Chapter 3

It got worse, fast. Ethan, with his mother' s full support, started treating me like a servant. Jessica needed special meals, I had to cook them. Jessica needed her pillows fluffed, I had to do it.

"Sarah, Jessica's tea is cold," Ethan would call out. "Be a dear."

Eleanor would watch with a satisfied smirk. "Sarah knows her place, Ethan. She' s grateful."

Grateful.

The worst was the charity gala. Jessica complained her feet hurt. In front of everyone, all our new, wealthy "friends," Ethan turned to me.

"Sarah, polish Jessica's shoes. She can't bend down in her condition."

He handed me a napkin. The room went quiet. I could feel hundreds of eyes on me. I looked at Ethan, searching for a sign, any sign, that this was a joke, a mistake. There was none. His face was hard.

I knelt. I polished Jessica' s designer heels with a cocktail napkin. The shame burned, but I did it.

A week later, I missed my period. I took a test. Positive.

A tiny, secret hope flickered inside me. Maybe this would change things. Maybe a baby, his baby, would make him see me again. I didn' t tell him. Not yet.

I tried to talk to him one night. "Ethan, we need to discuss Jessica. This isn't working."

He barely looked up from his phone. "She needs us, Sarah. Don't be selfish."

Selfish. I thought about leaving. I packed a small bag, hid it in the back of my closet. But where would I go? He had isolated me. My old friends, I' d lost touch, too busy building his dream.