Ruin Me Slowly

Chapter 13

“She’s still in my damn head.”

I muttered the words to myself as I leaned over the balcony of my penthouse, staring out at the city skyline. The lights blinked like stars, but all I could think about was her.

Jane Ellis.

She wasn’t supposed to matter.

She was supposed to be a mistake. A one-night stand. A pretty face I’d forget by morning.

But I didn’t forget. Couldn’t forget. And trust me—I tried.

At first, I was pissed. She left without a word, and that alone made my blood boil. Me. Carter King. I don’t chase women—they chase me. But she left. Like I was no one.

Then I found out who she was, and I hated her even more.

An Ellis.

The Ellis.

The daughter of the man who tried to destroy my father. Richard Ellis—cold, ruthless, and one of the most corrupt businessmen this city’s ever seen.

I remembered the courtrooms. The headlines. The whispers. But most of all, I remembered the night my dad came home looking like he’d been hollowed out—eyes blank, shoulders slumped—after yet another lawsuit Ellis had thrown at him. Like he was ready to give up.

So yeah, when I found out she was his daughter?

I felt sick.

I thought she set me up. I thought she used me to get back at her father or mine, or maybe both. And I told myself that whatever connection I thought we had that night was just part of the trap.

But then…

She didn’t come back. She didn’t post about it. She didn’t leak it to the press. She disappeared.

And that didn’t feel like someone playing a game.

It felt real.

That night—her laugh, her eyes, the way she touched me—it all felt too real.

I was still trying to ignore it when the whispers started at Empire.

“ She came here asking for him.”

“ Rosie threw her out.”

“ Girl looked like she was gonna cry.”

Something inside me shifted when I heard that. Rosie never mentioned it. Never said a damn word. So I asked around. Quietly. Discreetly. And then… I found out the truth.

Jane Ellis was pregnant.

My heart dropped the moment I heard it.

And worse?

She was living in a cheap apartment in the city. One of the bartenders from Empire mentioned he’d seen her nearby, working at a coffee shop, looking exhausted and pale.

That made no sense.

She was an Ellis. Her father was loaded. So why wasn’t she at that massive white-columned mansion on the edge of town?

Why was she renting a rundown studio with rusted pipes and broken windows?

I called in a favor, found the address, and got in my car. Every second my hands tightened on the wheel, my mind kept racing with thoughts I couldn’t control.

She was pregnant.

Alone.

And if the timelines were right… it was mine.

My kid.

Everything else—her name, her father, the feud—blurred into background noise.

All I could think about was the girl who left my bed but never left my mind.

And the life she was carrying that might’ve started that night.

I pulled up to the building and parked. It was worse than I expected—cracked walls, a rusted gate, peeling paint on the front steps. I stared up at the windows until I found the one with a dim light glowing through.

I got out, walked up, and knocked. Once. Twice. Then the door opened.

And there she was.

Jane.

Her hair was in a messy ponytail. Her eyes were tired. She wore a simple t-shirt and black leggings, and somehow, she still managed to knock the air out of me.

She looked different. She blinked up at me, frozen in the doorway like she’d seen a ghost.

I stared at her for a long second, heart pounding.

This was the girl I couldn’t forget.

The girl I’d been cursing for weeks and secretly wanting back every day.