Divorce to Destiny: Reclaiming My CEO Husband novel Chapter 161

161 Mother and Child 

+25 BONUS 

161 Mother and Child 

(Winona) 

The words hit me. Is he just playing mind games? A sibling? My mind reels, trying to process what he’s saying. “My mother… She had another child? To you?” 

“Yeah, a year after you left,” he says, almost gleefully. I was done raising kids by then and done with supplying her drug habit, no one wanted to pay for her services anymore.” 

I stare at him. What a monster. 

“Yeah, surprised your mother was a whore, are ya?” He grins. “She wasn’t even good at that. Crying every time. Men want some fire, some passion.” 

I didn’t ever think my heart could break any harder than it already had over the years. But it did. The sudden realization that I was just too young to realize. He was the reason my mother had a drug habit. He kept her that way so he could pimp her out. 

If I could ever kill anyone with no regrets, it’s this person in front of me now. 

“One kid was bad enough, and I wasn’t about to waste the rest of my life on another. So, I left. Don’t know what happened to them, and I don’t care. The house needed bulldozing anyway.” 

As I sit there, the past comes rushing back–the house, if you could even call it that. Steve inherited it from his parents, but by the time I was old enough to remember, it was a rundown mess. 

The place was barely livable. Rats scurried at night, their squeaking and scratching a constant reminder of the filth we lived in. 

There was hardly any furniture, just old mattresses thrown on the floor where I slept, a beat–up couch in the living room, and a fridge that was mostly empty except for beer. 

A TV sat on the floor, the only thing Steve seemed to care about as he drank and threw his empties all over the floor. The dining set, such as it was, never saw a meal. We ate scraps if we ate at all, and never at that table. 

Mom was there. She did cry a lot. She did drugs, a lot. Now I know why. 

And yet, it was home. My home. 

He left my mother, pregnant and alone. The thought makes my skin crawl. Did they survive? 

“You left her there,” I say, my voice trembling with the weight of everything I’m remembering. “In that hellhole, pregnant and alone. How could you?” 

Steve’s lips curl into a sneer. “Jesus! I gave her a house! You women are never happy. She wasn’t my 

you. I needed a life too.” problem anymore. I did my time, raisi 

I stare at him, horrified. “You left her to rot. With no food, no money, nothing?” 

Steve shrugs, completely unmoved. “Not my problem. God helps those who help themselves. She wanted to keep the kid, not me. I wasn’t going to stick around and play house again. It was bad enough being lumbered with you.” 

Η 

161 Mother and CHEE 

“You think you’re some kind of hero because you didn’t sell me off, but you left your pregnant wife in a house that should’ve been condemned.“1 let out every hateful emotion I have for him. 

“You didn’t protect me, and you sure as hell didn’t protect her. You’re a coward, Steve. A selfish, cowardly leach who doesn’t deserve to be called a father or a man.” 

He glares at me, his face hardening. “You think you’re better than me now, don’t you? With your fancy life 

and 

your rich boyfriend. But you can’t erase where you come from. You can’t erase your gene pool.” 

I know he’s goading me, and I shouldn’t react. His horrid words continue. “I bet your bigshot boyfriend doesn’t know where you really came from. He wouldn’t touch you if he knew your mother was a whore and a useless one at that!” 

I stand up and I pull my hand back and land the hardest slap I’ve ever given anyone on his face. Every drop of hatred and disgust I have for him is in that slap. My hand rings in pain but it’s worth it. 

It stuns him for a second but then he is up and has me around the throat. His fist is raised high ready to strike. His beating used to scare me once. I stare defiantly into his eyes. I don’t feel fear anymore. 

I don’t feel anything. “One day I’ll dance on your grave,” I say.