Chapter 1

"Jessica Fox, let's get a divorce."

"Why?"

"Why? You still have the nerve to ask me why!"

Her mother-in-law's shrill voice cut in. "Three years of marriage, and your belly hasn't stirred once!

Our family's been an only son for three generations. The line can't just end with my boy! You're nothing but a hen that can't lay an egg!"

"Mom—"

"Don't call me Mom! I don't have a useless daughter-in-law like you! Fabian Head, tell her straight. This divorce happens today. No exceptions!"

"Jess, my mom's right. We... we really aren't a good match. I need a wife who can give me children."

"So three years of love count for nothing next to a child?"

"Yes. I need a child."

Outside the county clerk's office, the sky hung low and gray, as if it might collapse.

Jessica gripped the dark red divorce certificate in her hand, its edges gone white under her fingers.

The sweat in her palm soaked into the paper, like the last tear these three years of marriage had left to cry.

"What are you crying for! Bad luck!" Her former mother-in-law, Sapphire James, snatched the certificate out of her son's hand and tucked it against her chest like a treasure, glaring sideways at Jessica.

"Finally got you cleared out of our house, you hen that can't lay eggs!

Our Fabian is young and successful. There are plenty of good young girls lined up to give him a son!"

Fabian stood off to the side, head down, not once looking at Jessica the whole time. He only pressed impatiently, "Mom, that's enough, let's go. I've got a realtor coming."

"Go, go, go! The sight of her makes me sick!" With that, Sapphire pulled her son along and hurried off, as if fleeing a plague.

Jessica stood where she was, watching them vanish around the corner, and felt every last bit of strength drain out of her.

Three years ago, she and Fabian had been the golden couple everyone in college envied.

After graduation, she'd turned down an offer from a big firm in the state capital and followed Fabian without a second thought, back to his small Midwestern town.

She'd thought love could live on water alone.

She'd thought that as long as two people loved each other, they could get through anything.

To back Fabian's business, she'd handed over every dollar she'd saved in two years of working, and poured in the dowry money her parents had set aside for her, too.

Once the company was on its feet, she'd listened to Fabian and his mother, quit her job, and come home to devote herself to trying for a baby.

She'd thought that if she was gentle enough, if she tried hard enough, she'd have a happy, whole family.

But reality had slapped her across the face.

First year of marriage, nothing. Her mother-in-law started dropping hints.

Second year, still nothing. Her mother-in-law started sniping at her sideways.

Third year, her belly still flat. Her mother-in-law dragged her to every hospital in town, made her drink countless herbal tonics more bitter than any medicine, and put her through test after test.

Every result came back the same: Jessica was healthy, nothing wrong with her.

The doctor suggested the husband get tested too.

But that suggestion was like stepping on Sapphire's tail.

"My son is perfectly healthy! Full of vigor every single day! What could possibly be wrong with him!

The problem's obviously you! You're barren ground. No seed's ever going to grow a crop in you!"

From that day on, Jessica became the sinner of that household, entirely.

Everything she did was wrong. If the food was too salty, she had a guilty conscience. If the floor wasn't spotless, she was slacking on purpose.

And Fabian went from defending her at first, to silence, and finally to disgust.

Until last week, when his company closed a big deal. He drank too much at the celebration dinner, came home, and told her he wanted a divorce.

The reason was still the same: she couldn't give him a child.

In that moment, Jessica's whole world came crashing down.

The man she'd loved with everything for seven years, the home she'd given everything to build, and in the end, over a crime that didn't even exist, he'd tossed her aside like a worn-out shoe.

A black Bentley pulled up slowly in front of Jessica. The window came down, revealing a refined, gentle face behind gold-rimmed glasses.

"Miss Fox, get in." It was Fabian's assistant, Bradley Chavez.

Jessica gave a bitter little laugh to herself, pulled the door open, and got in.

"This is what Mr. Head asked me to give you." Bradley handed her an envelope. "There's fifty thousand inside. Mr. Head says, for the sake of the marriage, it's compensation for you."

Jessica didn't take it.

"Also," Bradley paused, glancing at her in the rearview mirror, "Mr. Head wanted me to remind you that the house you were living in was registered in his name before the marriage. It's his personal property. He hopes you'll move your personal belongings out within three days."

Jessica's heart felt as if an invisible hand had clamped down hard on it, the pain nearly stopping her breath.

At last she understood what it meant to be schemed against, what it meant to be left with nothing.