Chapter 1 - I’m Done Protecting Them
Julian slapped me in front of our daughter’s birthday cake.
One hard open hand.
Full shoulder.
No hesitation.
The sound cut through the ballroom louder than the children’s laughter, louder than the clink of champagne glasses, louder than the soft music playing beneath the crystal chandeliers.
My head snapped sideways.
A sharp sting crossed my cheek.
My body stumbled into the edge of the cake table, and the tall pink birthday cake trembled on its silver stand.
Behind me, Lily gasped.
She was five years old.
Five.
Wearing a pale pink birthday dress and clutching her stuffed rabbit against her chest.
Her brown eyes were wide with a terror no child should learn from her own father.
I twisted immediately, putting my body between her and Julian before I even touched my face.
That was motherhood.
Pain could wait.
My daughter could not.
Julian stood in front of me with his loosened black tie hanging against his white dress shirt, dark hair slightly messy, light stubble shadowing his jaw, eyes burning with rage that had finally stopped pretending to be disappointment.
“You ruined everything,” he spat. “Apologize to Khloe.”
Across the ballroom, Khloe smiled.
She stood beside the gift table in a fitted red sequined dress, diamond earrings catching the warm golden light.
Beautiful.
Smug.
Comfortable.
The woman my husband had brought to our daughter’s fifth birthday and introduced as “an old family friend.”
The woman Lily had asked, “Why does Daddy hold her hand?”
The woman who had whispered into my ear twenty minutes earlier, “You were always temporary. Even your child couldn’t make him love you.”
The guests froze around us.
White floral arrangements.
Wrapped presents.
A pink-and-gold banner.
Crystal chandeliers.
Polished wooden floor.
The whole luxury ballroom looked like a fairy tale built over a crime scene.
Julian reached for me again.
This time, I knocked his hand away.
Hard.
His eyes widened.
I stepped directly between him and Lily.
My breathing was uneven. My shoulder burned where an older mark still ached beneath my champagne satin gown. My cheek throbbed from his slap.
But my voice did not break.
“You will never touch my daughter.”
Lily’s small hand gripped the back of my dress.
She was crying quietly.
That hurt worse than Julian’s hand.
Because Lily had learned to cry quietly in her own house.
Julian took one step closer.
“Don’t use her as a shield.”
I laughed once.
Not because anything was funny.
Because he had no idea what a shield was.
He thought protection was control.
He thought love was ownership.
He thought silence meant consent.
He thought my restraint meant I had nowhere to go.
He was wrong.
Inside the bodice of my gown, my cracked smartphone pressed against my ribs.
I had hidden it there after Julian smashed the first one that morning.
He had thought that was enough.
It would have been, once.
Not anymore.
I pulled the phone free.
Julian saw the screen.
His expression changed instantly.
He lunged.
I turned sharply, pressing the phone against my chest before he could take it.
Khloe’s smile faded.
That was the first honest thing she had done all night.
My thumb found the contact without looking.
Sebastian.
The call connected on the second ring.
I looked directly at Julian.
May you like
My fear disappeared so completely that even I felt the temperature of it leaving me.
“Sebastian,” I said quietly. “I’m done protecting them.”
