Chapter 1

My water had just broken when I got a phone call from ten years ago.

On the other end, my own voice was screaming.

"Justin Sanchez has been cheating for years. He moved his mistress and love child right into the house..."

I didn't believe it.

Justin was famous for spoiling his wife. Everything he owned was in my name, and wherever he went, he reported it to me himself.

Besides, that short call hadn't even gotten the mistress's name straight.

I bore down against the tearing pain of the contractions and waited in the labor room for him to come sign the forms.

But he didn't come.

When I followed his phone location to find him, he had Carolyn Harding pinned against the wall in the fire-escape stairwell.

Both of them soaked in sweat, clothes in disarray.

Justin's voice still carried a trace of heat.

"Last time. From now on, anywhere Violet Fox is, we keep our distance."

Carolyn laughed softly and rose onto her toes to press a kiss to the corner of his mouth.

"You still owe me one. So come to Iceland with me next week to see the northern lights."

"No. I need to be with Violet and the baby."

Carolyn pushed her lip out, sulking.

"If you don't give me what I want, I can't promise I'll keep my mouth shut in front of Violet."

Justin looked helpless, then tapped her forehead with fond indulgence.

"Fine. I promise."

I felt like I'd been dropped into ice. The contractions came harder, one after another.

Tears blurred everything. I bit down hard on my lip and dragged myself, step by step, back to the doors of the delivery room.

Stroke by stroke, I signed the surgical consent form.

In the box for marital status, I wrote two large words: Divorced.

...

The next second, the form I'd just signed was torn to shreds in one big hand.

My mother-in-law's spit nearly landed on my face.

"I had a master read the day. Today is cursed. A child born now will kill its father and its mother!"

"You hold it in. Don't have the C-section until after midnight!"

The pain crashed over me like a tsunami. Cold sweat broke out all over.

The doctor lost patience and moved to stand between us.

"The patient's water has already broken. Any more delay and both mother and child are in danger!"

But my mother-in-law didn't care in the slightest. She planted herself in the doorway of the operating room.

"What danger? When I had Justin, I was in labor two days and two nights, and I still delivered him just fine, didn't I?"

I curled into myself against the pain, my vision starting to blur.

The next second, a familiar voice rang out.

"Violet, I just had my phone on silent..."

I looked up. On his rumpled collar, there was the smear of a lipstick mark.

Carolyn shoved my mother-in-law aside in a fury.

"You old woman, what feudal superstition are you pulling now? Are you trying to get Violet and the baby both killed?!"

"You want me to call the police and have you locked up?!"

Carolyn was like a lioness someone had provoked, cursing Justin outright.

"Justin Sanchez, if you can't control this mother of yours throwing a fit, get her out of here."

"Hurry up and sign the form. Don't hold up our Violet!"

Watching her defend me like that, my memory went hazy.

I'd been soft-natured since childhood, always the one getting picked on.

Every time, Carolyn was the first to charge in and stand up for me, hauled into the principal's office more times than I could count for fighting.

After I married, my husband and I lived in peace, but I always clashed with my mother-in-law.

Without a word, Carolyn had dragged me straight to my mother-in-law's house and taken on the whole room by herself, cursing her out so thoroughly that the woman didn't dare give me trouble for the better part of a year.

Justin quickly signed the form.

"Violet, focus on having the baby. I'll deal with my mother and make it right for you."

Right up until they wheeled me into the operating room, he held my hand tight, his eyes full of aching worry.

The anesthesia slowly took hold.

As my consciousness dimmed, my mind filled with these five years with Justin.

The year we married, we went hiking and got caught in a landslide. He shielded me under his own body, and a falling rock broke his leg.

At the hospital afterward, he only looked relieved. "Thank god my Violet is okay."

No matter how my mother-in-law objected, he took on all the housework himself.

He never let me cook or wash a dish. Even something as small as folding clothes, he wouldn't let me touch.

After I got pregnant, he went and learned prenatal massage.

Even after a hard day's work, he gave me a massage for half an hour every night.

Because he was that good to me, I trusted him completely.

When I accidentally noticed how close he and Carolyn were getting, I only complained about it in passing, once or twice.

He held me and soothed me gently.

"You. It's just the pregnancy hormones getting to you, filling your head with nonsense. You're jealous of your own best friend now?"

"I just care for the people you care about. I'm only looking out a little more for your closest friend."

...

"Waah!"

A loud cry pulled me back to reality.

Justin held the baby wrapped in a blanket, his eyes rimmed red.

"You did so well, honey."

"Look, our daughter. She looks so much like you."

He carefully brought the baby to me and pressed a soft kiss to my forehead.

Carolyn took my cold hand too, her tone playful.

"Violet, while you were working so hard to have the baby, I kept an eye on him for you."

"Your husband didn't scroll on his phone, didn't play games, just paced back and forth, so anxious he was about to cry."

"A hundred-percent perfect husband. You finally trained him into one."

Looking at the two of them in front of me, my tears slid silently down from the corners of my eyes into my hair.

Yes. He really was good.

Good enough to sleep with my best friend and still act this heartbroken and devoted right in front of me.