Chapter 1

The sun warmed the stone patio of our Hamptons house. Ten years. Ethan and I, ten years married today. I sipped my coffee, the expensive kind he liked. He was supposed to be home soon, a surprise getaway I'd planned.

A car crunched gravel in the driveway. Not Ethan's.

A young woman got out, Chloe Washington. We'd mentored her, Ethan and I, a bright kid from Detroit.

She walked straight to me, her face hard.

"Sarah."

"Chloe? What are you doing here?"

She didn't waste time.

"I'm pregnant. It's Ethan's."

My coffee cup slipped, shattering on the flagstones. The dark liquid spread like a stain.

"You need to divorce him," Chloe said, her voice flat.

She pulled a phone from her purse, tapped the screen. Photos. Ethan, naked, with her. Intimate. Undeniable.

"He loves me," she said. "He wants this baby. He wants an heir."

My breath caught. An heir. The word twisted inside me.

I remembered the doctors, the hushed voices after the complications. The stress from funding Innovatech, Ethan's startup, when it was nearly dead. My inheritance, gone. My father's connections, used. My law career, paused, then abandoned. All for Ethan. All leading to this.

"He's with me now, Sarah. He chose."

Chloe's eyes were cold, triumphant.

The gate buzzed. Ethan. He was early.

Chloe smiled, a small, cruel curve of her lips.

"Perfect timing."

Ethan walked onto the patio, saw Chloe, then me, then the broken cup. His face went pale.

"Sarah... Chloe... what's going on?"

Chloe just looked at him, one hand resting on her stomach.

He turned to me, his voice low, urgent.

"Sarah, can we talk? Alone?"

I stared at him, the man I loved, the man I built a life with.

"She says she's pregnant," I said, my voice a whisper. "With your child."

Ethan flinched. He wouldn't meet my eyes.

"It's true," he finally mumbled.

Then he looked up, a flicker of something ugly in his gaze.

"Sarah, you have to understand. Innovatech is huge now. I need a legacy, an heir."

My mind reeled. Understand?

"My infertility," I said, the words tasting like ash. "That's your reason?"

"It's not just that," he said, his voice gaining a defensive edge. "Things haven't been... right between us for a while. And Chloe... she understands what I need."

He actually tried to touch my arm.

"Look, I still care about you, Sarah. Deeply. But this is... this is about the future. My future. The company's future."

He sounded like he was trying to convince himself.

"We can be adult about this. There doesn't need to be a war."

Chloe smirked.

"He wants me, Sarah. And the baby. He told me you'd understand. That you're reasonable."

Reasonable. After he took everything. My youth, my money, my health, my career.

The betrayal was a physical weight, crushing me.

Ethan looked from me to Chloe, then back to me, a pathetic attempt at remorse in his eyes.

"I never meant to hurt you this badly," he said.

But his eyes kept flicking to Chloe's belly. That's where his truth lay.