Chapter 1

The one who turned out to be carrying Dominic Mason's child was the classmate who had bullied me.

I took a knife and went to find Seraphina Joyce.

A life for a life.

It was my mother who threw herself in front of Seraphina.

Her hand cracked across my face.

"She's already destroyed your life once.

"Are you going to let her destroy it again?

"A cheating scumbag and a worthless slut, that's all they are. Since when are they worth trading your life for?"

I never got my revenge.

And my husband never cut off contact with Seraphina.

The depression the bullying had once given me came back.

Every day, fresh cuts appeared on my wrist.

On the day Seraphina was due to give birth, the news that she and the baby had both died shook the whole city.

My mother was arrested on the spot.

When the reporters pressed her, she stared into the camera with red-rimmed eyes.

"Sweetheart, if this woman had to die before you could ever breathe again,

"then it still shouldn't be paid for with your life."

She smiled.

I cried.

After she was sentenced to death, I tried to throw myself off a building.

Dominic held me back, again and again.

"You jump, I jump.

"I caused all of this, Margie. If you have to hate someone, hate me. Don't punish yourself!"

Three years.

That was how long it took me to climb out from under the depression.

That day I went to the hospital for a follow-up.

And there was Dominic, at the checkup counter with an old woman and a small child.

My mother was holding a little boy who looked exactly like Dominic.

"This must be so hard on you, having to sneak around just to see your own child."

"Hard on me? What about you, Mama. You're a living, breathing person, and because of that lunatic you have to live like you don't even exist."

My mother smiled.

"If we didn't do it this way, sooner or later Margie would hurt Sera and the baby.

"She only trusts me. She won't stop until I'm dead."

Dominic's eyes went red. "Mama, thank you."

"Just be good to my goddaughter, that's all I ask."

The bag in my hand dropped to the floor.

The two of them turned.

Four pairs of eyes met.

...

"Margie?"

Dominic and my mother both froze.

That child, the one who looked so much like Dominic, was clutched tight against my mother's chest.

One look at the boy's eyes and brows.

And I knew.

This was Dominic and Seraphina's child.

And this child was being raised by my own mother.

My feet started moving before I could stop them.

"What are you doing!"

Dominic shoved my mother and the child behind him.

At almost the same instant, my mother turned her back and held the child tight.

The way they looked at me was all wariness and alarm.

Even my mother...

was guarding herself against me.

was standing on the side of the people who had hurt me.

"Mama, take Bobby and go first."

Dominic kept his eyes locked on me.

My mother gave me one glance.

Then, without hesitating, she hurried out the back door.

My hand froze in midair.

She wouldn't even give me the chance to say one word.

"Move!"

Dominic seized my wrist and pulled.

The whole way there, I was in a daze.

Was all of this just a dream?

Only when I was sitting on the couch at home,

tears wetting the back of my hand,

did I finally accept it.

All of it had really happened.

"It's exactly what you saw."

Dominic lit a cigarette.

He stood by the window, looking restless.

"I was afraid you'd never let it go. The news was fake. The arrest, the interview, I hired actors to put on that whole show for you."

He let out a sigh.

"For three years you never noticed a thing, so we let our guard down.

"You seeing us was an accident."

"After everything, all you have to say is that it was an accident?"

I lifted my head, eyes red.

"What is it you want me to say."

"Dominic!"

The tears spilled over.

"It's not like you don't know how Seraphina bullied me!"

The scars all up my arms.

My suicide attempts.

The years of not being able to sleep.

What all of it was for.

Dominic knew better than anyone.

"Why did you have to cheat on me with her?"

I looked at him through hot tears.

Dominic blew out a ring of smoke.

"Margie, that's all in the past now."

"What?"

I thought I'd misheard.

"It's over and done with."

"It is not over! My illness isn't cured! Who are you to say it's in the past! I won't accept it! On what grounds!"

"On the grounds that she can have children and you can't!"

I froze.