Part 2This Time, I Won’t Save Her

Chloe wrapped her arms around my waist and sobbed so hard she could barely breathe.

I was five foot seven and worked out regularly. At barely five foot three, Chloe looked tiny beside me.

I stared at the top of her head. For a moment, I wondered how much genuine friendship she still felt for me.

“What happened?” I asked, though I already knew.

“Emily… Oh, God…”

My stepmother sat on the couch, looking positively eager for gossip as she questioned Ryan. “Who’s this other woman? Do I know her? Does she come from money?”

“Mom, it’s Jessica. Stop asking.”

Her eyes lit up. “Your first girlfriend? I remember her family owns a building supply business, right?”

Ryan raised his eyebrows smugly.

Instead of being ashamed, my stepmother praised him. “Well done, honey. You two go way back. Bring her over sometime.”

Then she spotted me and gave Chloe a tight smile. “Sweetheart, men make mistakes sometimes. You’re pregnant. Try to be a little more forgiving.”

“Linda!” Chloe had heard every word between mother and son. She was too hurt to say anything else.

“Exactly,” Ryan chimed in. “I was drunk that night…”

In my last life, that had been all I needed to hear. I’d stormed out, torn into them, and dragged Chloe away from that toxic house.

This time, I told her, “What’s crying going to solve? Before you married him, I warned you he was no good and this family wouldn’t treat you well. You wouldn’t listen. Now you can either put up with it or get a divorce.”

“Emily, how can you say—”

I glanced at Ryan, and he wisely shut his mouth.

After all, he was counting on me to send my father more money every month so he and his mother could keep living comfortably.

I carefully freed myself from Chloe’s arms and closed my bedroom door behind me. Ignoring her lost expression, I poured myself a glass of water and sat in the armchair.

Chloe finally noticed how different I was acting. “Emily, what’s gotten into you?”

Even the two pieces of trash on the couch hadn’t expected this response. They both turned to stare.

I ignored them and asked Chloe, “What do you want to do?”

“I… I want to go home! Yes, home! Ryan Carter, I’m not coming back until you give me an explanation I can accept!”

As though she had finally found her way through the fog, she looked at me hopefully. “Emily, will you come back to my mom’s with me?”

“That’s up to you. I’m too busy with work to go anywhere right now.”

Ryan nodded immediately. “Emily’s busy. She doesn’t have time to go with you. Besides, you’re pregnant. This isn’t that big a deal. Stop running around. And flying home would just waste money! You have no idea how much it costs to run a household. Be more careful with money.”

How a man whose job had been arranged by my father—and who still needed my father to cover his monthly expenses—had the nerve to say that was beyond me.

Chloe had quit her job after getting pregnant. She had no income, and Ryan had talked her into spending nearly all the savings she’d brought into the marriage during their first two years together.

Depending on someone else for money was never easy when you’d chosen the wrong person.