When He Cheated, I Connected To Young Him

Chapter 7

"It wasn't me," Yara said flatly. "Believe me or don't."

Ethan laughed — a quiet, unexpected sound. "Of course I believe you."

Yara glanced sideways at his expression, unreadable as ever, and couldn't make sense of it.

"Go home with Uncle Cooper, Yara. I'll look into this myself."

She got into the car. Through the window, she watched Ethan's figure shrink behind her, his eyes impossible to read.

Then a cloth clamped down over her nose and mouth. A sharp chemical smell flooded her lungs. The world went dark.

When she opened her eyes, she was being dragged past Ethan by two bodyguards. His voice came low and cold. "Yara, just because it happened to you doesn't give you the right to drag Ava down with you."

"You've already been through it once. Ava doesn't get touched."

His words drove into her chest like a blade, nearly stealing the air from her lungs.

There it was. He had finally said it out loud.

He had never believed her. Not once.

Yara had never felt regret like this before.

She regretted throwing everything away to save him. All of it — for nothing but contempt and betrayal in return.

"Send her to the Shelton house. Trade her for Ava."

The words had barely landed before Yara started fighting with everything she had.

The memory of that day and night had been burned into her bones. The moment the Shelton brothers entered her mind, she couldn't stop shaking.

Ethan's voice came again. "I'll find a way to get you out."

When they delivered Yara to the Shelton house, she saw Ava stumble out — her face white as chalk.

"Ethan!"

Ava threw herself into Ethan's arms, sobbing in heaving, broken gasps.

Ethan held her with nothing but tenderness, turned, and walked away. He didn't look back at Yara once.

The older Shelton brother laughed, low and mocking. "You kept yourself pure for him all these years. And this is what it got you?"

"You should've come with us back then. I've always had a soft spot for a woman with backbone."

He leaned down and brought his mouth close to her ear. "There's no running this time."

He dragged over a rack of instruments and smiled. "Where do you want to start?"

Yara's heart plummeted into nothing.

She fought with everything left in her. "Help me — someone help me!"

The younger Shelton brother produced a small blue pill and pushed it between her lips.

"This'll make it easier. Did you really think Ethan didn't know what was waiting for you here? And you still thought he was coming to save you?"

The Shelton brothers had always taken pleasure in breaking women.

Ethan had known exactly what he was sending her into. He had sent her anyway.

Something hot and wrong began rising from deep in her body.

The older brother set up a camera, his voice ringing with satisfaction. "I want the whole city to see what Ethan Ross's woman looks like when she breaks."

"Help... me..."

Through the haze, she was fourteen again — the first time she had ever laid eyes on Ethan. A boy with striking, clean features, pressing his most treasured wooden carving into her hands. "From now on, we're family."

Then she was twenty, standing at the altar. Ethan's eyes were red, his arms pulling her in close. "Baby, don't you ever think about leaving me."

Then the image shifted. The man who had said he loved her was cradling someone else like she was the most precious thing in the world.

The last of her strength left her all at once.

The Shelton brothers were still smiling as they closed in — and then an explosion tore through the building.

The front doors blew open. Through the smoke, she saw Ethan's silhouette.

When Yara woke up, the first thing she did was throw the divorce papers at Ethan's feet.

His eyes dropped to them. His mouth curved slightly. "Baby, I told you — you'll never leave me. Not ever."

He tore the papers in half. Yara reached into her coat and dropped a backup copy onto the table in front of him. "Don't be childish, Ethan."

Ethan's eyes were red. He reached for her — and found nothing.

He turned around slowly. The wedding portrait that had hung on the wall was gone. Then the wooden carvings they had made for each other on their honeymoon. Then the marriage certificate he had kept locked in a sealed bulletproof display case.

Ethan dropped to his knees, a raw, helpless sound ripping out of him. "What's happening? What is going on?"

Then a flood of new memories crashed through Yara's mind.

Eight years ago — she and Ethan had never gotten married at all.