Page 138 of For Your Consideration

“How did you find me?” I hiked my bag up my shoulder and shifted my weight. He was blocking my car, but I could go back inside.

“Made some calls.”

My eyes narrowed, remembering the feeling of being watched over the last few days.

“Have you been following me?”

He shrugged, his eyes looking me over. “It looks like you’ve really put yourself together. You were a mess the last time I saw you, really the whole time we were together.”

His avoidance of the question was concerning.

“Yeah well, when you last saw me I was pregnant, and you abandoned me.”

He rolled his eyes. “You’re so dramatic. I just didn’t believe that the kid was mine.”

I closed my eyes and took a breath. Him calling Sophie “the kid” made me want to fly into a blind rage but that wouldn’t do me any good. Plus, I still didn’t want him to know her name. Maya said it worked to my advantage.

“You should be going through our lawyers, Ben.”

He laughed, the sound sending shivers down my spine.

Was that how he always laughed? Or was this new? It was terrible either way.

“I hear you’re dating a new guy.” I worked to keep a neutral look on my face even though I could feel panic starting to rise in my chest. “Knight Enterprises.” He made a noise in his throat. “Very impressive. What are you getting for whoring yourself out?”

Don’t react. Don’t react.

“Doesn’t your girlfriend want custody of my daughter? Isn’t that what this is all about? It doesn’t matter who I’m dating.”

“I think I could ignore custody if we had some extra money going around that we didn’t have to waste on a kid.”

I scoffed as I shook my head, anger coursing through my veins. There was no amount of money that would have stopped me from fighting for Sophie.

“You’re not getting any money from anyone at Knight Enterprises.” I took a step back. “Don’t contact me again, Ben.”

I turned around. I needed to get away from him. Going into the store seemed like the safest option.

“You don’t get to walk away from me,” Ben bellowed from behind me. I took a step to start running when his hand grabbed the hair at the back of my head and yanked me backward.

The momentum and shock had my arms shooting out, my purchases sprawling on the ground around me as I let out a scream. My ass hit the ground and instead of letting my hair go like I thought he would, he kept pulling.

The pain was searing as he worked to pull me up, almost like he was trying to get me to stand.

He sneered. “You’re an entitled bitch, Sutton. Think you’re better than me now.”

I thrashed around, trying to get a hold on his arm to try and relieve some of the pressure on my head.

“Ben, stop.” I got my feet on the ground and he pulled me the rest of the way up.

“Listen—”

“Hey!” Some of the pressure from Ben’s hand lessened. “What the fuck are you doing, man!”

I heard the footsteps of someone running toward us, tears forming in my eyes at the idea that someone was coming to stop this.

Ben’s hand disappeared but then his palms landed on my shoulders and he shoved. I just managed to get my hands out in front of me as I hit the ground, hard.

My ears started buzzing, and I was shaking. The pain in my head was sharp but I wasn’t sure what else was wrong because a numbness had set in while I lay on the ground of the parking lot.