I never imagined a shopping mall could turn into a courtroom.
“Move,” my husband hissed, his fingers crushing my wrist.
I instinctively steadied my belly. “Please—our baby—” I whispered.
Then came the crack.
His palm split across my cheek so loudly that the sound ricocheted through the atrium. Conversations stopped.
A child began to cry. My skin burned, but worse was the humiliation—public, deliberate.
“Stop embarrassing me,” Ethan spat, nodding toward the woman beside him as if she owned the ground I stood on.
And then he lifted his hand again.
My name is Claire Cole.
The man who had just slapped me was Ethan Cole—celebrity CEO, keynote darling, master of charming headlines and shaking hands. The man who smiled for cameras and tightened his grip only when the doors were closed.
I had come to Northgate Mall for one thing: a last-minute stroller my doctor insisted I buy before my third trimester swelling worsened.
I had chosen to go alone.
Ethan hated “wasting time on baby stuff.”
That’s when I saw him across the atrium—laughing, relaxed, his hand resting comfortably on Madison Blake’s waist.
Madison. Head of PR. The woman who helped draft my charity speech while texting my husband at midnight.
When Ethan noticed me, his smile vanished.
“You’re following me now?” he said loudly.
“I’m shopping,” I replied, trying to keep my voice steady.
“Ethan, please. Not here.”
Madison tilted her chin. “Claire, don’t make a scene.
Ethan has meetings.”
Meetings.
In a mall.
With her lipstick staining his collar.
I reached for his sleeve—not to fight, just to stop him from walking away.
He jerked back.
The slap landed.
For a moment, the world went silent.
Then he raised his hand again.
But this time, someone stopped him.
A gloved hand caught Ethan’s wrist midair.
“You don’t touch her,” the security guard said calmly, though his eyes burned.
Ethan sneered. “Do you know who I am?”
The guard removed his cap.
Silver hair. Familiar eyes.
A small scar above his brow—the one I used to kiss when I was little.
My blood ran cold.
“Yeah,” he said quietly. “I’m the man you should’ve been afraid of from the beginning.”
My father.
Robert Kane.
Ethan laughed. “What is this?
Some stunt?”
Dad didn’t release his wrist.
“You’re hurting my daughter. In public. While she’s pregnant.”
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