Chapter 2

The pain was real now, undeniable. I leaned against the wall, breathing hard.

Ethan was gone. He' d made his choice.

My resolve, forged from watching my mother' s financial and emotional ruin after her divorce, solidified. Stability. Independence. Clear boundaries. He' d just bulldozed through the most important one.

I grabbed my phone. My fingers trembled, but my voice was steady when Jessica answered.

"Jess? It' s time. And Ethan left."

"Left? Left where? Sarah, what' s wrong?"

"He went to South America. For Olivia. She' s in trouble." I managed to keep the bitterness mostly out of my voice. "Can you call Maria for me? My doula. I need to focus."

"He what?" Jessica' s voice was sharp with disbelief and anger. "That bastard! I' m on my way. Maria' s number is already in my favorites."

Maria arrived within the hour, a calm presence in the storm of my collapsing marriage and surging labor. Jessica came soon after, her face a mask of fury towards Ethan and deep concern for me.

Hours later, in the quiet of my own bedroom, with Maria' s steady guidance and Jessica holding my hand, my daughter, Emily, was born.

She was small, perfect, and screaming her lungs out.

A wave of love, fierce and protective, washed over me, momentarily eclipsing the raw wound of Ethan' s betrayal.

Maria cleaned Emily and laid her on my chest. Her tiny fingers curled around mine.

"Have you called Ethan?" Maria asked gently.

I looked at Emily' s peaceful face. "No. And I' m not going to."

Jessica nodded, her expression grim. "Good. Let him find out on his own damn time."

I wouldn' t call his parents, Carol and George, either. Not yet. They would be frantic, not for me, but for Ethan, and they would expect me to be the dutiful, waiting wife.

That wife was gone. Ethan had killed her when he walked out that door.

I had my daughter. That was all that mattered now.

The financial safeguards I' d quietly maintained throughout our marriage-my separate savings, the clear pre-nup about pre-marital assets, my meticulous tracking of joint finances-suddenly felt like the most important decisions I' d ever made.

My father, Michael, a wealthy, emotionally distant oil executive, wouldn't even cross my mind to call. He was remarried to a younger woman, largely uninvolved. He' d offer platitudes, nothing more.

This was my battle. My new life.

Emily sighed in her sleep, nestled against me.

I held her close, a shield against the world, a promise of a future I would build for us, on my own terms.