Sophia’s POV
Lifting her hand to my lips I kissed it and tried to hold back my tears. If Mom had been awake, she would have known just what to do. Just what to say to make everything alright.
I listened to what Reid Prescott had to say. Yes, I knew I should just have walked away and damned it all but I couldn’t.
Maybe it was because of the surreal sight of a powerful man like him going to his knees to beg a nobody like me or maybe it was because he said please.
In all my time staying with him, that was the first and only time he had used that word with me.
So I hesitated and Reid Prescott told me his story. Not all of it I was sure, but enough.
He was the first son of the late Drey Baxter, Jerry’s dad.
He told me about how his mother, Raine Prescott, had given up her inheritance to stay with Drey Baxter against her father’s wishes.
Raine had loved Drey Baxter so much that she had invested her lifetime savings in order to save Baxter Corporation from an internal debt crisis.
And what did Raine Prescott get for her efforts? Betrayal. Reid Prescott grew up with his Mom being treated like crap in their home and the moment Raine Prescott died from a heart attack, Anastasia moved in barely two weeks later with her children, Reid Prescott’s half-siblings; Jerry, Malia and Dalia.
His father, Drey Baxter, had been cheating on his mother almost throughout their marriage with Anastasia.
That day Anastasia moved in was also the day Reid left the Baxter family for good, taking on his mother’s surname and moving in with his maternal grandfather. From there he had taken over Prescott Enterprise slowly reviving the company to its glory days.
Drey Baxter had never tried to get his son back for whatever reason and he also did nothing to stop Anastasia from rewriting history.
Slowly but steadily, Anastasia Baxter erased all traces of Raine Baxter from the media and it was even easier for her to erase Reid’s presence as his mother had always shielded him from the public eye.
Drey Baxter might have been dead now but the wounds he had inflicted were far from healed.
As Reid Prescott told his story, I saw the pain in his eyes, the tightening and relaxing of his arms and his barely restrained fury.
I knew then that regardless of whatever my decision would be on whether to continue with this fake marriage, Reid Prescott didn’t plan on stopping until he had decimated the Baxters.
“I think you of all people should understand me,” Reid Prescott said with that deep grey penetrating gaze of his. “Wouldn’t you do anything to avenge your mom, Miss Evergreen?”
His words reminded me of the days when Father had been terribly violent with Mom and I thought of stabbing him in his sleep. In that, I understood the burning desire Reid Prescott had to avenge his mother.
Who would have thought that Reid Prescott and I despite coming from opposite backgrounds would have so much in common?
“I need some time to think about this.” I said finally after Reid Prescott was done speaking.
I no longer felt like I was being manipulated by Reid Prescott now that all our cards were on the table but I also knew now that if I said I was in this time, there would be no backing out till the end.
I needed time to make that kind of decision.
Reid Prescott had not tried to hurry me. He only took my hand before nodding.
“Thank you for listening, Miss Evergreen.”
So I left my luggage packed in his house and headed here to Mom’s bedside at the hospital hoping to gain more clarity on the path I was going to choose but I still felt so damn confused.
“I just feel so adrift,” I told Mom. “I miss you so much.”
It was almost time for Mom’s next round of treatments so I needed to leave but I still hadn’t come to a decision.
Good Lord, what was I going to do now?
Mom’s room door opened and I turned to tell the nurse I needed a few more minutes to say goodbye.
My words hung in my throat as Jerry Baxter walked in.
“Hello, Sophia.” My ex–husband said.
“Jerry.” I said softly, the coolness of my voice at odds with the shock racing through me.
Jerry entered the room, his dirty blonde hair falling slightly over his forehead and his blue eyes focused on me.
He was as stunning as ever, his wicked nature tucked away, hidden behind his good looks.
But what the hell was he doing here?
I stood from my seat to confront him only to pause when Jerry rapidly closed the distance between us with no signs he was planning to stop.
Jerry stopped right in front of me, his face barely a few inches higher than mine.
“What do you think you are doing?” I asked, looking up at him in confusion.
To his credit, Jerry didn’t waste time beating around the bush.
“Divorce my brother.” He demanded.