Kenzie’s voice wavered. She tried to cover it, but Clarkson heard it anyway.

“Kenzie,” he said gently, “did someone hurt you?”

Aside from her foster mother, no one had ever asked her that before.

The moment he did, something in her chest finally loosened.

She wiped her eyes and forced a small smile. “I’m fine,” she said. “I just figured some things out. About people. About life.”

After a brief pause, she added quietly, “Clarkson… maybe I should’ve gone with you back then.”

Before the Lundbergs found her, she’d grown up in the countryside. Clarkson had been there through all of it.

Calling them childhood sweethearts wouldn’t be wrong.

He’d liked her for as long as he could remember.

Back then, Kenzie was still young. Her world was school and simple routines. Then, at fifteen, she was taken back to the Lundbergs, and just like that, they lost each other.

Later, Colton filled every corner of her heart.

On her wedding day, Clarkson had pushed his way backstage, his eyes red when he looked at her.

“Kenzie,” he asked softly, “are you sure you’ll be happy marrying him?”

She answered honestly.

“I don’t know if I’ll be happy forever. But right now, I love him.”

The word love made his eyes burn even redder.

He left without causing a scene. But before he did, he gave her a way out.

“Kenzie, I like you,” he said. “But liking someone doesn’t mean keeping them. So I’ll let you go.”

“If one day you realize you don’t love Colton anymore, or if he treats you badly, come find me. I’ll take you away.”

She never imagined those words would come back to her years later.

Clarkson was sharp. He could hear the unfairness in what she wasn’t saying.

“Kenzie,” he said firmly, “wait for me. I’ll come to New York. I’ll take you away.”

“The Kenzie who used to smile like so brightly shouldn’t be living this way.”

She smiled, and this time it didn’t hurt.

“Okay,” she said. “I’ll wait.”

After the call ended, she stayed in the conference room for a long time before finally stepping out.

And just her luck, she ran straight into Colton and Kinsey.

When Colton saw her swollen, reddened eyes, concern never crossed his face. His first reaction was suspicion.

“You followed me here?” he said coldly. “Kenzie, this clingy act of yours is getting disgusting.”

The words landed hard.

When she was giving birth, he’d walked away from the operating room. And in the week after, he never showed up once.

If he had cared enough to actually look at her, he would’ve noticed there was no love left in her eyes.

But she didn’t love him anymore. And once that was gone, she stopped caring, too.

Including how much her words might hurt.

Kenzie straightened her back and pointed straight at Kinsey.

“What about her?” she asked flatly.

Even after being caught, there wasn’t a trace of guilt on his face. If anything, he looked self-righteous.

“Since you’ve already seen it, I won’t bother hiding it. Just like you see, we’re together now. Me and Kinsey.”

Kenzie let out a short, humorless laugh.

This was the first time she’d ever seen someone talk about cheating like it was something to be proud of.

“Colton,” she said calmly, “aren’t you afraid I’ll divorce you?”

He shot her a look full of disdain.

“Oh, Kenzie. Don’t threaten me with divorce.”

“We have a child,” he snapped back. “Do you really want the baby growing up in a broken family?”

“You had a miserable childhood yourself,” he added coldly. “You really want to make our kid live through that, too?”

He was certain she wouldn’t dare leave him. To him, this was just empty talk.

Kenzie stared at him. The light in her eyes dimmed, little by little.

That idiot had no idea. Their child was already gone.

The moment he chose to abandon her in the operating room, the baby died because no one was there to sign the damn consent form in time.

Across from them, Kobe cut in, his voice sharp and scolding.

“Kenzie, can you stop being so dramatic? In relationships, the one who isn’t loved is the third wheel. Colton already gave you the title of Mrs. Parkhouse, didn’t he? Do you really think you deserve his heart, too?”

Kendrick stood beside him and added calmly, “Kenzie, Colton doesn’t love you. You’ve known that for a long time. Since you knew, why are you making such a big deal out of it now?”

She was the one who’d been hurt. She was the one who lost her child.

And yet everyone acted like she had no right to be upset. No right to feel wronged.

At that moment, she finally understood that family love, romantic love… All of it was bullshit.

Kenzie took a slow breath. Then she reached into her bag and pulled out the divorce papers.

“Fine,” she said evenly. “I won’t make a fuss. I won’t be dramatic anymore.”

“All I need you to do....” she continued, holding out the papers, “is sign this agreement.”

Colton took the papers, his brows creasing.

“What agreement is this?”

Before he could even scan the first line, Kobe yanked the papers out of his hands, flipped straight to the last page, and shoved them back at him.

“What’s there to read?” he snapped. “Just sign the damn thing.”

“Who knows what she’s trying to squeeze out of you this time? Another storefront? Another piece of land? Hah. Has there ever been a year she didn’t ask for something?”

