After I Jumped, He Finally Believed Me

My husband, Silas James, had been trafficked into the Syndicate Compound three months ago, tortured until he was barely recognizable.

To keep him alive long enough to get out, I sold my body working as a hostess at the Rose Lounge, scraping together every dollar of his ransom.

After I finally saved up the $500,000, a client smashed me into a hospital bed for refusing to sleep with him.

And while I lay there, too afraid to spend money on my own medical bills, I looked up and saw him. Silas. The man who was supposed to be beaten half to death in the Syndicate Compound, standing right there in the hospital lobby, tenderly accompanying my best friend to her prenatal checkup.

He smiled, casual as anything. "The whole compound thing was a lie. Truth is, Penny and I got drunk and she ended up pregnant. She needed someone to take care of her."

The client who'd put me in the hospital had followed me there, screaming in my face, ready to hit me again. "Hilda Henson, you're nothing but a used-up bar girl. Where do you get off turning down customers?"

Hospital security dragged him away.

But when Silas looked at me, his expression was full of contempt.

"Weren't you always the one on your high horse, throwing princess tantrums, looking down on your best friend for once working as a waitress at a bar?"

"Where's all that pride now, Hilda?"

I managed a weak, self-deprecating smile.

My pride had been ground to dust by that $500,000 ransom a long time ago.

Along with the baby that never got the chance to form.

I lifted my gaze and watched Penelope Fox rush into his arms, her pregnant belly leading the way. Something sharp twisted behind my eyes.

Silas's attention drifted to her belly without him even realizing it. He wrapped a broad hand around her waist and murmured a gentle warning:

"Be careful. Just because you're past the dangerous first trimester doesn't mean you can run around like that. The baby's going to hold it against you."

"The baby won't be as petty as you make it sound," Penelope laughed.

Then, as if she'd only just noticed me standing there, she peeled herself away from Silas.

She walked over and took my hand. Her lips curved into a smile, but her tone carried a teasing edge:

"Hildie, three months and you've wasted away. I barely recognized you."

"But you still don't have it as bad as me. You know I never once planned on having a kid. Then I had one drink at your birthday party and ended up pregnant with Silas's baby."

"Now it's all morning sickness and stretch marks. I look terrible. Silas is basically just force-feeding me five meals a day for the sake of the baby. God forbid I shortchange his precious child."

"You know, if you really can't have kids, I'd be fine putting this one under your name. You could raise it."

Listening to her, I felt nothing. Not a single ripple.

After all, during those months of scrounging together Silas's ransom, I hadn't dared eat a bite more than necessary. I had to keep my figure. More clients meant more money, and more money meant Silas might live.

Bitterness filled my chest until it ached, and finally a quiet laugh slipped out before I could stop it.

"If you don't want it, you can terminate the pregnancy. Nobody's forcing you to have this baby."

Penelope flinched and hid behind Silas, as though I were the one about to murder her child.

Silas's face darkened, his voice cold and mocking:

"You've never even been pregnant. What right do you have to decide whether someone else's child lives or dies?"

"I have been pregnant."

During those three months when I believed he'd been taken, I tried again and again to bribe my way into a phone call with him. I wanted to tell him I was carrying his baby. I wanted to give him one more reason to hold on.

To save him, I'd taken a connection's referral and started working at the lounge.

At first it was just pouring drinks, sitting with clients. But three days in, a man's hand crept up my thigh.

On the fourth day, a client used the liquor as an excuse to drag me into a private room.

No matter how hard I fought, I couldn't overpower a grown man pinning me down.

That night, blood soaked the sheets. My first child was gone, just like that.

"What did you say?" Silas hadn't heard me clearly. His tone only grew more dismissive. "Actually, I'd rather you'd never been pregnant at all. Carrying my child into a place like that? Disgusting."

"Stay away from Penelope and her baby from now on. Having a vicious so-called best friend like you is the worst luck she's had in her entire life."

