From Mob Princess to Mugshot Photographer novel Chapter 73

**Chapter 6**

I slid the two bills back across the table, my voice steady, almost measured.

“Don’t bother paying.”

His eyes flickered with a mix of surprise and something deeper, perhaps disappointment.

“Dad’s last words were to make sure you got something to eat when you came back,” he insisted, his tone laced with an urgency that felt foreign to me now.

“I don’t want to go against his wishes,” I replied, forcing the words out despite the tightness in my chest. “But I also don’t want anything to do with you.”

“Consider this hot dog my way of honoring him,” Ryker shot back, a hint of defiance creeping into his voice. “After today? Don’t come back.”

An uncomfortable silence enveloped us, stretching on as he fell into a contemplative quiet.

Then, without uttering another word, he rolled up his sleeves and began to clean, as if the act might somehow erase the years of distance and hurt between us.

It was reminiscent of our childhood, those simpler days when we would wipe down tables and sweep the floor together, laughter echoing through the empty diner.

But now, there was no trace of the esteemed professor in him—just a man lost in the remnants of what once was.

Stella stormed over, her movements fierce and protective, and ripped the broom from his hands, her face a storm of anger.

“What the hell are you doing?” she demanded, her voice sharp enough to cut through the tension.

“Didn’t you hear her? She doesn’t want to see you,” she continued, her words laced with an intensity that made my heart swell with gratitude.

“If you had any shame left, you’d get the hell out of here and stop dragging up all her old pain,” she finished, her eyes blazing with righteous fury.

I appreciated Stella’s fierce defense of me, but the truth was, I had moved beyond the pain.

When Ryker and I first parted ways, it felt as though the ground beneath me had crumbled into an abyss. I thought I would never be able to face the world again.

Every night, memories of our past haunted my dreams.

I could still vividly recall the innocence of playing house as children, his laughter ringing in my ears as he helped me with my homework after school.

Those stolen kisses on hot summer afternoons, the warmth of his hand in mine as we walked through the first snowfall, promising each other we’d never let go.

But as the seasons changed, so did our lives.

The autumn wind brought with it a chorus of cruel voices, each one echoing in my mind.

Everyone said I was a nobody, reaching for stars that were never meant for me. They claimed I didn’t deserve Ryker, that my parents had manipulated him, ruined his life.

“If it weren’t for them holding him back, Professor Robinson would’ve achieved so much more,” they whispered, their disdain palpable.

“That woman doesn’t deserve him. Why is she still clinging to him like that?”

“Allison doesn’t even understand quantum mechanics. How is she qualified to work at this university?”

“Being with a woman like her is an embarrassment to Professor Robinson.”

The world’s mockery, Nova’s taunts, and Ryker’s indifference sliced through me like a thousand knives, carving away at my spirit until I felt utterly hollow.

I resorted to hurting myself, slitting my wrists in desperate attempts to feel something—anything—that proved I was still alive.

Mom would sit outside my door every night, her fear palpable. She was too afraid to disturb me, too afraid to close her eyes and wake up to find me gone.

Dad would smoke, sigh, and cook every dish I used to love, but their worry only deepened my guilt.

I felt as though I had dragged my family down over a man who wasn’t worth it.

I wanted to pull myself together, to rise above the pain.

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