Chapter 2

I turned and walked out.

Ryan snapped at my back.

"Jean Simmons, stop right there! Where do you think you're going if you're not here watching her?!"

I didn't slow down. I walked straight out of the hospital.

Outside, I pulled out my phone and called Old Mrs. Henson, matriarch of the richest family in Harbor City.

Three months ago, she'd called me herself, offering a generous fee to design meals for a granddaughter-in-law who was trying to conceive.

I'd already promised Ryan I'd keep looking after Cecily's confinement, so I had turned her down.

When she heard I was free to take it now, she was so delighted she could hardly stop smiling.

She sent over the digital contract right away.

I signed it, hung up, and went straight back to Cecily's place.

No — to the apartment Ryan had bought for her, to be exact. I went to pack my things and leave.

At one in the afternoon, a message came from Ryan.

"She's given birth. A boy. Bring the confinement meals and come straight to the hospital to help."

Right after, Cecily posted to her social feed. The photo showed her hand and Ryan's overlapping, cupping the newborn's tiny fist, the caption soft and sweet.

"Blessed by such love, my life is finally at peace. Thank you for giving me a whole life."

I glanced at it and typed back two words.

"Not coming."

Two minutes later, my mother called.

The second I picked up, she tore into me.

"Jean Simmons, what has gotten into you?! Ryan just told me you're throwing a tantrum and refusing to look after his ex-wife! Do you want to ruin your brother's whole life?!"

I gripped the phone, cold all the way through.

My mother is greedy and grasping, my brother idle and good for nothing.

In their eyes, the whole point of my existence was to earn money, keep the family fed, support my brother, and turn a profit for all of them.

Back then, when Judy Delgado tried to break up Ryan and Cecily, she threatened to kill herself and ended up hospitalized with a sudden heart condition.

My mother heard about it somehow, dragged me to Judy's bedside, and pushed hard for Judy to keep me on to take care of her.

She dug her nails into my arm and warned me under her breath.

"Haven't you had a crush on Ryan for years? Judy's at rock bottom right now. Get a hold on her, and marrying into the Delgado family is as good as done."

I'd liked Ryan since college, but the gap between us was so wide I never let myself imagine anything more.

After graduation, he took over the family business and became the famous Mr. Delgado.

I was only a nutritionist. There was no chance our paths would ever cross.

I never expected that years later, fate would put us in the same room again.

Ryan is no fool. He saw straight through my mother.

To keep Judy's condition stable, he gave in and agreed to marry me.

The whole time I cared for Judy, neither of them ever mentioned Cecily, so I knew nothing about this ex-wife of his.

Ryan understood my weak spot too well. One sentence from him was all it took.

My own family would leap in on his side, crushing me for him, pushing me back into line.

Like the second year of our marriage, on Valentine's Day, when I spent a whole day decorating the apartment and preparing a candlelit dinner, wanting to surprise him.

I waited until deep into the night, until the candles had burned out and the steak had gone cold and stiff, before he came home.

No flowers, no guilt. He just frowned and told me to stop doing pointless things like this.

I broke down crying, and for the first time I demanded to know why he'd married me only to leave me out in the cold.

He looked at me for two seconds, then dialed my mother.

That night, my mother cursed me out for a full hour.

She was still going on the other end of the line.

"Your brother's engagement is next month! Ryan bought the apartment, sure, but we're still six hundred and sixty thousand short on the bride money!"

"You picking a fight with him now, is that so your brother can't get a wife, so this whole family can't hold its head up?"

I swallowed the hurt, my throat dry.

"His ex-wife just had a son for him."

She paused for a beat, and a faint, barely hidden panic crept into her voice.

"So — so what if his ex gave him a child? She's given Ryan an heir. As his wife, you should be grateful and take it in stride!"

Then she slid straight into scolding me.

"You're the one who's Ryan's wife. Whatever he does, you swallow it! You cannot let anyone snatch the place of Mrs. Delgado away from you, you hear me?!"

"Ryan's such a good man — rich, capable, and he treats you well enough. He even sends us twenty thousand a month for your keep. Don't you dare not know how good you've got it!"

I couldn't believe it. The tears spilled over before I could stop them.

"I was kept in the dark for ten months caring for his ex-wife. I was lied to, used, put through every kind of misery. And to you, none of that counts for anything?"

"That's your duty!"

My mother didn't hesitate. Her voice was ice.

"Keeping your marriage steady and helping out the family — that's what you're supposed to do!"

"Get back there and apologize, wait on her confinement, coax Ryan back into a good mood. If you wreck your brother's marriage and cut off our living, I'll skin you alive!"

Duty. That one word had pressed down on me for twenty-eight years.

For so long I'd waited for my family to love me, for my husband to favor me. Only now did I understand it had all been asking too much.

I hung up. My chest was tight and heavy, but not one more tear would come.

Just then, another message from Ryan.

"Your mother's already apologized to me on your behalf. Stop being difficult and get back here. Cece keeps asking for you, and the baby needs you too."

I drew a deep breath and typed back one word. "Fine."

Some things, it was time to end.