Silas's warning rang through the air like a slap. My heart skipped, hollowed out for a beat, but my feet moved on their own, carrying me further from the two of them.

After I'd gotten my wound cleaned up, a memory surfaced unbidden: the scar on the top of Silas's head.

It was from the year my mother was diagnosed. She'd lost control, grabbed a knife, and started slashing at everything in the house.

The blade had been swinging toward me when Silas appeared out of nowhere and threw himself in its path. The knife carved a gash across his scalp that never fully healed.

Every time I saw that scar, my chest ached for him.

He'd always laugh it off. "It's just a scar. Scars make a man look tough."

He kept it all these years. Called it proof of his love.

I was still stumbling out of the hospital in a daze when Penelope's laughter floated over from somewhere behind me. "Silas, you look so much better now that scar's gone."

In that moment, I knew with perfect clarity that I no longer occupied any corner of his heart.

So why was I still chaining myself to a dead marriage? Trapping myself, trapping him.

I walked up to Silas, ready to end things cleanly, but he waved me off before I could open my mouth.

"Didn't I tell you to keep your distance? With that filthy body of yours, do you really think I'd still hold you in the palm of my hand and treat you like a queen? Wake up."

I was about to explain that all I wanted was a clean break, but my phone buzzed. Rosalie Marsh from the lounge.

"Hilda, our VIP Mr. Lambert asked for you by name tonight. Get back here. If he's happy, I'll throw in an extra ten grand on your bonus this month."

"I don't want to go."

"Fine, don't go. But word is you already wired every cent you had to that compound to get your husband back, am I right?"

"Your mother's still in the psychiatric hospital waiting for you to cover her bills. If you're coming, come now. If you piss Lambert off, I'm docking your entire bonus."

Rosalie's words jolted something loose in my mind.

If Silas was never taken by the compound, then that $500,000 ransom was a setup. Someone he put up to it must have collected every dollar.

I hesitated, then walked back to him. "Silas, you were willing to come clean and admit the whole thing was a lie. So can you give me back that $500,000?"

"My mother's gotten worse. I need that money for her hospital bills."

Silas's brow furrowed. Something blank and uncomprehending flickered behind his eyes.

"What $500,000?"

Penelope leaned into his arms, her tone light and teasing. "Oh, Hildie, I know you better than anyone. You've always loved money more than anything else in this world."

"I bet you tried to squeeze some other man dry, got scammed out of your own savings instead, and now you're crawling to Silas for a handout. That's what a lounge girl's commission buys you, huh?"

"Give it a rest with the little schemes. Your mother's perfectly fine. You probably blew through your money on shopping sprees and now you're trying to shake Silas down."

"Besides, this baby's going to need plenty of money down the road. Every dollar Silas has should go where it actually matters."

The last trace of warmth drained from Silas's gaze.

"Hilda, don't think I'm still as easy to fool as I used to be."

"If you hadn't stolen Penelope's dating account to catfish me online, I never would have fallen for a scheming woman like you in the first place."

"Get lost."

But that wasn't how it happened. Penelope had been juggling half a dozen guys on that app. Silas was just one of her backups.

She didn't think he was worth her time, so she tossed the account to me like it was nothing.

And now that same account had become a blade, twisted between us to cut me away from him for good.

The cold radiating off him told me everything I needed to know. No amount of explaining would make him believe me.

I watched them walk away, their silhouettes shrinking down the corridor, and I called Rosalie back to say I'd do it. I'd go entertain Mr. Lambert.

In the backstage dressing room at the Rose Lounge, I pressed a powder puff over the blood on my face until it disappeared, then changed into a sequined tube top that barely covered my chest and a tight miniskirt that hugged my hips. Then I walked into Mr. Lambert's private room.

I had just settled onto his bulging lap and started pouring his drink when Silas walked in carrying a contract.

His gaze swept over my exposed outfit and the way I was draped over another man. Pure rage burned behind his eyes.

