Chapter 44 It’s Always Ashley
Apple POV
My fingers trembled as I opened the email, the document loading just a second too slowly, long enough for something uneasy to settle in my chest. My eyes skipped straight to the conclusion.
For a moment, my brain refused to process it. I blinked and read it again. Zero percent.
No.
I leaned closer to the screen like that would change anything, like proximity could force the words into something else, something that made sense.
Probability of paternity: 0%.
My heart started pounding, hard enough to hurt. I scrolled up, checking the names, Knox Sinclair. Apple Richards. Test result: excluded as biological father.
“No,” I whispered, the word barely forming before I read it again, slower this time, forcing each line into my mind, waiting for it to shift, to correct itself, to become what it was supposed to be.
Nothing changed.
“He is the father,” I said under my breath, like saying it out loud would make it true. He had to be.
My hands started shaking. “No,” I said again, louder now. “No, that’s wrong.”
I stared at the screen, waiting, just waiting for the universe to fix itself, for the truth I already knew to appear.
But it didn’t.
My chest heaved, pulse roaring in my ears, panic clawing its way up my throat.
This couldn’t be happening.
It wasn’t possible.
I had done everything right.
A scream tore out of me as I hurled my phone across the room. It slammed into the wall and dropped to the floor, but it wasn’t enough. I grabbed whatever was closest, a candle, a glass, a throw pillow, and threw those too, watching them crash, shatter, scatter across the space.
“No. No. NO!”
My breath came in sharp, ragged bursts, my heart hammering against my ribs like it was trying to escape. I snatched up my phone again and dialed the number I’d sworn I’d never use.
She answered on the second ring. “Hello?”
“What the hell happened?” I screamed. “You told me it was Knox’s room. You told me he was the one who stayed there that night!”
There was a pause, then nervous breathing. “Miss Apple, I—I cleaned the room you said—”
“You’re housekeeping,” I snapped. “You had ONE job. One. You said it was Knox Sinclair’s suite. The one he used. You said he was the one who checked in with that stupid actress.”
“I—I thought it was him—”
“You thought?” My voice cracked, sharp with fury. “I paid you. I paid you to get me that condom. I paid you to make sure it was his.”
My pulse roared in my ears as the memory hit, bright and vivid. The bathroom. The condom wrapped in tissue. The syringe I’d ordered online. My hands trembling as I used it, praying it would work.
I had done everything right.
And it had worked.
The test had turned positive. I had cried with relief, with triumph, with vindication. It hadn’t mattered that Knox knew we hadn’t slept together. DNA didn’t lie. He would have no proof otherwise. He would have no choice but to accept it.
Even if he never touched me again, it didn’t matter. A child would tie him to me forever. Eighteen years of support. Of relevance. Of security. And maybe, eventually, he would come around. Maybe he’d want to be involved. Maybe he’d fall in love with the baby. With me.
Maybe everything would finally fall into place.
But now—
Now everything was ruined.
“You lied to me!” I shrieked into the phone. “You ruined everything!”
“I’m sorry, Miss Apple, I—”
“You will pay for this!” I hung up before she could respond.
My hands were shaking so badly I had to sit down. The room tilted, my throat burning, my eyes stinging, but I refused to cry. Crying was weakness. Crying was defeat.
This wasn’t happening. It couldn’t be happening.
I pressed my palms to my temples, forcing myself to breathe, to think, to make sense of it.
This wasn’t my fault.
Someone else had messed up.
Someone else had sabotaged me.
Someone else had ruined everything.
Ashley.
The name settled in my mind like a certainty. It had to be her. It is always her. She must have interfered. Tampered with the test. Twisted something behind the scenes.
There was no other explanation.
My breathing quickened as the thought took hold, solid and unshakable. My hands curled into fists.
I wouldn’t let her get away with it.
I knew where she lived. One of my followers had tracked her weeks ago, sent me photos of her slipping in and out of that house with her ridiculous bandaged nose. Proof she wasn’t as perfect as everyone thought.
I grabbed my keys and stormed out.
The drive was a blur of red lights and clenched teeth. My hands gripped the steering wheel so tightly my knuckles ached. The city passed around me in streaks of gray and glass, meaningless and distant.
She had done this. She will pay for this.
By the time I pulled onto her street, I was vibrating with rage. I marched straight to her door and pounded on it hard enough to sting my palm.
It swung open.
Ashley stood there. She didn’t shrink back. Didn’t flinch. She just stared at me with those wide, infuriatingly calm eyes.
“Apple,” she said. “You need to leave.”
“Don’t you dare talk to me like that,” I snapped, stepping closer. “You think you can ruin my life and get away with it? You think you can manipulate Knox, manipulate the internet, and now manipulate a DNA test?”
Her brows drew together. “I didn’t do anything to you.”
“Liar.” My voice cracked. “You’ve been sabotaging me since we were kids. You’re obsessed with taking everything that’s mine.”
A shadow moved behind her.
A woman stepped into view, she was tall, broad-shouldered, dressed in black.
A bodyguard. Of course Ashley had a bodyguard now.
The sight of her only fueled my fury.
“Oh, so now you’re scared of me?” I spat. “You think I’m dangerous? You think I’m the problem?”
Ashley didn’t answer.
But the bodyguard moved.
Subtle at first, then deliberate. She stepped closer, positioning herself just off Ashley’s shoulder, her stance shifting, weight balanced, ready. Her eyes never left me.
And then something clicked in my mind. A spark. A plan.
If this baby wasn’t Knox’s… then I needed another way to make this disaster useful. Another way to turn the narrative. Another way to make Ashley the villain.
I stepped forward.
The bodyguard reacted instantly, moving between us before I could get too close, one arm coming up just enough to stop me without touching, a silent barrier.
“Ma’am,” she said calmly, a warning threaded beneath the word.
I smiled, thin and sharp, and took another step anyway, closing the distance inch by inch until the tension snapped tight between us.
Ashley didn’t move.
That calm expression on her face made something inside me snap.
“You’ve always been jealous of me,” I said loudly.
Her eyes narrowed slightly. “I was never jealous of you,” she said.
Liar.
I leaned in and then, in the same breath, I let myself fall backward.
I twisted as I went down, turning mid-motion so I hit the ground hard on my stomach, forcing my arms to stay useless at my sides instead of breaking the fall.
Pain exploded through me. The air punched out of my lungs in a sharp, choking gasp, instinct screaming at me to breathe, to move, to fix it.
Then I remembered the plan.
I curled in on myself, clutching my stomach as panic and pain tangled together, and screamed.
“She pushed me!” My voice cracked into raw hysteria. “She pushed me!”
Ashley frowned. “Apple…?”
The bodyguard moved instantly, stepping forward, but I screamed louder, making sure it carried beyond the porch, beyond the house, to anyone watching, anyone listening.
“My baby!” I sobbed. “She tried to kill my baby!”
Doors cracked open. Faces appeared. Phones lifted, already recording.
I curled tighter on the pavement, rocking slightly, dragging sobs from deep in my chest. “Call an ambulance!” I cried. “Please, my baby!”
I forced myself to look up, expecting panic, fear, anything.
Ashley just stood there, a faint frown on her face.
She didn’t move. Didn’t rush to me. Didn’t defend herself.
She just watched.
And somehow, that made it better.
People would see it. How cold she was. How she didn’t even try to help a pregnant woman in distress.
“She pushed me!” I screamed again, letting my voice splinter into raw hysteria.
The bodyguard murmured something into an earpiece.
I curled tighter, letting my body shake, letting the sobs rip through me as the distant wail of sirens grew louder, bouncing off the buildings, closing in.
Good.
Let them come.
Let them see.
Let everyone see exactly what Ashley had done.