Chapter 6

I stopped.

"Come here and apologize to Oliver." His voice was low and suppressed. "You pushed him earlier and frightened him."

I hesitated for a moment.

Thinking this might be the last time we saw each other, I felt no energy left to argue.

I walked over and crouched down.

"I'm sorry." I looked into his eyes one last, genuine time. "Mama shouldn't have pushed you."

Oliver sniffled, and then spat directly at my face.

A glob of saliva landed on my cheek and slid slowly downward.

In his babyish little voice, he said: "Disgusting woman. You deserve it."

Ethan only watched with cold eyes, adding in a mild tone: "You've been carrying on with other men, and even your own child can't stand to look at you."

I slowly raised my hand and wiped my face.

Then I laughed.

"I've been carrying on with other men?"

These so-called affairs, these supposedly caught-in-the-act moments — staged so clumsily — had he truly never seen the cracks?

Perhaps he had. Perhaps he just didn't want to expose it.

If he was certain that's what it was, then so be it.

"For four years, you and she have been inseparable — four full years! You even had my child raised in her home. Ethan, who exactly has been carrying on with whom?"

"Since we're already divorcing, can you at least stop lying to yourself?"

Vivienne's face went pale.

Her eyes immediately reddened. "Ms. Calloway, how can you slander me like that? Mr. Holt, I..."

"Hannah, four years of this — haven't you had enough?" Ethan's gaze bore down on me. "Fine, if you think there's something between us —" he took one step toward me, then another, "— then let me show you what truly improper looks like."

He had the nanny take Oliver away, then grabbed my wrist and dragged me into the bedroom.

The moment the door shut, he bound my wrists with his necktie and threw me to the floor.

Then he turned, pulled Vivienne toward him, and bent close to her ear.

"Do you want this?"