionaire doting on his beautiful girlfriend. I saw the man who shared my bed, the father of the child growing inside me, choosing another woman over and over again.
The coldness inside me solidified. It was no longer just an absence of warmth; it was a presence. A weapon.
I took out my phone and sent a single text message to my father' s chief of staff. It contained only the case number and Hilton' s name.
The reply was instantaneous. The Senator is on his way to the Austin estate. He expects to see you there.
Of course. An insult to an Owen was an insult to the entire family. This was no longer about a broken marriage; it was about a broken alliance.
When I arrived at the sprawling Austin mansion in Pacific Heights, the scene was already tense. Hilton stood in the middle of the grand drawing-room, his face pale with fury. His parents, Richard and Eleanor Austin, sat rigidly on a silk brocade sofa, their expressions like stone. They were old-money San Franciscans, and scandal was the one currency they refused to trade in.
"You publicly humiliated this family, Hilton!" Richard Austin' s voice was low but carried the weight of generational authority. "You flaunted that… that girl, and in doing so, you have disrespected Aleta and her father."
He didn't say "your wife." He said "Aleta." He didn't say "your father-in-law." He said "her father." In their world, the alliance was everything. Hilton, their own son, was merely a component of it. A faulty one, at that.
Eleanor finally looked at me, her eyes holding a flicker of something that might have been sympathy, but was more likely pragmatic calculation. "Aleta, my dear. I am so sorry you had to endure this. We will handle him."
Hilton' s gaze snapped to me, his eyes burning with a furious, hateful light. He knew. He knew I was the one who had called in the cavalry.
"You ran to your daddy," he hissed under his breath, so only I could hear.
Richard' s voice cracked like a whip. "You will apologize to Aleta. And you will end this sordid affair with that Rose woman. Immediately."
Hilton laughed, a harsh, ugly sound. "End it? I love her. She' s not like this… this ice queen you all forced on me." He gestured dismissively at me.
Richard' s face went white with rage. "Love? You are an Austin. We do not have the luxury of 'love' when the family's reputation is at stake." He pointed a trembling finger at the door. "You will leave this house. You will go to Aleta, and you will beg for her forgiveness."
Hilton' s jaw clenched. For a moment, I thought he would defy his father, but the threat of being cut off, of losing the Austin name that had opened so many doors for his "new money" empire, was too great.
He stalked toward me, his face a thundercloud. He didn't say a word. He just grabbed my arm, his fingers digging into my flesh like talons, and dragged me out of the house.
"My parents expect a show," he snarled, shoving me into the passenger seat of his car. "So we'll give them one."
The door slammed shut with a deafening crack. He got in, tires screeching as he pulled away from the curb. The car flew down the winding streets, the city lights blurring into streaks of angry color.
"Are you happy now?" he spat, his eyes fixed on the road. "You got to play the wronged wife, call in your powerful father to put me in my place. You love this, don't you? Controlling me. Managing me. It' s all you've ever wanted."
I said nothing. I just stared out the window, a wave of nausea rolling through me. My hand went to my stomach. Please, just be still, I prayed to the tiny, secret life inside me.
"Look at you," he sneered, his gaze flicking to me for a second. "So perfect. So poised. Always in your boring black suits, looking down on everyone. You think you're so much better than her, don't you?"
He laughed again, that same cruel sound. "You know what Ciera has that you don't? Life. Passion. When she touches me, I feel something. When you touch me… it' s like being audited. Every kiss, every touch feels like a transaction. Calculated. Cold."
His words were poison, each one meticulously chosen to inflict the maximum amount of pain. He was describing my love, the deep, desperate affection I had tried so hard to show him, and twisting it into something ugly and transactional.
I thought of all the nights I' d waited up for him, the carefully chosen gifts he' d barely acknowledged, the way I' d practiced smiling in the mirror so I' d look like the perfect, happy wife his image required. All of it, a pathetic, one-woman show.
Just then, his phone rang. The screen lit up the dark car.
Cici Baby
My heart stopped.
His entire demeanor changed in an instant. The rage vanished, replaced by a panicked tenderness.
"Cici? What's wrong?"
Her voice, even distorted through the phone, was a theatrical sob. "Hilty… they were so mean to me… I' m scared…"
"Shhh, baby, it's okay," he cooed, his voice the one I' d heard in the hotel suite. "I'm coming. I'm on my way right now. Don't cry. I'll be there in ten minutes."
He ended the call and slammed his hand on the steering wheel. He screeched the car to a halt on a dark, deserted stretch of road near the Presidio, the Golden Gate Bridge a distant, indifferent silhouette.
"Get out," he said, his voice flat and devoid of any emotion.
I stared at him. "What? Hilton, we're in the middle of nowhere."
"I said, get out!" he roared, his face contorted with impatience. He unbuckled my seatbelt with a vicious tug and leaned across me, shoving the passenger door open. "Ciera needs me. You can call one of your servants to come and get you."
He pushed me. Hard. I stumbled out of the car, catching myself on the cold metal before I fell.
The door slammed shut again, the sound echoing in the empty night.
He didn't even look back. The Maybach' s red taillights disappeared around a curve, leaving me alone in the biting wind, surrounded by darkness.
I was abandoned. Utterly and completely.
I pulled out my phone. 3% battery. My fingers were numb with cold as I tried to call a ride-share. I typed in my location, my last hope.
The screen flickered and went black. The battery was dead.
