Chapter 1

01

The day my husband's one true love got pregnant, he slid a diagnosis across the table to me.

"Late-stage liver cancer. The doctor says three months at most."

"You're still so young. I don't want to hold you back."

The divorce agreement was already on the table, and the terms said he'd walk away from the marriage with nothing. The house, the car, the savings, all of it left to me.

He clenched his fingers and looked at me, almost pleading.

"I don't want a thing. I only ask that you let me go, and give her a name before I die."

But what he didn't know was that the real medical report was right there in my hands.

The liver cancer was a lie. The azoospermia was real.

The child in his one true love's belly could never have been his, not from the very start.

I looked at this man I'd spent years beside, and thinking of what we'd once had, I asked him softly.

"Are you sure about this?"

He nodded, quick and eager.

Eyes brimming, I signed my name.

"All right. A long and happy life to the three of you."

...

Once the papers were signed, Patrick Sawyer's eyes went red as a rabbit's.

He put on his heartbroken, devoted act and gripped my hand, refusing to let go.

"Honey, I'm sorry. It's just my rotten luck."

"During the thirty-day divorce cooling-off period, I'll still come home to see you often."

"Remember, there will always be a place for you in my heart."

I pinched my own thigh, hard, and forced out two tears.

I was honestly afraid I'd burst out laughing, and if this idiot suddenly changed his mind and refused to walk away with nothing, everything would be ruined.

Whoever came up with the divorce cooling-off period, I think it's marriage that needs one.

A week later.

I'd just started packing up around the house when the doorbell rang.

The door opened and Stella Fox sauntered in, belly not yet showing, walking like she owned the place.

Trailing behind her was Ferris James, Patrick's childhood buddy and so-called best brother.

Stella didn't even change out of her shoes at the door, just plopped herself right down on the sofa in the master bedroom.

Making herself the host in my house, she stroked her flat stomach and rolled her eyes at me.

"So sorry about this, sis. Patrick says it's his last wish."

"I'm afraid I'll have to trouble you to move out."

Ferris chimed in from the side, all snide and sing-song.

"Come on, be generous. Patrick's health is in the state it's in."

"Don't hold out over a title. Letting Stella have this baby in peace, that's what matters."

I gave a cold laugh.

"Oh, so now it's 'sis'? Stella, is sleeping around as the other woman really that satisfying?"

Stella's eyes reddened, and she instantly put on the picture of a wronged woman.

"How can you say that about me? You smothered him, you controlled everything, you didn't leave Patrick room to breathe!"

"In love, the one who isn't loved is the real mistress!"

I couldn't be bothered with this snake, and turned to fix my eyes on Ferris.

"Ferris, running around at their heels day in and day out, what exactly are you after?"

"You play the distant cousin a little too well, don't you?"

Ferris's expression shifted.

"What the hell are you talking about!"

I sneered and, right in front of Patrick, laid his history bare.

"Patrick, your good brother here shamelessly chased after me back in the day, or did you forget?"

"Texting me in the dead of night, saying that if I was willing, he'd run away with me anytime."

Ferris flushed red in an instant, eyes darting everywhere, not daring to look at Patrick.

Patrick froze for a second, then quickly threw an arm around Ferris's shoulder.

"Hey, it's all my fault!"

"Back then it was because you couldn't have children, and it ate at me, so I said something stupid when I was drunk and had Ferris go test you!"

"I just wanted to see whether you were really loyal to me!"

The moment I heard that, the disgust rose right up in me.

Couldn't have children? Where did he find the nerve to say that?

I choked back the churning in my stomach.

I thought back over these three years, all the ovulation shots I'd given myself night after night trying to conceive, my belly covered in needle marks.

Back when the tests came up empty, his family had gone frantic, every word aimed at blaming me.

Then the doctor sensed something was off and quietly told me.

"Could it be your husband who has the problem?"

The final results came back: his sperm count was already close to azoospermia.

I was laughably naive back then.

To protect his manhood, his pride, I hid the report.

I lied to my family, said it was my own weak body, that I had trouble conceiving.

I took every pointed finger for him.

And in the end?

He went out and made a baby with someone else.

What a joke. A colossal joke.

But right now I couldn't blow it all open.

I lowered my head at once, my shoulders shaking, playing up how deeply wronged I was.

"Patrick, three years married to you, working myself to the bone without complaint, and this is what you thought of me?"

"If you distrust me that much, then just go, both of you. I don't want to look at you."

Seeing me play the doormat, Patrick actually thought his little test had cut me to the heart.

My reaction moved him, and on his way out he kept apologizing to me.

"Honey, I'm sorry. It was all my fault."

Early the next morning.

To make it up to me, Patrick obediently went along with everything and finished notarizing the transfer of the property and the fund.

When the text popped up on my phone confirming the bank assets had been handed over.

I gripped the phone, having to look overcome with emotion while barely holding back the laugh about to spill out.

I knew him. This idiot was still dreaming of the day we'd all share one bed.