Chapter 224

Ruby Henderson got back into her car. The rain hadn’t let up. A crumpled yellow leaf stuck right on the windshield. She turned on the wipers, but they just swished pointlessly back and forth—the wet leaf didn’t budge. Leaning back against the leather seat, Ruby stared out at the rainy lights outside. She didn’t really love Ethan Kim. But his betrayal hit her like a time machine, dragging her straight back to a shattered sunset in her childhood. Her always-gentle father had hit her mom. A beer bottle had cracked against her mother’s head, blood gushing like a horror scene. What stuck with Ruby most was the shards of glass embedded in her mom’s scalp. It was terrifying. Gray clouds had swallowed the sky. Little Ruby had cried her heart out. Pain clenching her jaw, her mom picked her up and whispered, “It’s okay. Mommy’s fine.” Some childhood wounds take a whole lifetime to heal. A tear slipped from the corner of Ruby’s eye. Turns out, even after all these years, that memory still had the