Page 106 of A King’s Obsession

Ezra King.

Just thinking about that man made my chest tighten. I could still see that damn near naked woman standing in his office, hear him telling her he had a wife. And when I'd confronted him, asking if he'd been married the entire time, that man looked me in my face and said yes.

I'd given him my virginity, my trust, and my heart, only to find out he'd been married the whole fucking time. Sometimes I wondered whether he'd ever loved me or if he'd just love-bombed me until he got what he wanted.

The fucked-up part? I still missed his ass.

But I wasn't about to be anybody's mistress.

I turned away from the mirror and reached for my shoes. I'd spent enough time trying to make sense of that man. These days, I had somebody else depending on me.

After my mother's funeral, I'd been emotionally drained. What was supposed to be a small, intimate service somehow turned into a family reunion. Relatives I hadn't seen in years showed up, along with a bunch of people I didn't know from a can of paint. Everybody had something nice to say about my mama, and half of them acted like we'd been one big happy family.

I didn't have the energy for any of it. By the time the service was over, I was ready to leave everybody and everything behind.

Surprisingly, my mother hadn't been evicted from the apartment yet. I went back, thinking I could stay long enough to figure out my next move, but the minute I walked through that door, I knew I couldn't do it. Too many memories. Too much hurt. I'd spent years trying to get out of that place, and there was no way I was going to make it my home again.

So I packed whatever I could fit into my car and left Rosemont. Westhaven damn sure wasn't an option, and I had no intention of going back.

Between my savings and the money Ashlynn had given me, I had exactly $6,050 to start over. I didn't have a destination in mind. I just drove until I stumbled across Briarwood.

I stopped to grab something to eat, ended up staying a few nights at a hotel, and started looking around. Within two weeks, I'd landed a front-desk job at Briarwood Family Medical making seventeen dollars an hour. A few weeks later, I moved into my apartment.

It wasn't the kind of life I'd imagined for myself when I first left Rosemont with Ashlynn, but I was proud of what I'd managed to build. My bills were paid, I had groceries in my refrigerator, and I was putting a little money aside for the baby.

For the first time in a long time, I felt like I could finally breathe.

My phone vibrated on the dresser, interrupting my thoughts. I glanced at the screen and saw a reminder for my next prenatal appointment.

I picked it up, checking the time before slipping it into my purse.

I hadn't changed my number when I left Westhaven. I'd simply blocked the people I wasn't ready to speak to.

Ashlynn had called so many times during those first few weeks that I'd eventually stopped counting. Ezra wasn't much better. His messages had started out angry and demanding before slowly turning into something else. Concern. Worry. A few had simply asked me to let him know I was safe.

I'd listened to his voicemails more times than I cared to admit before finally blocking his number.

And Ashlynn...

That hurt was different.

She'd been my person long before Westhaven, before Ezra, before any of this shit happened. When she'd convinced me to leave Rosemont and start over, I'd believed we were stepping into a better chapter of our lives together.

Instead, it felt like I'd been pushed into a life everybody else had already arranged for me. My belongings had ended up inside Ezra's house without anybody asking me, and the same friend who'd helped make that happen couldn't even trust me enough to tell me she was pregnant.

I wasn't upset that she'd found happiness with Malachi. I wanted that for her. I just couldn't understand how we'd gone from telling each other everything to her keeping something that important from me.

Maybe she'd had her reasons, but I wasn't ready to hear them.

I grabbed my keys and headed toward the front door, giving my stomach one last rub.

"Come on, little person. Your mama got bills to pay."

By four-thirty that afternoon, I was ready to clock out and put my feet up.

Working the front desk at a medical office wasn't difficult, but dealing with people all day could wear on anybody's nerves. I'd spent the better part of my shift answering phones, verifying insurance, and explaining to one particularly irritated woman why arriving thirty minutes late didn't mean she could walk straight into an examination room.

Apparently, that was my fault.