My voice shook with the weight of my pain. “Do you think anyone feels this loss more deeply than I do?”
“No, no, it wasn’t me…” Winnie stammered, scrambling to defend herself, but Sean cut her off, turning to me.
“Wait, Ellie was a month pregnant? What happened to her baby? I thought only one person was kidnapped – what does any of this have to do with her?” he demanded, voice unsteady.
At that, Ellie stepped forward and slapped him hard across the face.
“You have no right to ask! If any of you had bothered to answer your phones, we wouldn’t have been caught in the landslide. We wouldn’t have been trapped. Our baby wouldn’t have died!
“Maybe it’s better this way. You two never deserved to be fathers, or husbands. Wasn’t it clear you were always more invested in Winnie and her child? Now you can finally have your ‘real family.’ What happens to our children doesn’t concern you.”
Sean looked stunned, one hand raised to his cheek where the mark of her slap was still visible.
Ross, however, had finally grasped the gravity of the situation, his face frozen in shock.
“You’re telling me… that Maisie was actually kidnapped? Why didn’t you call me? You got caught in the landslide trying to save her? Why didn’t you tell us?” he pleaded, his voice beginning to crack, a hint of desperation slipping through.
Too late. Far too late for that. The time for regret had long passed.
I kept my voice steady, though my words were cold, laced with bitter irony.
“When you ignored seven of my calls, I was tied up, being beaten. When you finally answered the eighth time, I was already worthless to them. They decided the baby’s life wasn’t worth sparing.
“You could have saved us, Ross. The kidnapper only wanted money at first; he never intended to kill our child.”
Ross collapsed, burying his face in his hands, sobbing uncontrollably.
Winnie tried to comfort him, wrapping her arms around him, but he shoved her away with such force that her hand scraped against the floor, leaving a smear of blood.
Her eyes widened, uncomprehending – this was the first time she’d ever been pushed aside like this.
Ignoring her, I turned to Sean, my expression hard.
“Guess who’s involved in that kidnapping case you’re handling – the victim and the plaintiff, to be exact?”
The truth dawned on them, their gazes sharp with sudden suspicion as they looked at Winnie.