Kenzie dropped her gaze and let out a quiet, bitter laugh.

It turned out, in her brothers’ eyes, she had always been the one who kept asking.

But that was only because she had never been given a damn thing!

Every time she managed to hold onto something or anything, Kinsey would swoop in and take it from her.

At first, Kenzie had fought back. She’d argued. She’d complained.

And every single time, she’d been shut down with the same bullshit.

“Kenzie, you’re the older sister. What’s wrong with letting your younger sister have it?”

“Can you stop being so selfish for once?”

“If you hadn’t come back, those things would’ve belonged to Kinsey anyway.”

She’d heard those lines so many times they might as well have been engraved into her skull.

What they all conveniently forgot was that if Kinsey hadn’t been switched at birth, Kenzie would’ve been the Lundbergs’ real daughter.

Those things should’ve been hers from the very beginning.

She was just trying to take back what was already hers!

Yet in everyone else’s eyes, she was stealing from Kinsey.

Kendrick’s voice dragged her back to reality.

“Dude, it’s just a contract,” he said impatiently. “Hurry up and sign it. We still have to take Kinsey out for her birthday.”

Colton didn’t hesitate this time. He picked up the pen and signed his name at the bottom of the last page just like that.

Kinsey was immediately ushered away like royalty, surrounded on all sides, fussed over like a precious little princess.

For more than ten years, they had remembered only one thing. Today was Kinsey’s birthday.

They had completely forgotten something else. It was Kenzie’s birthday, too.

She knew it wasn’t that they didn’t remember. They simply didn’t care enough to celebrate her.

She used to wait anyway.

Now, she didn’t.

Some people get love. Others get money.

This time, she chose the money.

With her mind made up, she went down to the underground garage to get her car and go home to pack her things up.

Before she could even reach her parking spot, a car suddenly jerked forward and slammed into her, knocking her flat onto the concrete.

She had just given birth. Her body was already weak. The impact tore her stitches open, and blood spread fast across her clothes.

Kenzie clutched her abdomen as pain ripped through her, her body shaking uncontrollably before she collapsed onto the cold ground.

“C-Colton!” she gasped, struggling to breathe. “My wound… It tore open. It hurts… Please… take me to the hospital.”

Inside the car, Colton didn’t even bother getting out.

He rolled the window down halfway, irritation etched across his face.

“Oh, come on, Kenzie. What are you pretending this time?”

“My car barely touched you,” he scoffed. “And you’re acting like you can’t even stand up?”

“Today’s Kinsey’s birthday,” he snapped. “Just because you don’t want us celebrating with her, you’ll make up any bullshit now?”

“Hah. I’m not falling for it this time.”

From the passenger seat, Kinsey chimed in impatiently. “Colton, it’s the weekend. There are people everywhere. If we keep wasting time here, we won’t even get a table.”

Without another glance, he rolled the window back up and turned the wheel.

Panic and despair hit Kenzie all at once, tears blurring her vision.

“Colton!” she cried out. “I’m telling the truth! Please! Save me…”

But he didn’t hesitate for even a second.

The only thing he left behind was the cold blast of exhaust as the car sped away.

Kenzie curled in on herself on the concrete, her body folding inward as pain tore through her.

Warm blood kept flooding from her wound, no matter how hard she tried to stop it.

She knew then that if this kept going, she wasn't making it out alive.

As her consciousness began to slip, memories flooded in; it was the promises Colton had once sworn to her.

“Kenzie, marry me. I’ll protect you for the rest of your life.”

“Kenzie, I like you. Just trust me one more time.”

“Kenzie, let’s have a child. We’ll be a happy family of three.”

As her consciousness started to slip away, every promise Colton had ever made came rushing back into her mind.

“Marry me, Kenzie. I’ll protect you for the rest of your life.”

“I like you, Kenzie. Just trust me one more time.”

“Let’s have a child, Kenzie. We’ll be a happy family of three.”

They flashed through her head, slipping away before she could hold onto any of them.

At that moment, she regretted ever loving Colton.

She regretted giving him chance after chance to hurt her.

‘Colton,’ she thought bitterly, ‘if I survive this, then between us, this won’t end until one of us is destroyed!’

When Kenzie regained her consciousness, it was already noon the next day.

In the end, it was a security guard on patrol who spotted her half-dead in the underground garage and rushed her to the hospital.

The second she was conscious, she grabbed her phone and called her lawyer.

“Colton already signed the divorce papers,” she said flatly. “But I’m not sitting through some bullshit one-month cooling-off period. I want this divorce done within a week.”

Kenzie was a lawyer. She knew damn well it could be done.

On the other end of the line, Attorney Larsson went quiet for a moment.

“Alright,” he said finally. “I’ll make it happen.”

Hearing that, she hung up. Almost immediately, her phone buzzed again.

It was a message from Clarkson.

