One Lipstick, Nine Lies, Zero People On My Side Chapter 04

One Lipstick, Nine Lies, Zero People On My Side Chapter 04

The next morning, Stellan stormed into the townhouse after seeing the real estate listing.

I was kneeling between two open suitcases when he grabbed my arm and hauled me to my feet.

“What the hell are you doing?” His eyes swept over the boxes stacked around the room. “You listed our home?”

Our home.

After three years of building a nursery for another woman’s child, he still had the nerve to call it that.

“Was it fun, Stellan?” I stared at him. “Making a fool out of me?”

I laughed once and slapped him across the face.

The sound cracked through the room.

A red mark spread across his cheek, but he didn’t get angry. Instead, his expression softened, as if this were another minor argument he could smooth over.

“Feel better? Sabine, I know I handled this badly.”

“We’ve been together for seven years. You can’t erase that overnight.” He stepped closer. “You saved my life. Everything I have belongs to you. Do you honestly think I could stop caring about you?”

I turned away, done with his bullshit.

He caught me before I reached the door and locked both arms around me.

“Leonie’s father was the vice chairman of Dacre Hospitality Group,” he said against my hair. “Before he died, he asked me to look out for her.”

“I know sleeping with her was wrong. I tried to end it, but every time I did, she threatened to hurt herself. What was I supposed to do? Let her die?”

I almost laughed again.

Stellan buried his face against my neck.

“I never planned to leave you. You’re the life I built. Leonie needs me, but that doesn’t change what you are to me.”

His voice dropped, coaxing and intimate.

“We can still have everything we planned. Nothing has to change for you. I’ll take care of you, and I’ll make sure you never go without anything.”

The disgust hit so hard I couldn’t speak.

He wanted me to stay quiet while he kept his wife and child hidden in the background.

And he thought money made that reasonable.

When I stopped fighting, Stellan mistook my silence for surrender.

“You probably haven’t eaten all day,” he said, finally releasing me. “I’ll make that chicken pot pie you like.”

He had barely reached the kitchen when the front door crashed open.

Orson came in first.

Before I could react, Iona rushed past him and slapped me hard enough to turn my head.

“Where is the baby?”

My cheek burned.

“What?”

Leonie stumbled in behind them, sobbing so hard she could barely breathe. She dropped to her knees in front of me.

“Please, Dr. Hollowell. Give him back.”

She reached for the hem of my coat.

“You can have Stellan. I won’t fight you anymore. Just don’t hurt my son.”

The warmth vanished from Stellan’s face.

“What happened to the baby?”

“We took him to the pediatric clinic for his one-month checkup,” Iona said. “Leonie stepped out to finish the paperwork, and when she came back, he was gone.”

Her eyes locked on me.

“Who else would take a newborn?”

Stellan crossed the room before I could answer.

His hand closed around my throat.

“You had someone take him?”

My back struck the wall.

“Stellan…”

His fingers tightened until every breath became a struggle.

“Have you lost your mind?”

I clawed at his wrist.

“I didn’t take him.”

“You expect me to believe that?”

“I’m a doctor,” I forced out. “I would never hurt a child.”

Leonie collapsed against the floor, crying into both hands.

“If anything happens to him, I can’t live with it.”

Stellan threw me aside.

I hit the edge of the console table and nearly went down.

“Then tell us where he is.”

“I don’t know!”

My voice broke.

“Why won’t any of you believe me?”

“Because no one else had a reason to do this,” Iona snapped.

Orson stood off to the side, his face cold.

This was the same brother who had once fought everyone who questioned me. Now there wasn’t a trace of concern in his eyes.

“Sabine, if you still won’t tell us the truth, I’ll have no choice but to take legal action.”

I shook my head.

Iona snapped.

She grabbed a fistful of my hair and dragged me into the utility room. Then she yanked open a cabinet, pulled out the portable defibrillator, and ripped open the adhesive pads.

“Sabine, I was wrong about you. He’s only a month old. How could you do this to him?”

“I didn’t take him.”

“You’re still going to lie?” Her eyes burned with anger. “Are you really going to make me do this?”

She knew I was terrified of being shocked. She knew exactly how to force a confession out of me.

But how could I confess to something I hadn’t done?

“You brought this on yourself, Sabine.”

Her patience ran out. She hit the shock button.

Electricity tore through my body.

My back arched violently before I crashed onto the floor, the back of my head slamming against the tile.

White light exploded across my vision.

Then something warm ran down the inside of my thigh.

Everyone froze.

“Sabine, you…”

Before anyone could finish, a police officer’s voice came from the living room.

“Ms. Fenwick? The baby has been found. His family needs to return to the hospital immediately.”

The defibrillator slipped from Iona’s hand and hit the floor.

Relief swept across all their faces.

They pushed past one another and rushed out of the room, desperate to get back to the baby.

Not one of them looked at me.

I sat motionless on the floor, watching the red stain spread across my skirt.

My tears fell with it.

Several hours later, they returned carrying the baby.

Stellan had brought a strawberry cream cake as an apology.

The moment they stepped into the living room, they saw the blood on the floor. A medical report and a flash drive had been left on the table.

The cake fell from Stellan’s hands and hit the floor.

He picked up the report with stiff fingers.

As soon as he read the first line, his face went completely white.