Chapter 23
Were they picking on Kristin again?
Seeing Kristin’s messy hair and torn clothes, even an idiot could tell these jerks had been up to nasty tricks.
“Are you guys ever going to cut it out?” Tam’s sudden burst of anger came out with a kick to a guy lounging nearby.
The kicked guy got pissed. “What’s your deal, Tam?”
As the two squared up to fight, the others jumped in to break it up. “We’re all buddies here. No need to ruin the vibe.”
“Who the hell is buddying with him? He has kicked me over some chick!” The rich kid who got kicked whined, looking wronged.
Tam glanced at Vincent, sitting in a corner, brooding silently.
Tam frowned and took off his jacket, draping it over Kristin. “I’ll get her out of here.”
The rich brats started to tease. “Tam, you’re such a hopeless romantic, huh?”
“Weren’t you at the hotel that night, too? Isn’t Kristin’s kid yours?” the rich kid, who got kicked, asked with a nasty sneer.
Tam had a short fuse and was about to throw a punch.
The guy quickly dodged to the side.
Kristin numbly followed Tam and left the private room.
The corridor outside the bar was deafening, with young people partying wildly on the dance
floor.
Kristin’s ears were ringing, and her steps were unsteady.
Tam pulled out a tissue by the restroom door, wet it, and handed it to Kristin. “Clean the blood on your face.”
Kristin paused, instinctively touching her face and feeling the warm blood.
She didn’t realize when the cut on her forehead had opened up.
Trembling, she took the tissue from Tam and cleaned her face, asking softly, “Was it you?”
Tam scowled, impatient and unable to make out what Kristin was saying. “What?”
“Were you the guy at the Diamond Crest Hotel six years ago?” Kristin looked up at Tam, her swollen eyes clear.
Tam stiffened, feeling an unexpected tightness in his chest.
Chapter 23
Kristin was his first love, his dream girl.
Back in high school, he was the jock, and Kristin was the school belle, his goddess,
Kristin wowed the crowd with a solo performance as the White Swan at the opening of the sports festival. She was like a shining star in the sky, now fallen into the mire, having no more shine.
“What, slept with so many guys that you can’t tell them apart anymore?” Tam looked away, his question dripping with sarcasm.
Kristin fell silent, staring at the blood–stained tissue.
“Can you go home by yourself?” Tam frowned at Kristin. It wasn’t right to let her go alone so late at night.
Kristin took a timid step back, wanting to leave, but stopped, mustering the courage to turn and look at Tam. “Is Summer… your son?”
She was on a mission to find her son’s father, the biological one.
Her fingers clenched tightly, turning white. Kristin despised these people, all of them.
But for Summer’s sake, she had to muster the courage to disgust herself. She had to keep recalling that night six years ago.
Tam was stunned, thinking Kristin had lost it.
Was she going around trying to find a dad for her kid? “You desperate for cash or a man?” Tam sneered.
Kristin got her answer. It wasn’t Tam.
The restroom door swung open, and Rhett walked out with a steely expression and an icy aura.
He loathed places like bars, but tonight’s meetup was unavoidable.
He overheard a woman questioning a man about being her child’s father in the restroom. Coming out to see it was Kristin was a real ‘surprise‘.
Seeing Kristin in the mirror, Rhett felt the irony. Too many men, and she doesn’t know who her kid’s dad was?
“Rhett?” Tam was shocked, not expecting to find Rhett in the restroom!
Tam and Rhett were relatives. Rhett’s biological mother and Tam’s mother were cousins.
Rhett’s mother had taken good care of Tam’s family before she passed away, so the families were close.
Rhett kept a poker face, glancing at Tam once before issuing a stern warning. “Don’t push it too far.”
Though indifferent to the FitzGerald family, Rhett still looked after his mother’s side of the
Chapter 23
family. He didn’t want Tam’s mother crying on the phone, asking him to sort Tam out.
“You got it wrong, Rhett…” Tam touched his nose, trying to explain. “For that kind of woman, I wouldn’t give her the time of day.”
Rhett frowned, casting a glance at Kristin.
Kristin instinctively looked down as if afraid to dirty Rhett’s sight.
Rhett had his assistant send her a little cake that day.
It was one of the few nice gestures she’d received in this circle.
“Get her home safe, and don’t forget the medical expenses,” Rhett warned Tam, hinting at not leaving loose ends after a fling.
Tam opened his mouth to protest. “I didn’t…”
“The cut on her head wasn’t my doing. Why should I pay for her medical bills?” Tam muttered under his breath. “She’s gone crazy from poverty, trying to scam me.”
“Did your dad go bankrupt?” Rhett threw out the question.
Tam’s face showed sheer surprise. “Not that I know of?”
“Give her the money,” Rhett commanded, implying that getting scammed was Tam’s fault.
“I don’t want it…” Kristin’s eyes reddened, and she turned and walked away with trembling
breaths.
She had thought Rhett was different from the rest, but they were all the same.
