I was sitting in the alley behind that old Chinese restaurant on sixth. The smell of mushu pork and Kung pow chicken filled my nostrils and caused my stomach to growl loudly. I knew I shouldn’t be there. Kim had warned me to stay out of sight. She told me he knew what I did and he was looking for me. I couldn’t help it though. I was starving. I looked down at the huge lump where my flat stomach used to be and I sighed.

“Hold on, MacKenzie. I’m gonna take care of you just hold on for mamma.”

“Did you think I wouldn’t find you?” A deep sinister voice said from behind me and I flinched. “I’m not the only one looking for you my dear Melissa.”

He rubbed his hand down my hair and brought it to his nose. I don’t know if he thought he was being seductive but he groaned and I nearly vomited right there in front of him. I used to think this man was sexy. Hell, this was his baby I was carrying. The only good thing to ever come out of meeting one of the most powerful men in Maryland.

There was something seductive about a man in power. There was something seductive about bringing him to his knees. I had done that. I had done it multiple times in multiple different ways. He always said I was his favorite. I think that’s why he’s here. I wasn’t the only one he played with. I was just the only one who ever defied him.

“We could have stayed together. You would have everything. Look at you now, as big as a house looking for scraps to feed the bastard that will never be born. You chose this life over me?” He raged As he reached around me and squeezed my throat with enough force to kill me. I coughed and sputtered as he turned me around to look in his sapphire eyes. I used to love his eyes, but now they were glacial. I clawed at his hands as white clouded my vision.

“Yes, and I’d do it again,” were the last words to leave my mouth before blackness took over.