Filed To Story: The Broken-Hearted She and The Icy He Book PDF Free
Mergan’s eyes were dark as night, his voice chilling. “Lily, you and that bastard in your belly-are you trying to die? Stop right now!”
“Who the hell are you calling a bastard?”
James’s punch came fast and brutal, knocking Mergan’s jaw sideways. “You think you can insult my child?”
“James, you’re out of your goddamn mind!”
Mergan tried to strike back-but before he could even lift a hand, Ashton barged in with a swarm of bodyguards, surrounding the room like a fortress. He grabbed Mergan’s wrist with a fake smile that didn’t reach his eyes.
“Mergan, my boss isn’t the crazy one. You Ginger dogs just can’t stop foaming at the mouth.”
“You-!”
Mergan nearly exploded with rage.
Ashton raised his other hand, and several bodyguards-clearly not amateurs-stepped up and slammed Mergan against the wall.
Bodger and Taylor didn’t fare any better.
They’d come here itching to teach Lily a lesson, but in no time, they were pinned to the walls like flies by the bodyguards.
James hadn’t held back at all, and Bodger’s face had turned a dangerous shade of green.
He gnashed his teeth. “Lily’s scum.”
“Mathilda’s your fianc?e. You keep breaking her heart over that bitch-you’re gonna regret it!”
Taylor never imagined that his old friend James would go this far. His fists clenched with fury. “James, if you have even a shred of decency left, you’ll make Lily abort that bastard and marry Mathilda like you promised!”
Mergan didn’t say a word.
He just stared at Lily’s still-flat belly, unblinking.
It didn’t matter if James let that child live-he wouldn’t.
Lily was his. He would never allow her to give birth to some bastard’s child.
James’ eyes turned glacial.
Lily didn’t even want the baby to begin with. And now, with these lunatics screaming in her face-what if she really decided to go through with the abortion tomorrow?
His rage grew darker by the second.
Just as he was about to deal with the Ginger idiots himself, Lily threw Mathilda aside and walked straight up to the three brothers.
And then-smack! smack! smack!
Each of them got a slap, sharp and clean, right across the face.
[1]
“Lily!”
All three of them roared in unison, enraged.
But with the Lu family’s bodyguards holding them down tight, they couldn’t do a damn thing to stop her.
“Your mouths are filth-polluting the air. I’m just cleaning them out for you!”
Without warning, Lily turned and grabbed another fistful of Mathilda’s hair, filled with so much hatred she wanted to strangle her.
Images of the bones piled in the corner of that basement flashed through her mind, and her fury grew so intense it felt like blood was about to bead from the corner of her eyes.
“Mathilda, five years ago, Jenn and Sharon could’ve escaped. You didn’t want to run, fine-you accepted your fate. But why did you betray them?”
“You got Jenn killed and didn’t feel a shred of remorse. Then you helped traffickers sell me into the mountains… You deserve to die!”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Mathilda’s face was ashen. “I don’t even know who Jenn or Sharon are. And me working with traffickers to sell you off? That’s insane. I was sold as a child myself-I hate those people more than anything. Why would I ever work with them? Why would I hurt someone I saw as a sister?”
James looked like he was going to be sick.
He sneered, lips curling coldly, and gave Ashton a glance.
“Play the video.”
He hadn’t planned to reveal that evidence yet-he’d saved it for court.
But these Ginger family psychos were so mind-numbingly stupid, he couldn’t watch in silence any longer. It was time they saw what kind of monster they were protecting.
At James’s cue, Ashton tapped the screen on the tablet.
As soon as he did, a heavy dread began to sink in Mathilda’s gut.
But she forced herself to stay calm. It had been five years. That mountain village had no internet. The people there barely used phones. James couldn’t possibly have found any useful proof.
And those four traffickers-she wasn’t worried about them either. They swore they’d covered their tracks well. In real life, they were all considered honest and upstanding folks. No one would suspect them.
James had no way of connecting them to her..
Comforted by that thought, her nerves began to settle.
Ashton opened the first video and held the tablet up for the Ginger brothers to see.
“That’s her! Mathilda, for sure! I remember like it was yesterday. Five years ago, those two girls had a real- shot at escaping. But she ratted them out. Not only didn’t they get away-they were almost beaten to death!”
In the footage, James’s team could be heard questioning villagers while holding up Mathilda’s photo. The villagers all chimed in.
“I remember too. She’s the one who told.”
“That girl-no conscience at all. Poor kids…”
Even after all these years, seeing the people from that village again made Mathilda feel a flicker of panic.
But then she reminded herself-she was the Ginger family’s precious daughter now. That hellhole was long behind her. There was no way she’d ever go back.
She turned teary-eyed to James, all pitiful and fragile. “James, how could you do this to me? I’m your fianc?e, and you brought in a bunch of people to smear me like this? Sure, money talks, but who’s to say these people aren’t just saying what you paid them to say?”
“Money does talk.”
James cut her off coldly. “That’s how I got the next video.”
“What… video?”
His eyes-sharp as blades and twice as cold-sent a fresh wave of dread crashing over her. Panic flooded back, stronger than before. She couldn’t stop herself from shrieking.
James didn’t bother answering her. He simply gave Ashton the nod.
Ashton opened the second video.
That village, deep in the mountains, didn’t have internet access. Most people there didn’t own phones.
But not everyone.
The village chief had money. His son had gone into town once, thought phones were cool, and bought one to play offline games.
James offered a hefty reward for clues. Sure enough, the chief’s son came forward with a video he’d unknowingly recorded.
The moment Ashton pressed play, Bodger and the others heard Jenn and Sharon’s voices, raw with fury and desperation.
“Mathilda, if you didn’t want to escape, fine! But why betray us?”
“I mean… you weren’t going to get out anyway. So what if I turned you in?”
Mathilda looked different five years ago-no glitter, no jewels-but the woman in that footage was undeniably her.
Her voice carried guilt, but there was no mistaking it. It was hers.
Bodger, Taylor, and Mergan’s faces drained of all color.
They’d seen some of the online buzz. News clips. Videos.
Jenn had gone live more than once, angrily accusing Mathilda of betrayal-of selfishly and maliciously turning her and Sharon in.
They knew Mathilda had also been trafficked to that same village. They had asked her about it back then.
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