[Hey, I called you so many times last night. You didn’t pick up. Did something happen?]

[Kenzie, I’m worried sick. Please answer once you see this.]

There were dozens of messages like that.

And yet, not a single one from Colton or from her so-called brothers.

If Kinsey had so much as stubbed her toe, they sure would have shut the entire New York down looking for her.

‘So this is the difference between being loved and being hated,’ Kenzie thought bitterly.

She typed back.

[I went to bed early. I’m fine. Don’t worry.]

A lie. But she wasn’t about to let the only person who cared lose sleep over her.

Clarkson replied almost instantly, as if he’d been staring at his phone the whole time.

[As long as you’re okay. The weather’s bad right now and all flights are grounded. Once it clears up, I’ll be in New York to get you.]

She sent back one word.

[Okay.]

Just after sending it, a nurse walked in.

“Ma’am, you’ll need to contact a family member.”

Hearing the word family, Kenzie answered flatly, “Family? I’m an orphan. I don’t have one.”

The nurse hesitated, clearly recognizing her.

“Aren’t you Mrs. Parkhouse? Your husband is upstairs with your sister. You could ask him to come down and take care of the hospital bills.”

Kenzie froze. “Why the hell are they here?”

“Oh,” the nurse said casually, “your sister bit her lip while eating. Mr. Parkhouse and your brothers completely panicked. They even called in multiple specialists.”

The nurse’s face darkened as she looked back at Kenzie, clearly pissed on her behalf.

“You’re family, too, aren’t you?” she snapped. “It was barely a scratch, yet they acted like the world was ending. You almost bled to death last night, and not a single one of them came to check on you.”

Fuming, the nurse turned and stormed upstairs to call them down.

Kenzie didn’t even have time to react.

Moments later, the three men were already standing at the foot of her bed.

She looked pale. Fragile. Weak enough that even Colton couldn’t ignore it.

For the first time, guilt flickered across his face.

“You weren’t feeling well and ended up hospitalized,” he said stiffly. “Why didn’t you contact us?”

Kenzie glanced at him just once then curled her lips into a cold, mocking smile.

She didn’t answer.

That silence unsettled him.

In his memory, she had always been dependent on him. A tiny cut from cooking would have her eyes red and watery, clinging to him.

On the way down, the nurse had told him her wound had been stitched again: more than twenty stitches.

He’d expected her to cry the second she saw him. Instead, she wouldn’t even bother speaking.

For once, he lowered his head.

“I’m sorry about last night,” he said. “I thought you were faking it. If I’d known it was real, I wouldn’t have left.”

Bullshit.

He’d said the same thing countless times before.

And every single time, when forced to choose between her and Kinsey, Kenzie was the one left behind.

On their wedding day, when the crystal chandelier came crashing down, the person he shielded wasn’t his bride. It was Kinsey.

Once, when both “sisters” had severe allergic reactions and there was only one dose of medication left, he gave it to Kinsey without hesitation.

This time, Kenzie had been bleeding out on the concrete, and because it was Kinsey’s birthday, she’d been abandoned all over again.

From start to finish, Colton had never chosen her.

Whatever. A man who’d already made his choice wasn’t worth clinging to.

Kenzie was done listening. She closed her eyes, cutting them all off at once. “I’m exhausted. I want to rest. You can all leave. It’s not like this is the first time anyway.”

Whenever she needed them, they didn’t give a damn.

Now that she was done with them, they could stop pretending they ever cared.

Colton looked like he wanted to say something, his lips parting slightly, when Kobe let out a cold, mocking snort.

“Oh, cut the act,” he sneered. “If you really didn’t want to see us, why have the nurse drag us down here? We showed up, didn’t we? Learn when to stop pushing your luck. If you piss us off and we walk out, you’ll be the one crying later.”

Even now, they were convinced she couldn’t survive without them.

Their arrogance earned a soft, humorless laugh from Kenzie, but she said nothing.

That silence made something twist uncomfortably in Colton’s chest.

“Kenzie,” he asked, frowning, “you weren’t with our son last night. Who’s taking care of him?”

Before she could respond, a nurse suddenly rushed in from upstairs.

“Mr. Parkhouse! Ma’am Kinsey is very upset upstairs. Please go check on her!”

Tension snapped across all three men’s faces at once.

Kobe grabbed Colton by the arm. “Kinsey needs us. What the hell are you waiting for? Move.”

Colton hesitated just for a heartbeat. But then, like always, he chose Kinsey.

“Kinsey needs me,” he said to Kenzie. “I’ll go check on her first. Once things calm down, I’ll come back.”

Just like that, all three of them turned and walked out without looking back.

Kenzie watched their backs disappear, the bitter curve of her smile deepening.

Hah. Colton’s words were dead in under a minute.

‘Colton,’ she thought coldly, ‘our son has been gone for a long time now. And whatever future we had died with him.’