Chapter 1

The moment my client was wheeled into the delivery room, I stood at the door clutching the meal box, my palms slick with sweat.

Then Ryan Delgado appeared out of nowhere and said quietly,

"Stop wearing yourself out trying to get pregnant. Once Cecily Summers finishes her confinement, go get an IUD."

I stared at him, stunned.

"Why?"

Ryan answered as if it were nothing,

"Cecily's my ex-wife. The baby she's carrying is mine."

I gripped the handle of the box, the steel edge biting into my palm.

"Then what were these ten months I spent waiting on her?"

Ryan smoothed a hand over the top of my head and smiled,

"Jean, you're the person I trust most. Only if you take care of Cece yourself can I feel at ease."

"Besides, I promised her. This will be the only child I ever have."

"After the baby's born, we'll put it under our names, and you'll raise it as your own. We'll be the happiest family in the world."

1

The truth came down on me all at once, heavy and cold, leaving my arms and legs numb.

Today was the day Cecily gave birth.

It was also my third wedding anniversary with Ryan.

Ryan's hand paused, and he asked gently,

"What's wrong?"

My eyes stung. My voice shook as I demanded,

"Ryan, why are you doing this to me?"

He lowered his hand. No panic, no guilt. That calm, unbothered look chilled me far more than any shouting could have.

"I was afraid that if you knew the truth, you wouldn't take proper care of Cece. She's frail, she can't afford a single mistake. You're professional, careful, steady. I trusted her to you and I could relax."

My throat burned and tightened.

Ten months of round-the-clock work, all of it given with my whole heart, and now every bit of it turned into a blade carving up the sincerity I'd poured out.

"So you just lied to me?"

"You made your own wife personally nurse your ex-wife through her entire pregnancy, and now you want me to raise the child the two of you had as my own?"

Ryan looked at me and fell silent for two seconds.

"Jean, don't get emotional."

"You're scared of pain, scared of childbirth. Now you can have a child without going through any of it. For you, that's a huge stroke of luck."

"I'll be honest with you. In these three years we've been married, Cecily and I never stopped. Every important holiday, I was with her. Even the house she lives in was a gift from me. Her having my child was only a matter of time."

"If we hadn't registered our marriage behind my mother's back and set her off, if she hadn't threatened to kill herself to force us to divorce, you'd never have gotten to marry me at all."

He said it like it was the most natural thing in the world.

As if I were the one who'd broken up the two of them.

Seeing my face change, he took the temperature-controlled meal box from me and patted my shoulder.

"I'm telling you all this because I don't want to keep hiding it from you anymore."

"And don't read too much into it. Aside from one extra child, nothing changes. The place of Mrs. Delgado is yours forever."

I looked at his face and suddenly didn't even have the strength left to argue.

It wasn't that I was afraid of childbirth. It was him who'd wanted no children after we married.

I'd only lied and said I was scared of the pain, too scared to have a baby, so he wouldn't feel any guilt about it.

Three years married, and I never once spent a holiday alone with him.

Even when I spent a whole day preparing a candlelit dinner, even when he promised he'd celebrate my birthday, in the end he always had some reason he was too busy, some excuse for not showing up.

Over and over I'd comforted myself, telling myself he was just cold by nature, that he didn't understand romance.

Only now did it hit me. It wasn't that he didn't understand romance, that he didn't like celebrations.

All those missing holidays, all those broken promises, he'd spent them at Cecily's side.

Ten months ago, he told me Cecily was the family member of an important business partner, that she was frail and needed a dedicated nutritionist to care for her, triple the pay, no further questions.

As a senior nutritionist, I believed him. I was on call day and night, controlling every bite of food, every ratio in every medicinal-broth meal.

I even went out in the rain to buy the freshest ingredients, adjusted her menus until dawn, and turned Cecily, weak and with an unstable pregnancy, into a woman with a steady pregnancy and a healthy glow.

Every day Cecily would take my hand and say, smiling,

"Jean, how are you this good to me? I'd rather have no husband than lose you."

She must have been so smug inside when she said it.

I gave a tired laugh and said, cutting,

"You two, the cheating bastard and the shameless bitch. What a flawless little act you put on."

Ryan frowned and grabbed my wrist, his voice dropping into a warning.

"Jean Simmons! You've gone too far!"

"Once Cece has the baby, I don't want her upset by anything. Rein in that temper of yours, or you won't be able to bear the consequences if she suffers!"

I wrenched my hand free and answered through my teeth,

"Screw you! I'm done waiting on anyone!"