Chapter 2

The rain came down harder, and the three of us stood frozen at the hospital entrance.

Paige's tears came on cue.

"Please don't be angry at Nigel over this. It's all my fault. I wanted to get rid of it, but Nigel wouldn't let me..."

"I know I had no right to come between you two, but I couldn't stop my own heart..."

As she spoke, she swayed, as if she might faint in the next second.

Nigel reached out at once and caught her against him.

"It's not your fault. Don't cry, you'll upset the baby."

Then he turned and glared at me.

"Look at yourself right now. Bitter, mean. You're acting like a shrew."

"Paige is gentle and sensible. She's more of a woman than you'll ever be."

Something drove into my chest like a dull blade.

Seven years ago, at this same hospital.

He'd been in a car accident. Ruptured spleen, massive internal bleeding.

His parents thought his business was nothing but losses, and refused to cover even the surgery fees.

I was the one who sold the house my parents left me and scraped together the thirty thousand for the operation.

I kept watch outside the ICU for seven days and seven nights, never letting myself close my eyes.

When he woke, he gripped my hand and said,

"If I, Nigel Delgado, ever wrong you in this life, may I be struck down."

I sniffed and pushed the feeling back down.

"Back when your business failed and they cornered you in that alley, I picked up a knife and scared them off for you. Where was all this 'you're not a woman' talk then?"

Something flickered in his eyes, close to panic, and then he hardened again.

"I haven't forgotten any of that. But this is different."

"Paige is carrying my child. I can't just abandon her."

I nodded and let out a laugh.

"Fine. Go ahead, take care of her."

"Tomorrow morning, nine o'clock, the company conference room. We're getting divorced."

"The shares, the assets, we'll settle it all, line by line."

With that, I threw the things in my hand at him and turned to leave.

Behind me came Paige's crying.

"Please don't divorce Nigel. I'll leave, that's all..."

Nigel's voice came edged with fury.

"Alma! You just try filing for divorce! I've told you before, in this life I'll be a widower before I'll be divorced!"

I didn't look back.

I poured it all out to my best friend for most of the night, and it was already one in the morning by the time I got home.

The living room light was on.

Nigel sat on the couch, reeking of liquor, his tie yanked crooked.

"You're really going to push this all the way to divorce?"

I took off my coat and dropped it in the laundry basket.

"What else? Stay here and be a stepmother to you and your mistress's kid?"

He shot to his feet, crossed to me, and gripped my shoulders hard.

"Alma, I'll say this one last time. I'll figure something out about the child, but there will be no divorce."

"The position of Mrs. Delgado is yours forever. No one can take it from you."

I laughed out loud.

"Watching you cozy up to another woman, watching her kid call you Daddy. This Mrs. Delgado title is just for show."

He stared at me, and in his eyes was that obsession I knew too well.

For seven years, he'd always been like this.

Once he decided something was his, he'd never let go, even if it rotted in his hands.

"Can't you just settle down? Turn a blind eye and life goes on. We got through so much worse before, so why can't you stand it now?"

I lifted my left hand and showed him the pale brown scar on the back of it.

"I put up with it for half a year. Now she's even pregnant, so how much longer am I supposed to endure? Until she walks right in and lords it over me?"

"How I got this scar, I won't forget until the day I die."