But he was here for business. He swallowed it down, schooled his expression, and extended a hand to Lambert.

"Mr. Lambert, here's the purchase contract for the Westside property. Take a look and let me know if anything needs adjusting."

Lambert took the contract but didn't bother opening it. Instead he leaned in close to my neck, his lips curling into a sleazy grin. "Sweetheart, you like money, don't you? How about I sell that piece of land and give every penny to you, hm?"

Before I could even respond, Silas's fist was already crashing into the side of Lambert's head.

The room erupted into chaos. Silas tore through it like a storm, and Lambert staggered back, eyes vicious, jabbing a finger at him. "You little punk, you actually dare hit me?"

"If I'd brought my guys today, I'd have put you in the ground! And that Westside lot? Deal's off. Let's see how your company's new project survives without it!"

After Lambert stormed out, the reality settled over me like ice water. Rosalie was going to dock my pay again.

I had to find someone to cover the tab before she walked in.

I met Silas's eyes, then looped my arms around his neck and smiled up at him.

"You scared off my client, Silas. So how exactly do you plan on making it up to me?"

His knuckles went white as he gripped my chin, tilting my face up. His gaze was dark, cutting.

"The three months I was gone. This is what you were doing? Seducing men for money?"

I lowered my eyes and let out a quiet, bitter laugh.

If I hadn't been told he was trapped in the Syndicate Compound, suffering unspeakable things, I never would have been desperate enough to end up here, pouring drinks and sitting on strangers' laps.

He'd lied to me. Stolen my money. And now he had the nerve to stand there and judge me from above?

Something snapped. I grabbed his face between my hands and bit into his lips, hard, tearing at them until the taste of copper flooded my throat. Only then did I stop.

"You already have Penelope. Why do you care how I make a living?"

His expression went terrifyingly dark. In one sharp motion, he ripped the fabric from my chest, exposing the constellation of round, puckered scars where clients had stubbed out their cigarettes on my skin.

He shoved me down onto the couch, pinning me beneath him, when Penelope appeared in the doorway, one hand resting on her pregnant belly.

She took in the sight of me, clothes torn, hair disheveled, and the corner of her mouth curled into an amused little smile.

"Hildie, didn't you say your mom was really sick? Well, guess who I brought to see you."

I lifted my head and saw my mother standing in the doorway.

Her face was ashen. She stared at Silas on top of me, and her eyes went red in an instant.

Her illness had progressed so far that I was the only person she still recognized. She couldn't tell who the man pinning me down was. All she knew was that someone was hurting her daughter.

She lunged forward to pull him off me.

But Penelope caught her arm, smiling sweetly as she explained my line of work.

"Mrs. Henson, Hildie's new job is wonderful. She earns tens of thousands a month just keeping men company. You really don't need to worry about her supporting herself anymore."

"You should be so proud. You raised such a resourceful daughter."

My mother pounded her fists against her own chest, her voice cracking with fury. "Hilda Henson, this is what I raised? A shameless daughter like you?"

Watching my mother nearly pass out from the shock, I couldn't hold back any longer. I shoved Silas aside and swung my hand at Penelope's face.

But halfway through, Silas caught my arm and pushed me. I hit the ground hard.

My hands landed in the shattered remains of a vase. Blood pooled across the floor.

Silas didn't so much as glance at the blood. A mocking smile curled at the corner of his mouth. "All I did was give you a little push, and you're already on the ground. Who's this performance for?"

"I'm not performing. I don't have any strength left..."

He wasn't listening. He'd already turned to Penelope, his voice soft with concern. "Why did you bring Hilda's mother here? She's mentally unstable. What if she'd hurt you?"

Penelope sighed. "I just felt so sorry for her mom, desperate to see her daughter. I didn't have the heart to say no."

Silas stroked her hair, his expression tender. "Penny, you're too kind. That's exactly how Hilda takes advantage of you."

