Chapter 1

01

My name is Zoe Fox. I'm thirty-two years old, a single mother raising a frail five-year-old daughter.

To every relative I have, I'm a complete failure. A woman thrown away by a man, a burden who can't even feed herself.

That day, at a family dinner soaked in humiliation, my mother tried to save face by throwing me what she called a "stroke of good fortune." She'd had someone set me up with a captain of an ocean-going freighter.

"Two point nine nine million a year. That's a golden ticket."

My mother said it in a rush, terrified I'd say no, then added quickly, "It's just… he's out at sea three years at a stretch. For those three years you basically can't reach him."

Beside me, Aunt Diane Fox cracked sunflower seeds, rolled her eyes, and sneered. "Zoe, honey, a divorced woman dragging a kid around like dead weight? Somebody offers you a deal like that, you thank your lucky stars and keep quiet about it."

The old me would have felt wronged, would have stormed out and slammed the door.

But just a few minutes earlier, my ex-husband had finished throwing a drunken fit outside my door.

Looking at the mess all over the floor, I sat down and answered that man's video call, the matchmaking one.

I only meant to get through it. But when the man on the other end, steady-faced, skin dark and weathered, stepped away from everyone and suddenly laid out those three conditions, I froze.

A few seconds later I burst out laughing, right there, laughing until I cried, then nodded hard. "Okay. I'll marry you."

My name is Zoe Fox. Three years ago I finally hit my limit and divorced Morgan Chavez, that rotten gambling addict.

To keep custody of my daughter, Nina Abbott, I walked out with almost nothing.

I thought that once the divorce was done, life could start over. Even if it was hard, at least I could live like a person.

But I was wrong. A single mother at the bottom doesn't even get the right to breathe.

"Mommy, I'm cold…"

Two in the morning, in the infusion hall of the City Children's Hospital, five-year-old Nina was curled up in a chair, her little face flushed with fever.

She'd been weak since birth. This was already her third hospital stay in six months.

I pulled off the only jacket I had and wrapped it around her, so torn up inside the tears just came. "It's okay, baby. The medicine's almost done. When it's finished, Mommy will take you home."

"Hold on to the bill. Come first thing tomorrow and settle the rest of the hospital fees. You still owe thirty-five hundred." The nurse handed me the slip, her voice worn thin.

"Thank you. I'll pay first thing in the morning." I gripped that flimsy slip, and it felt like it weighed a ton.

To take care of Nina, I could only work clerk jobs with fixed hours, and I never managed to save a thing.

That thirty-five hundred was money I'd swallowed my pride to borrow yesterday, calling one person after another.

I wrapped the cash in a plastic bag and tucked it carefully into the very bottom of my purse.

Just then, a burst of cursing came from the doorway of the hall.

I looked up, and every drop of blood in me went cold.

It was Morgan.

He was in a wrinkled jacket, reeking of liquor, red eyes sweeping the hall. The moment they landed on me they lit up, and he came straight at me in long strides.

"Zoe! I knew you'd be here!" Morgan grabbed my arm, gripping so hard it hurt.

I wrenched free and dropped my voice into a furious hiss. "Morgan, are you insane? Nina's on an IV. What the hell are you doing here?"

"Cut the crap!" Morgan didn't spare a single glance for the daughter burning up half-conscious beside us. He reached straight for my purse.

"Rotten luck today, lost it all, don't even have cab fare. Give me two thousand, now. Hurry up!"

Nina jolted awake and started sobbing. "Daddy, don't hit Mommy, don't hit Mommy…"

"Shut up! Useless little money-pit!" Morgan jabbed a finger at Nina, then twisted around and yanked so hard he snapped the strap right off my purse.

He tore the zipper open and spotted the plastic bag at the bottom in one glance.

"And you said you had no money? What's this!" He snatched the bag, ripped it open, and there was the wad of crumpled small bills.

"Morgan, give it back! That's borrowed money for Nina's hospital fees! You take that and she'll die!" I threw myself at him like a madwoman to grab it back, and he shoved me down hard onto the floor.

My knee came down on broken glass, a pain that went straight through me.

Morgan stuffed the money against his chest and spat on the ground. "Getting sick doesn't cost money? She's a money-pit anyway. If she can't be cured, then that's that. Call this cash your gift to your old man."

Then he swaggered out through the hospital doors.

I sat slumped on the floor, staring at the mess everywhere and at my daughter crying her heart out, the whole world spinning, despair like a wild animal swallowing me down, mouthful by mouthful.

And what broke me came after.

The next morning I left Nina with the ward nurse and hurried to the office to ask for leave. The second I walked in, I could feel something was wrong.

My boss stood in the middle of the work area, face like thunder. The moment he saw me, he slammed a stack of files down on the desk.

"Zoe, what is going on with you!"

His voice was loud enough for the whole floor to hear. "Your ex-husband just came to reception and made a scene, saying you stole his money, rolling around throwing a fit in the lobby. Security couldn't even hold him back! This is a legitimate business we run here. What does this look like!"

My face went red, and I wanted nothing more than to sink into the floor. I stammered out an explanation. "Mr., I'm sorry. My ex is a deadbeat. Yesterday he grabbed the money that was supposed to save my daughter's life, I—"

"I don't want to hear your domestic soap opera!" My boss cut me off, out of patience.

"I've already settled this month's pay for you. Get out. This is a small shop, too small for a big shot like you. He comes and makes a scene twice more, and there's no business left for me to run."

I stood rooted where I was, my coworkers' eyes stabbing into me like knives, some with pity, but more with distaste, the kind that couldn't get away from me fast enough.

My dignity had been trampled again and again, my job was gone, and my daughter's medical bills were still nowhere covered.

I walked out of the office building and stood on the crowded street. The sun was fierce, and yet I was cold all over. In that moment I really felt it. I wasn't going to make it much longer.