Part 2The Don Forgot My Blueberries, I Was Done With Him

"And weren't you supposed to take me shopping for the baby today?"

We'd planned to go last week. But last week he took Beth out for French food and forgot the whole thing.

I waited for him to come get me. I waited the entire day.

Then he came home with Beth on his arm. He spent two days making it up to me and swore he'd take me today.

But today he had forgotten again.

Colton froze for a moment, then remembered. He was about to speak when Beth cut him off.

She sounded small and hurt. "Monica, I know you don't like me, but he's only trying to protect me. I won't go. They can push me around. It doesn't matter."

And she started to cry.

Colton looked at me with a hint of distaste.

"What is wrong with you, Monica? Beth may be adopted, but she's been part of this family for years. I'm her brother. If someone pushes her around at a casino, they're taking me on too.

"Monica, you're my Donna. You should be backing me up on this!"

He was livid.

My chest tightened with frustration as I looked at him and tried to answer.

Before I could get a word out, Beth took his hand. "Colton, it's all my fault," she said in a wounded voice. "I shouldn't have asked you to stand up for me. If I'd known it would upset Monica, I never would have brought it up.

"Let people push me around out there. I don't mind being treated badly."

Her voice broke before she finished, and the tears started again.

She kept her head down as heavy teardrops splashed onto the back of her hand.

Colton watched her, then glared at me.

He scoffed. "You've really let me down. Beth, we're leaving."

He took Beth's hand and led her away.

Everything in me went cold. He didn't even look back.

I thought about the day I found out I was pregnant. I'd dropped the test in the trash, and when he saw it, he threw his arms around me and cried.

He told me our first child would be his family's heir.

He still kept that pregnancy test in his drawer.

I hadn't expected this. He had kept the test, but he was no longer the man I'd known.

As soon as they were gone, I called my lawyer, Daniel Mercer, and asked him to draw up divorce papers.

Then I accepted the offer to become head designer at a jewelry design house in New York. Before Colton, I had owned my own jewelry studio.

After we married, his family's business took over my life.

He had just taken over as Don.

To help him secure the family's position, I set my own work aside and helped him run and expand the business.

There was no time left for the studio, so I closed it.

Now I was going to reclaim the career I had given up.

Daniel soon had the papers ready. On the way to pick them up, I scrolled through my feed in the car and saw a photo Beth had posted.

It was the two of them at the casino, leaning into each other.

Both of them were grinning.

Someone had commented, "Your boyfriend is gorgeous."

Beth had replied, "Sadly, not quite yet. Waiting for my chance."

My heart sank as I read it.

I was about to block her account when the car ahead of us hit ours.

My driver jerked the wheel, and my phone slid into the gap beside the seat.

I was thrown hard against the door. A sharp pain tore through my abdomen. Before I could make sense of it, I felt warm fluid leaking out of me.

I tried to cry out, but the pain left me unable to make a sound.

Through the haze, I saw two familiar figures get out of the car that had hit us.

Colton stood in front of the car, and our eyes met.

Shock flickered in his eyes. "Monica!"

He shouted my name in panic. "It's all right, you're going to be fine! I'm taking you to the hospital right now."

Beth looked at me and apologized over and over. "It's all my fault. You're hurt because of me. I never should have been feeding him while he was driving."

My vision blurred, and my gaze fell on Colton's neck.

There was an unmistakable hickey there. Something twisted in my chest. I looked at Beth. She had one too.

Then I caught the smell of liquor.

They had been drinking.

Images of the two of them being intimate flooded my mind, but I was in too much pain to speak.

Colton pushed me back into the car, hauled my driver out, and got behind the wheel himself. "Monica, hold on. I'm getting you to a hospital. I'm not going to let anything happen to you!"