Chapter 121. I’m Here for You

Chloe’s POV

As Layla cried herself to sleep on my couch, I leaned back to let the silence in the room wash over me. Her breathing noise was steady, almost peaceful, but my brain would not settle down. Instead, it took me back to the secret no one else knew.

Everyone thought I had been sent to a mental asylum. That was the story that mom made sure everyone heard, and the one Ezra thought was the truth. He never questioned it, not once.

But the truth is, I was never actually locked up. Mom would never have the heart to do that. Not because she loved me so much, but because she loved the family name.

And she would never have been able to cover up a scandal like that. So she did all that sending away to avoid disgrace to the family’s name.

Instead, she gave me freedom, an apartment, money deposited in my accounts, and limitless opportunities to enjoy the kind of life most girls only dreamed of. This was not charity. This was a deal. One designed to b