SARAH Ronan’s eyes lock on Jaxon, his scowl draws a thin line over the top of his eye brows. “You said she wouldn’t be here.” Jaxon glares at him with equal intensity. “That is because she’s not NOT supposed to be here.” My gaze continues to shift from one person to another as I’m rooted to the ground, right fingers clutching my purse to my right side, anxious for my dear life. Why is Aaron on his knees in front of Malachi? And why is his nose bleeding? Ronan walks up to me, and I make sure to look him straight in the eyes as he talks to me. It has me tilting my head up, sure, but it’s worth it. “Why are you here, Sarah? You’re supposed to be at home.” I raise a questioning right brow. “Home?” I point to the ground I’m standing on. “This is my house. I built this entire place brick by brick.” He tries to reach for my shoulder, but I move away. “You haven’t answered my question,” I look away from him, over to Malachi. “What the hell is going on here?” Malachi sucks in a deep breath. For some reason, he looks at me like I’m a serious inconvenience. I don’t know what he planned to do to Aaron, but I have a feeling he still has teeth in his mouth because of me. “We came here to pay Aaron a visit, Sarah.” Aaron is glaring at me. I swallow hard. He’s not going to let me live this one down easily. I recall his words in my office earlier; and panic clogs my throat with a big lump all over again. “Fuck!” Is all I can scream. My purse slips from my fingers and drops to the ground. “What the fuck is wrong with the three of you?” Tears well up in my eyes. I told myself I wouldn’t cry. Told myself that it was going to be fine one way or another. I had already planned ways to speak to Aaron, to reason with him. Now, they’ve ruined it. Aaron would never listen to me knowing that they’ve hurt him. He would punish me to get back at them. “Sarah, listen…” Malachi tries to speak, but I cut him off, sending him a stern look. “I told you to stay away, but you just couldn’t help yourself, could you?” “Stay away?” Jaxon scoffs, stepping forward. “We told you, Sarah. Really bad things happen to people who touch what’s ours. And he…” he points to Aaron, “…did.” I’m torn between the urge to laugh in their faces and fall to the ground into uncontrollable tears. I choose the former, and they all stare at me like I’m crazy—including Aaron. Maybe I am. But when I can barely feel my stomach anymore, I force myself to stop, slowly catching my breath. “Do you know who you’re dealing with?” I ask, wiping my tear streaked eyes with my index finger. “That man on the ground has screen records of the call you guys made to him when you three were fucking me!” The next scream that follows is out of sheer frustration, and an emotion very close to madness. “He has the weapon he needs to ruin my life, and you have just made it worse. I was going to handle it myself.” Ronan’s jaw clenches. His eyes darken on me as he covers the distance between us. His rough hands cup my right cheek, his thumb slowly caresses the back of my right ear. It’s soft, gentle, and reassuring. Even though he looks extremely pissed, he’s finding it in himself to be kind to me. “You are not going to yell at us, kitten.” I swallow hard. “Tell me you understand that.” Like an obedient puppy, I nod my head. “I…I do.” “We are going to help you handle this, and we’re going to do it our way. Tell me you understand that.” He says, tilting my chin upwards so I have no other choice but to stare into his electric blue eyes. They dance around my face and linger on my lips. I watch him breathe out slowly, like I’ve held him in a trance he doesn’t want to leave, but is forced to. “But what are…what are you going to do to him?” “Only what he deserves.” Ronan smiles at me. He drops his hand from my face, tucks it into his pocket, and turns to his brothers. “Right boys?” “Absolutely.”“Most definitely.” I open my lips to speak again, but Ronan cuts in. “When I called you today, Sarah, I could tell something was wrong. You sounded hurt, confused, like you had been crying.” He walks in circles around me as he speaks. “I was confused at first, but Malachi raised a very interesting point. As a result, we pulled every resource we could to make sure we could deal with Aaron Connor.” I shuddered when his hand grazed my left shoulder and he leaned into my neck. “We will never go to war blindly, kitten. You should have more faith in us.” Call me crazy, but something about this situation makes me wet in my pants. Seeing them rally around to protect me…no one has done it in quite a while. It feels so fucking hot. “We were able to find out his hobbies.” Jaxon chuckles, and Malachi shakes his head. “Do you know what it took us to have him fuck another woman in your living room?” I shake my head, awed by how involved I am in Ronan’s storytelling. I’m supposed to be pissed. I want to be pissed. But they’ve gone to these lengths, and all because of me. How could I possibly stay mad at that? “Absolutely nothing. We had her plant cameras all over the living room, so we have a very solid sex tape to use against him if he decides to be…you know, funny.” Ronan stands beside me, and Malachi steps forward. “We also discovered that he has a child with a certain Debbi Rose.” Molten rage courses through my veins at the mention of that name. She was the last straw that broke the camel’s back. She had given Aaron everything he ever wanted, everything I couldn’t. “And we also discovered this baby is his one shot at having a child. Due to his condition which I’m sure you’re very aware of…” I tilt my neck to the side, brows furrowed in confusion. “Wait. What condition?” Malachi pauses. He looks down at Aaron, then to Ronan, then to Jaxon. I see the horror that rests in Aaron’s eyes, and the looks on Jaxon and Malachi’s faces. They’re all staring at me like they know something I don’t. Do they know something I don’t? “You don’t know? I mean, we assumed it’s why you two never had kids together.” I clear my throat and take a step forward, as though it’ll help me make Malachi’s words clearer. “Yes. We could never have kids due to a health condition. But the condition is mine. Uterine Hypoplasia.” Malachi stares at me like I’m crazy, so I force myself to explain further. “My uterus is underdeveloped. It’ll be impossible to carry a child of my own. I tried to bring up adoption or surrogacy over the years but he didn’t want to. So…” I pause. “Why are you looking at me like that?” Malachi’s right fingers stroke his chin gently as he wears a thoughtful look on his face. “I’m just trying to understand something.” I raise my left brow. “Okay?” “So you’re suffering from Uterine Hypo…you know.” “Yeah?” “And at the same time, your soon to be ex-husband, has an extremely low sperm count.” My eyes widen as my gaze drops to Aaron. My throat feels tight. My lungs seem to be against the very oxygen I need to breathe. “Is this…is this true?” He doesn’t answer. He doesn’t need to. The fear in his once bold green eyes is all I need to see to know the answer. The room tilts. I can’t breathe. I can’t think. I can’t… My body falls into the couch nearest to me. I’m trying to look at him, but my tears are blurring my vision. Six years, and he never said a word. He never…wait. I wipe my tears and sit up. With a frown on my face, I look straight into Aaron’s eyes. A thought flashes in my mind, and I don’t want to believe it’s true. I do not want to believe that Aaron could be so terrible to do it to me. “I’m going to ask you one question, Aaron. And you have to say the truth.” He doesn’t reply to me, but I go ahead. “Doctor Sanders is one of your closest friends, and our family doctor. Once this is over, I am going to get a second opinion on my condition. But before that, I want to know something.” The words are heavy in my mouth. All of a sudden, there’s no one in the room but Aaron, all the memories we have together—good and bad—and me. I need him to look me in the eyes and tell me I’m being paranoid. I need him to gaslight me into thinking I’m crazy. For the first time in six years, I desperately need him to lie to me. “Do I really have Uterine Hypoplasia?” The question is followed by another stream of tears. When Aaron looks away from me, telling me his answer with his silence once again, everything fades away. One moment, I’m seated, ass glued to the edge of the couch. Then the next, I hear Malachi’s voice echo from a distance as someone struggles to pull me off Aaron’s body.