When He Cheated, I Connected To Young Him

Chapter 4

Then another message came through from Ava.

Ava: Yara, now you see just how important I am to Ethan.

Yara's eyes went cold. She turned to the aide beside her. "Find out exactly where Ethan is right now. Keep eyes on him and report back."

Then she pulled out the old phone, her voice edged with anger. "Ethan — did you hear all of that?"

The line hadn't disconnected. She heard him exhale — a long, quiet breath. "Yeah. I understand."

An hour later, Grandma was out of danger.

Yara called in her most trusted aide and placed Grandma in his care. "The flights are already booked. Uncle Cooper will take you to the airport on the earliest flight tonight."

"Make sure she's looked after."

She watched the car pull away with Grandma inside. The tenderness on Yara's face drained away slowly, hardening into ice.

She turned back to her aide. "You said Ava's at Greenbridge Hospital. Take a team. We leave now."

"Since I'm already being blamed for k********g her, I might as well earn the title."

Thirty minutes later. A damp, lightless underground warehouse.

Ava's wrists and ankles were lashed tightly to a chair, a strip of black cloth knotted over her eyes. She hadn't stopped struggling.

"Who are you people?! You dare kidnap me?! Do you know who I am? I'm Ethan Ross's woman!"

"Do you have any idea how much he loves me? Let me go right now, or I swear—"

"Oh?" Yara flicked her lighter and held the flame close to Ava's pale skin. "Or what, exactly? What are you going to do to me?"

Ava flinched from the heat with a sharp hiss of pain. "Is that — Yara? Yara Wren?"

"You actually kidn*pped me?"

Yara signaled for her man to pull the blindfold off. She spoke each word slowly and deliberately. "k********g is just the start—"

Before she finished, one of her men stepped forward and held out a leather whip.

Ava's eyes fixed on it, her face draining of color. "Don't try to scare me. If you lay a hand on me, aren't you afraid of what Ethan will do?"

Yara smiled — a cold, derisive pull at the corner of her mouth. "Do it."

The c***k of the whip split the air.

Ava's eyes flew wide. "You'll pay for this, Yara!"

Three more cracks followed in rapid succession.

By the third, Ava was shaking from head to toe, her voice fading to a broken whisper. "Just wait... just wait until Ethan gets here..."

"Ava." Yara's voice was calm and without warmth. "If you hadn't hurt my grandmother, I wouldn't have touched you."

"As for Ethan — a man that fickle never deserved a place beside me."

"If you want him, take him. He's yours."

After ten lashes, Ava's eyes burned with hatred. Her voice came out high and vicious. "Drop the act, Yara. You care, and everyone knows it. What gives a used-up woman like you the right to stand beside Ethan? You even lost the baby — he thinks you're filthy!"

The slap landed before Ava finished the sentence, Yara's nails dragging a thin red line across her cheek.

Ava opened her mouth to keep going. Another slap. Then another, until she had nothing left to say.

Then Ethan crashed in with a full crew, only to find Yara's people blocking the entrance.

He caught sight of Ava's swollen, blotched face, and something pained moved through his eyes.

"Yara. Stop."

Yara turned with a cold laugh. "Ethan — when you had my grandmother strung up in the air, I begged you to stop too."

She turned back and grabbed Ava by the hair. "She loves framing me for k********g her. Well, now it's real. What are you going to do about it?"

Ethan's expression turned thunderous. He drew his gun, the dark barrel leveling at one of Yara's men.

"Let Ava go, or I put a bullet in him."

"Yara, Ava isn't like you. She's clean, she's innocent — she can't take this kind of pain."

A short, hollow laugh escaped Yara's throat. Her eyes were going red at the corners.

She pulled off her jacket.

"Ethan." Her voice was quiet. "Before I was sixteen, I was just like her."

"This scar on my arm — I took a blade meant for you. This one on my chest — I was run through with a steel rod trying to save you. And every mark across my back — I earned every single one walking into the Shelton house to bring you home."

"She can't handle pain. What about me?"

Her words came faster now. Tears were gathering in her eyes.

"Ethan — did you ever, even once, believe that I walked out of the Shelton house with my dignity intact?"

Ethan looked down.

He said nothing.

His silence was the answer.

All those years ago, she had clenched her teeth through ten forms of torture to keep the Shelton brothers from touching her. She had lost the baby. She had lost the ability to ever carry another child.

What had any of it been worth?

Yara started laughing — until her eyes went completely red and the tears spilled over.

Ava seized the moment. "Like everyone doesn't know how long the Shelton brothers had their eyes on you—"

Yara's foot connected with her chest and sent her sprawling.

Ethan's eyes filled with fury. He shot one of Yara's men through the thigh.

Without hesitating, Yara put a bullet in Ethan's second-in-command's abdomen.

Ethan swung the gun up, the barrel aimed directly between Yara's eyes. "Let. Ava. Go."

A roar filled Yara's ears. "You'd kill me for her?"

The trigger clicked. In a daze, Yara saw the Ethan of ten years ago — standing like this, but different. Standing in front of her to shield her.

He had promised to protect her for the rest of his life.

Yara turned her head and told her men to throw Ava out.

Ethan gathered Ava up gently, holding her like something that might shatter. "Don't be scared, Ava. I'm here. I'll get you the best doctors — I won't let you scar."

The hand hanging at Yara's side trembled — barely, but it did.

The last warmth inside her went out completely.