Chapter 1

The fifth-anniversary card from Liam was on the kitchen counter, right next to the vase of white lilies he' d brought home. His handwriting, a familiar, neat script, filled the inside. "To my Olivia, five years down, a lifetime to go. I love you more every day." It was a perfect picture, a life we had carefully built, just the two of us. We were happy. Dual income, no kids, just our careers and each other.

That evening, the picture shattered.

Liam sat me down on our plush gray sofa, his hands twisting in his lap, a gesture so unlike his usual calm demeanor. He wouldn't look at me.

"Olivia," he began, his voice strained, "I need to tell you something."

A cold feeling started in my stomach.

"It's about Chloe Davis."

I knew the name. A student he had sponsored through a university scholarship program. He spoke of her occasionally, a bright girl from a poor background with a lot of ambition.

"What about her?" I asked, my voice steady.

He finally looked at me, his eyes filled with a desperate apology. "She's pregnant, Olivia. And the child... it's mine."

The air left my lungs. The room felt suddenly small, the walls closing in. "You had an affair." It wasn't a question. It was a statement of a new, horrifying reality.

"No," he said, shaking his head frantically. "No, I swear. We never... we never had a physical relationship. It wasn't like that."

"Then how, Liam? How is she pregnant with your child?"

He flinched. "She... she stole it. From my used condoms. She kept them."

The explanation was so bizarre, so grotesque, that for a moment, I couldn't process it. It was the stuff of cheap television dramas, not my life. Not my marriage.

"My family found out," he continued, his voice dropping to a whisper. "They want this child, Olivia. You know how much they want an heir. They're forcing me. They said if I don't accept the child, they'll disown me, cut me off from everything."

He looked at me, his face a mask of misery. "I don't know what to do. I told them I love you, that we are happy. But they won't listen. They just want the baby."

Tears streamed down my face, hot and silent. I felt nothing but a deep, hollow ache. He was asking me to accept this. To welcome a child, conceived in deceit, into our lives. My husband and another woman's child. I looked at the man I loved, the man I had built a life with, and saw a stranger, cornered and weak.

"Okay," I heard myself say, the word tasting like ash. "Okay, Liam."

From that day on, everything changed. Liam, the man who had always claimed he didn't like children, who had supported our DINK lifestyle with enthusiasm, transformed. He bought every pregnancy guide he could find, his nights spent highlighting passages and making notes. He insisted on attending every single one of Chloe's prenatal appointments, holding her hand during ultrasounds.

He started clearing out the spare room, the one we had used as a home office. "It's going to be a nursery," he announced one evening, his eyes shining with an excitement I had never seen before. He spent weekends meticulously assembling a crib, painting the walls a soft, neutral yellow, and hanging mobiles of smiling stars and moons. He was a doting father-to-be, every action a stab into my heart. He was building a family, and I was just a spectator.

The fire started in the apartment building next door, spreading with terrifying speed. Smoke filled our unit, thick and black. Alarms blared. Panic seized me. Liam grabbed my arm.

"We have to get out," he yelled over the noise.

But then, his phone rang. It was Chloe. She was trapped in her apartment on the floor below, hysterical. "I can't get out! The smoke is everywhere! The baby!"

Without a moment of hesitation, Liam let go of my arm. His eyes, when they met mine, were cold, decisive. "I have to get her. She's pregnant."

He didn't wait for a response. He turned and ran toward the stairs, toward her, leaving me standing alone in the suffocating smoke. The heat was becoming unbearable. A falling piece of debris struck my head, and as my consciousness faded, a memory surfaced with crystal clarity.

Five years ago, a car accident. A drunk driver had T-boned our car on Liam's side. I had thrown myself over him, shielding him from the worst of the impact. He had walked away with minor bruises. I had woken up in a hospital bed to the devastating news: severe uterine damage. I would never be able to carry a child.

Liam had held my hand, his tears soaking our clasped fingers. "It doesn't matter, Olivia," he had promised. "I love you. I don't need children. I just need you." He had stood up to his parents, who were deeply disappointed, and insisted that our life together was all that mattered.

Now, through the haze of smoke, I could see him. He had reached Chloe. He was holding her, his body a protective shield around her and her swollen belly. "It's okay," he was saying, his voice thick with emotion. "I've got you. Our family of three is safe."

I woke up in a hospital room. The smell of antiseptic was sharp and clean. Liam was sitting by my bed, his face etched with what looked like concern.

"Olivia, you're awake," he said, relief washing over his features. "I was so worried."

He took my hand. It felt cold. "Listen," he said, his voice low and serious. "We need to talk. For the baby's birth certificate... it will be easier if we get a divorce. It's just temporary. Just a piece of paper. After Chloe gives birth and things settle down, we'll get married again. I promise."

I looked at his earnest face, the same face that had made a promise to me five years ago in another hospital room. I nodded slowly. "Okay, