RYAN“This is not opinion, Your Honor. This is an observable consequence. Every lapse in responsibility, every choice to prioritize self over child, is a mark on the record of parenting. I am here to make certain that the record reflects reality, not the carefully constructed narrative of a woman who is neither absent-minded nor unfortunate, but deliberate.”A hush fell. Her lawyer opened his mouth but the judge raised his hand. Silence. My lawyer gave me a subtle nod. I had the floor.“And, Your Honor,” I said, letting my words sink in, “let us not forget those who stood by, witnesses to what the court need not imagine. Those who saw the child in need and the parent in neglect. I will present those witnesses shortly, but I will say this: there is a pattern. There is evidence. And it is undeniable.”Rachel leaned toward her lawyer, whispering, panicked, her eyes darting between me and the judge. I felt a quiet satisfaction. The judge finally nodded toward the clerk.“Mr. Ryan, you m

RACHEL I staggered to my feet, my neck sore, my breaths sharp and uneven.Tears blurred my vision, but they weren’t for him—they were for the humiliation, the fury boiling inside me.How dare Ryan, that insufferable, self-righteous man, shame me in court? Every word he spat was a dagger, cutting through the carefully constructed image I had spent years building.I pressed my trembling fingers to my neck, the ache a reminder of Marco’s rage, but my anger wasn’t for him either.It was for the disgrace, the public unraveling of everything I thought I controlled.The custody hearing, my so-called arena had become my battlefield of shame. I could still hear the judge’s restrained silence, the gasps from the courtroom, the cold precision in Ryan’s voice.Hate twisted in my chest, a fire I couldn’t extinguish.I wanted revenge, a way to claw back the dignity that had been ripped from me.Every thought, every plan I could muster, centered on one truth: Ryan had humiliated me, and he would

RACHELI sat at the corner table, my hand trembling as I reached for the headache pills.My eye throbbed, swollen from his fist, and every breath reminded me of the blows I’d tried to ignore.Two weeks had passed since the custody hearing.The small TV above the counter hummed in the background—until I heard one word that stopped me cold.JasmineThey showed the story of the woman who had been absent, neglecting her own child while others suffered.Tears welled up uncontrollably. My hand shook, and I muttered to no one in particular, “How… how could I let this happen?”A voice nearby broke through my panic. “Ma… are you okay?”I screamed, startling the person, and my glasses fell onto the floor.My face burned, and I scrambled to put them back on, whispering, “I’m fine… I’m fine,” even as the tears streaked my cheeks.I ran out, my shoes clacking against the pavement.Regret was a weight pressing on my chest. I cursed myself. Staying with Marco—what had I been thinking? I never reali

RYANI sat with my lawyer, the chair cold under me, the room humming with whispers and camera clicks.Across the aisle Rachel sat beside her lawyer—not glamorized, not polished—just a black dress, oversized sunglasses, and bandages across her cheek and neck.Marco’s seat beside her was empty.Of course he’s not here, I thought. The man who claimed to love her can’t even show up for her downfall.She turned her face slightly.Our eyes locked—just a few seconds, long enough to feel the weight of every fight, every lie, every ruin between us.Then she looked away sharply, her glasses flashing under the courtroom lights.Her lawyer leaned in, whispering. She didn’t respond.The room swelled with reporters. Camera shutters. Pens ready. The tension felt like a drawn bowstring.This is it, I told myself. Her finish line. My last strike.We waited an hour. The clock ticked with agonizing calm. Rachel trembled once, hands folding over each other.I didn’t feel pity—only the steady certainty th

RYANI settled onto the stool in my new Nexus lab, the one Cassian Medical carved out just for me.The machines around me hummed—sleek, advanced, far more powerful than anything I used to work with.I set down the tray of samples and powered up the analyzer.“Look at this,” I murmured to myself, running a hand along the side of the equipment. “New, clean… and ten times stronger than what I had before.”I loaded the compound I had been refining all week.The machine pulled it in with a soft click. Lights blinked. Data streamed across the holo-screen.“I made the right choice partnering with them,” I said quietly. “Julian was right. This place… its build by a strong government.”The analyzer beeped.The first stage was done.I transferred the result into a cellular test chamber and watched the simulated tissue react.The compound spread, broke down the targeted infection, then stabilized the surrounding cells.I exhaled, leaning closer. “Good. That’s good… that means it’s holding.”I tw