Chapter 2

My heart couldn't break any more than it already had.

But the violent pain in my belly was dragging me past the edge of reason.

"Fergus, don't go!"

My voice came out ragged, barely mine.

"This is your child too—"

I didn't finish. The doctor behind me caught hold of me.

A needle slid into my body.

They said it was for the pain.

It did nothing at all.

Something twisted in my stomach like a knife, and I curled up around it.

Nadia crouched down to look at me.

"Don't be so upset."

"This baby was never supposed to be here in the first place."

"Think about it. Six months pregnant, and has Fergus touched you even once?"

"He finds you disgusting."

I clenched my teeth and glared at her.

But she drank in the fury in my eyes and only laughed harder.

"What? You hate me? You want to bite me?"

"If you want to blame someone, blame yourself."

"Waddling around with that huge belly, shameless enough to tag along after Fergus to a party. No shame at all."

The pain was almost enough to drown out everything I knew.

But the truth was nothing like what she said.

Fergus had brought me to this gathering.

He'd said Nadia wanted to apologize for how rude and reckless she'd been at the banquet last time.

But once we arrived, there was no apology in her at all.

Instead she kept pushing drink after drink on me.

When I refused, she pulled a face.

Then she got the whole crowd going with a game of truth or dare.

It wasn't until I came out of the bathroom that I overheard what they were really saying.

"Apology, my ass. Paige was tricked into coming."

"They had it all worked out ahead of time. They bet on the baby in Paige's belly."

"If Paige miscarries here today—"

"Fergus sleeps with Nadia for a whole month."

"And if she doesn't lose it—"

They exchanged a glance. "Ha, then Fergus has crossed our little princess Nadia, and he'll be groveling to that spoiled queen till the end of time."

So from start to finish, it was a setup.

The moment I walked in, I'd already lost.

She wanted to watch me fall apart.

I looked at Nadia's eyes, and in them I saw the reflection of my own face, bloodless and past all pleading.

"Fergus, I want a divorce."

Fergus, in the middle of laughing with his friends, went stiff all at once.

He pulled his gaze back and let it drift over me, light and careless.

"Divorce?"

He let out a laugh, pure mockery.

"You think you can just say the word and it's done?"

"You've got no idea how you ended up married to me in the first place?"

Clutching my belly, my face white, I choked on the words.

He stared down at me from above.

"How much do your parents owe my family? Have you forgotten?"

"You think the Summers family is some open-air market. Come and go as you please."

"Bring up divorce. What gives you the right?"

"With that little curse in your belly that's about to miscarry, or with your life?"

He said all of it in a tone so calm it was almost indifferent.

My fingers dug into the dirt, blood seeping out.

I had married him because my parents owed the Summers family an enormous sum. That much was true.

The year I was twenty-three, my parents were conned into an investment.

Mortgaging the house wasn't enough.

So they borrowed three million more from the Summers family.

The next year, unable to repay it, they ran.

They left me behind, alone.

Fergus came to my door and said that if I married him, the whole debt would be wiped clean.

I agreed.

I thought that maybe he liked me, at least a little.

He had chased me for three months, after all.

But on our wedding day, Nadia rushed into the church in a wedding gown.

She said, "Fergus, we agreed. Once you'd had your fun, you'd come back to me."

Fergus left me standing alone at my own wedding and walked out after Nadia without a single glance back.

My humiliation was total. I became the whole city's laughingstock.

But I had nowhere to go.

With the comfort of the elder Summerses, I stayed on with the family anyway.

Afterward Fergus smoothed it over. "There was a reason. Nadia's young. That's the only reason she came and made a scene at the wedding."

"I've already dealt with her. She won't dare do it again."

It was only later that I learned they had a bet.