Chapter 7
Rose scoffed, rolling her eyes.
“She stalked us, obviously. Look at her. Babe, tell the police what she did.”
“Shut up!” Jet suddenly screamed at Rose, his voice cracking with sheer panic.
Rose recoiled, her face twisting in shock. “Excuse me?”
The lead police officer looked between the three of us, sensing the bizarre shift in the atmosphere.
“Captain, is there a problem? Do you want to press charges against this woman?”
“Press charges?” Jet sounded like he was hyperventilating.
Sweat was suddenly pouring down his forehead, soaking the collar of his crisp white shirt.
He lunged forward, pushing past the officers, and dropped to his knees right in the aisle beside my seat.
The entire economy cabin gasped.
“Rachel, please,” Jet begged, his voice pathetic and ragged.
His hands hovered over mine, too terrified to actually touch me.
“Rachel, I didn’t know. I swear to God, I didn’t know it was you. It was a mistake. A massive mistake. Please, let’s just go home. We can talk about this at home.”
“Home?” I tilted my head, studying him like he was a bug under glass. “But you’re missing Valentine’s Day, remember? You have extra simulator training in the company dorm.”
Jet swallowed hard, tears of pure terror welling in his eyes.
“Rachel, I can explain everything. I was stupid. I was out of my mind. Just please don’t do this here.”
“Do what here?” I asked, looking up at the police officers. “Officers, the captain called you. Shouldn’t you be arresting me?”
“No. No one is arresting anyone,” Jet yelled at the cops, waving his hands frantically. “It’s a misunderstanding. She’s… she’s my wife.”
The word dropped like a bomb.
Rose staggered back, hitting the armrest of an aisle seat. Her mouth opened and closed like a fish suffocating on dry land. She stared at me, then at the little girl holding my hand, and finally at the pathetic man groveling on the floor.
“Your wife?” Rose whispered, her voice shrill and trembling. “Jet, what is she talking about? You said your wife was a fat, miserable nobody. You said you were divorcing her.”
“Rose, shut up!” Jet barked, his eyes wild.
He looked back at me, pleading.
“Rachel, she means nothing. She’s crazy. I don’t even know her that well. It was just a fling.”
“Four years is a long fling, Jet,” I said smoothly. “Especially since it started the exact day I was in the hospital delivering your child. The child you just forced to sit in the back of a plane like a criminal.”
Ruby buried her face in my side, crying softly.
“Mom, I want to go home. I don’t like Dad right now.”
That broke him.
Jet reached for Ruby, but I slapped his hand away so hard the crack echoed through the cabin.
“Don’t you dare touch her,” I hissed, the coldness finally giving way to a white-hot fury. “You don’t get to play father now.”
Rose, suddenly realizing the sheer scale of the humiliation, let out a shriek. She lunged forward, grabbing Jet by the collar of his uniform.
“You lied to me! You said you were leaving her. You said you were the chairman’s son!”
The Port Authority officers immediately stepped in, pulling Rose back.
“Ma’am, step away.”
“He’s the heir to Horizon Airlines!” Rose screamed, struggling against the cops. “He bought me this Birkin. He bought me this watch. He makes hundreds of thousands a month. You think this basic woman can take him from me?”
“Hold on.”
A new voice boomed from the front of the aircraft.
It wasn’t a shout, but the sheer baritone authority of it made everyone in the cabin freeze.