I Forgot I Ever Loved You (Zoe and Hayden) novel Chapter 280

Zoe looked at her helplessly.

"Nothing like that. We're just good friends, and he doesn't see me that way at all."

She had zero interest in romance right now.

She had far more important things to focus on.

Hayden had let the cops arrest her, and somehow he had found out Lily was with the Kendalls.

Why would he go out of his way to bring Lily back?

The more Zoe thought about it, the more uneasy she felt.

Was Hayden planning to use Lily as leverage to force her into confessing to the attack on Terrence?

Nadia waited until Zoe was safely inside before finally driving away.

Even as she drove, she sent Zoe a text.

"If anything happens, call me immediately. I'm always on your side."

Zoe hurried inside, her heart pounding with anxiety.

Mrs. Gable was stunned to see her.

The missus was back so soon?

Given how aggressive the cops had been when they took her.

She had assumed Zoe was going to prison this time.

In the past, there had been incidents much smaller than this.

Zoe had been dragged to the station a few times before.

Usually because she had supposedly provoked Sienna, and the boss had sent her there himself.

Every time it happened, she'd be locked up for half a month. Getting out immediately was unheard of.

"Where's Lily?"

Mrs. Gable replied, "Lily is asleep upstairs. The boss brought her back and even played with her for over an hour."

Mrs. Gable's tone carried a hint of flattery.

The boss was clearly treating his wife differently now.

In five years, this was the first time she had ever seen him play with his daughter.

He had even asked her to bring snacks up for the little girl.

Zoe completely ignored Mrs. Gable's comment about Hayden playing with Lily.

She rushed upstairs. It wasn't until she saw her daughter sound asleep in bed that she slid down onto the carpet in sheer exhaustion, watching her daughter's peaceful face until her heart finally settled.

The next morning, Zoe woke up on the floor of her daughter's bedroom.

She realized a blanket had been draped over her.

The moment she opened her eyes, she met Lily's wide gaze.

"Mommy, why did you sleep on the floor in my room?"

Lily was thrilled to see her mother.

But when she saw her mom sleeping on the floor, she had worried she'd catch a cold, so she had draped her own little blanket over her.

Seeing her mom still asleep, she had been trying to get out of bed quietly.

"I just wanted to be close to you."

Zoe didn't mention how terrified she had been when she heard Hayden had taken her.

She had only felt safe once she saw her daughter tucked safely at home.

The mother and daughter washed up and ate breakfast together.

After dropping Lily off at school, Zoe headed straight to Sterling Group.

She hadn't told Garrett about injuring Terrence.

She had been waiting.

Waiting for the police to show up at her door again.

The project between Sterling Group and Easton Group was still moving forward.

She had never anticipated she would treat the situation with such profound indifference.

A deep chill settled into her bones.

"To think I actually considered giving you the Lynd family shares. And you repay me by taking a knife to your stepfather? Zoe, aren't you afraid of being struck down by lightning?

Are you even human? You mutilated him! The doctor said if the blade had gone a fraction of an inch deeper, he would never be a man again."

Mrs. Winters' legs had practically given out when she heard the doctor's assessment.

Zoe's eyes turned icy.

Terrence had gotten lucky. Not dead, and not entirely ruined either.

"He gets a little hurt, and you come crying to me. But when he tried to assault me all those years ago, did you ever say a single word against him?"

Zoe recounted the trauma of the past with unflinching calm. Mrs. Winters froze.

"You were so convinced that I was the one seducing him. So what's your story now? Let me guess—your husband desperately tried to fend me off, and I stabbed him out of sheer humiliation?

Mrs. Winters, you really shouldn't have called me. You're utterly convinced I'm the one at fault, so isn't it exactly what you wanted that I hurt him? You wouldn't want me to successfully seduce him, right? Given the alternative, isn't him getting a little injured a good thing?"

Mrs. Winters was utterly speechless.

She never thought the day would come when Zoe would render her completely mute with a few cutting words.

"You... you unfilial disgrace. No matter what, he is your stepfather."

Zoe cut her off with profound disgust.

"My father died a long time ago. He's your husband, Sienna's biological father, and he has absolutely nothing to do with me. When I was sixteen, you threw me out without a single word of defense. You ceased being my mother a long time ago.

The police will handle Terrence's case. Do not call me again, Mrs. Winters, or I will file a police report for harassment."

Right before she hung up, she could hear Mrs. Winters screaming hysterically on the other end of the line.

Terrence survived. He had gotten off way too easy.

Clara Winters still thought she could throw dirty water on her.

She was no longer the defenseless sixteen-year-old girl she used to be.

Nobody was going to walk all over her ever again.