But looking at my mother's glazed, unfocused eyes, I knew her condition had worsened again.

Penelope had done this on purpose.

I moved toward my mother to take her home, but she grabbed a beer bottle off the coffee table and smashed it into me.

"I'll beat you to death! How dare you throw away your dignity!"

"A worthless daughter who can't live without a man! I'll kill you!"

"Mom, I'm sorry, please snap out of it, please..."

But the sound of my voice only made her worse. Every word out of her mouth was a wish for me to die.

Silas watched me scramble around the private room, dodging her blows. He started to step in, but Penelope caught his arm.

"Silas, a mother disciplining her disobedient daughter is perfectly natural. We shouldn't interfere."

"If a little tough love sets Hildie straight, then really, it's for her own good."

Silas's raised hand froze in place, then dropped back to his side.

It didn't take long. My body gave out, and the bottle found me again and again until I was covered in blood.

I happened to be wearing red. The blood soaked into the fabric and disappeared, red swallowed by red. To Silas, it looked like my mother wasn't hitting me that hard at all.

The truth was, her mental state had been deteriorating for weeks.

The doctor had warned that she couldn't handle any kind of shock.

Otherwise she'd end up exactly like this.

Just when I thought my legs would buckle, a flicker of clarity returned to my mother's eyes.

She saw the wounds covering my body. Guilt flooded her face. She started hitting herself, clawing at her own arms.

"Hildie, Mommy shouldn't have hit you. I'm sorry."

Then she clutched her chest, and blood spilled from the corner of her mouth.

Watching her crumple to the floor, I screamed until my throat tore. "Mom! Hold on, please hold on. I'm taking you to the hospital."

But there was no ambulance nearby. My only hope was Silas.

I dropped to my knees in front of him. "Silas, please save my mother. She's dying. If you help her, I'll stay away from you and Penelope for good. I'll never bother you again."

Silas frowned, and for a second he looked like he might speak. Penelope cut in first.

"Silas, when I picked her mom up, she was totally fine. She even told me how great she'd been feeling."

"I think she just can't accept that Hildie works as a hostess, so she's lying there faking it."

The hesitation on Silas's face vanished. He let out a cold scoff. "Hilda, turns out your mother's just as good at putting on an act as you are. Let's see how long you two can keep it up."

He wasn't going to help. I dragged myself into the hallway and begged every person I passed to help me get my mother to a hospital.

Even when I knelt before every single person in that hallway, they looked at me like I was bad luck.

Silas couldn't stand the sight of me groveling. He let out a cold laugh.

"You're so desperate to take your mother to the hospital? Fine. I'll personally expose your little act today."

Minutes later, my mother was taken to the hospital.

The moment Silas walked through the doors, Penelope sent him off to buy water.

My mother never made it to the emergency room. She was gone before they could even try.

By the time Silas came back with the water, all he saw was me draped over the white sheet covering my mother's body, sobbing. "Mom, please don't leave me. I know I was wrong. I'm so sorry."

His pupils shook.

Penelope leaned in close and murmured beside him, "Hilda's mom is really committed to the performance. They're already at the hospital, and she's pretending to be dead? She almost had the doctors fooled."

The look in Silas's eyes went ice-cold. "Hilda, stop trying to get my attention with this pathetic act. I'm not falling for it. And I'm sick of watching you degrade yourself."

Something seized my chest so hard I couldn't breathe. "I never wanted your attention."

"My mother is dead. Why would you still say these things to me?"

Silas stared at me, his gaze cutting. "Still lying. Your mother's faking it, just like you. You're both liars."

"You're disgusting. Why don't you just go die?"

I wiped the tears from the corners of my eyes and laughed softly. "You're right. I am disgusting. I became a hostess to save you. And now I've killed my own mother."

"So I'll give you what you want."

I pushed open the hospital window and jumped from the twenty-eighth floor.

"Hildie!"

His scream tore through the air behind me, raw and shattered.