I broke down completely. "She was your brother's woman! You slept with her. How could you do that to George?"
I pointed straight at Joan. "Didn't you swear you'd stay faithful to George for the rest of your life? Sleeping with your own brother-in-law is what you call faithfulness?"
Slap!
A searing sting exploded across my face.
Ryan's hand still hung in the air.
"Joan and my brother were never married. Who gave you the right to say something so vile?"
I stared in disbelief at the husband I'd once been so intimate with. He hadn't hit me because I'd insulted him. He'd hit me because I'd insulted Joan.
Joanie. That was what he called her. With me, it was always "Catherine," except in the heat of passion.
So all those nights, all the tenderness I thought was love, I'd been nothing more than Joan's stand-in.
I tilted my head back, forcing the tears not to fall, refusing to let myself look any more pathetic than I already did.
Joan rushed forward and wrapped her arms around Ryan, her voice soft and reproachful. "Honestly, you don't know the first thing about being gentle with a woman. Catherine is still carrying your child. If something happens to her, how will you explain that to Grandma?"
She made it sound like she was defending me. In reality, she was flaunting how much Ryan favored her.
Ryan shifted uncomfortably. "I got carried away just now, but you were the one who started cursing at Joan first..."
"Ryan. We're done."
"I'll have the baby delivered to the Floyd family after it's born."
He suddenly grew agitated. "What's that supposed to mean? You'd abandon our own child?"
"So it can be a constant reminder that I was tricked? That this baby is the product of someone's lie?"
I didn't remember how I made it back to my room.
When violent pounding erupted against the door, everything that had happened over the past few days still felt like a nightmare I hadn't woken from.
"Catherine Cooley, someone has reported you for stealing data from the Design Institute. You need to come with us for an investigation."
My hands were wrenched behind my back and cuffed. I struggled against the security officers. "Who reported me? It was Ryan, wasn't it?"
The man's expression shifted to something like smug confirmation. "Looks like Engineer Floyd wasn't wrong about you after all. Let's go."
In the dead of night, I was tied to a post in the central courtyard of Ryan's workplace, subjected to interrogation by everyone present.
"If Engineer Floyd hadn't put in a good word for you, you'd already be at the police station."
Hostile faces swarmed in front of me, one after another. My skull buzzed so loudly I could barely think.
"Look at you. God knows whose bastard that is in your belly, and yet you had the nerve to try marrying Engineer Floyd."
"Engineer Floyd is a son of the Floyd family of Southport. You think someone like you could ever be worthy of him?"
"Having a woman like you harassing him, Engineer Floyd must have the worst luck in eight lifetimes."
Winter was closing in. The night wind slashed across my skin like a blade.
My lower abdomen tightened, little by little. Tears spilled as I begged. "I've never seen any data. I'm being framed."
"I need to see Ryan Floyd. The baby I'm carrying is his."
"Ryan Floyd tricked me into marriage. He used forged marriage certificates to make me think I was his wife."
"Since you all know the Floyd family, then you should know that if anything happens to a Floyd heir on your watch, every last one of you will pay for it."
A palm cracked across my face. The man grabbed my collar and cursed under his breath.
"I'm already sick of that Floyd kid riding his family's coattails to the top. And now you, you little tramp, think you can threaten me too?"
He patted my swollen belly and sneered. "If what's in there is really a Floyd, I'll eat my own shoe."
The line drew instant laughter from the crowd.
People surged forward from below, hands grabbing at me from every direction. Some were furious that I'd dared set my sights on Ryan. Others, like the man himself, were simply taking out their jealousy and resentment of Ryan on me.
They were wary enough of the baby in my belly not to truly hurt me, but pulling my hair and pinching my arms were fair game.
