Divorce to Destiny: Reclaiming My CEO Husband

345 Memories That Haunt

(Winona)

I start to drift off to sleep. I see Judy's face, cold and cruel.

I'll take that baby from you.

I bolt upright, gasping for air, the terror still lingering in my pounding chest.

I'm not there anymore. I'm safe. We're safe. I breath deep. Stop letting this mess with you, I tell myself. I know we're okay. We're going to Jayden. We are safe.

But the fear lingers. Because Judy is still out there. And I know she's not done. She never is. No matter what happens, I don't think we'll ever shake her.

As long as she thinks there's a chance with Jayden, it will always be the same.

I lie back down, closing my eyes again. I just want to forget it all. I want to focus on Jayden, on our family, on the life we're building.

I turn in bed, staring at the ceiling in the jet again, trying to block out the swirling thoughts. The soft hum of the plane's engines doesn't help me sleep. Neither does the lingering dizziness or headache. But it's not just the physical stuff keeping me awake. It's the memories of being pregnant.

my eyes, hoping sleep will just take!

I close but my mind has other plans.

The memories flood in, uninvited. My pregnancy with Abby. The fear. The trauma. Everything.

The day I found out I was pregnant with her, my heart leapt with joy and shattered with fear at the same

I time. Jayden didn't remember me then. He didn't remember us.

He didn't want to remember the life we had before that damn accident that Judy set up, the love we shared. Nothing.

All he wanted to do was to marry Ashlyn, the woman he loved. He hated me. He believed every lie his mother told him about me. I knew one day he'd remember but I didn't have the time to wait.

Judy and Ashlyn had taken advantage of his memory loss, twisting him, making him believe lies. I still hear Jayden's voice from that awful day when he demanded a divorce-cold, distant. I was nothing to him.

I don't love you, Winona. I love Ashlyn. I want a divorce.

I'd spent a year in a coma and another year in rehabilitation. Thank God for Lisa. She tried to tell me to never go back there, to forget Jayden.

But I couldn't. I refused to believe that Jayden could ever forget me. Forget us. I was so certain that once he saw me, his love for me would win over. But it didn't. We made love and I was sure that was it.

But he was even worse after that. Accusing me of drugging him. I had no clue what he was saying. But later I found out it was Lisa trying to drug Lance. Stupid things we do, but I know she'd carried that guilt for long enough. Knowing that didn't change how Jayden was back then. He wouldn't have changed his mind about me.

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345 Memories That Haunt

Ashlyn and Judy had it locked down tight. It ripped my heart out but I knew I had to leave him with them

and move on.

I fought so hard to keep it together, even when he tore my heart apart. But I couldn't fight them. Judy knew something was up-she could smell my fear. She suspected I was pregnant before I even knew it myself. And once I knew, I couldn't tell Jayden. Not when Judy and Ashlyn were circling me like vultures, threatening to take my baby. Threatening my life.

Judy's words still chill me.

You'll never see that baby again, Winona. I'll make sure of it.

I fled. Left for my old city. Anne took me in again. I Left everything behind because protecting Abby was more important than anything. I couldn't let Judy get her claws into my child. I couldn't risk it.

I shake my head, trying to push the memories away. But they keep coming.

That time was a nightmare-I was hiding, pregnant, and heartbroken. But determined to build my life into something for the baby.

In the dark, I rub my temples, willing the headache to go away. I don't want to remember any of this right

now.

But my traitorous brain won't shut down. Phillip. The man who helped me pick up the pieces. He was kind to me, loved me when I thought I could never love again. He believed in me when I doubted myself. Together, we built our business from the ground up. It was everything I needed to rebuild my life. He was everything I thought I needed too.

I loved him as much as I could allow myself, I thought maybe we could have a life together, something

solid.

But I was wrong.

Judy. It always circles back to her, doesn't it? Phillip had been planted by Judy from the start. He was never meant to be anything more than a pawn in her twisted game. Except, his feelings for me became real, and he turned against her. But that didn't matter. I could never fully trust him again after that. Not after the lies, the manipulation, the betrayal.

God, I hate thinking about the past. It makes me sick to my stomach.

But Abby, my miracle, is the wonderful part of it all. She saved me, gave me the strength to rebuild. I would go through everything again if it meant having her.

I reach for my water bottle, sipping slowly. The memories all linger, creeping in my mind. Why did that nurse have to ask me if I might be pregnant? Now I can't switch it off.

I'd give anything to be safely pregnant. To give birth to a new life again. The yearning I've pushed away and blocked for so long, hits me hard. Tear roll down my face. I sob into the pillow.

It's not possible. It will never happen again.

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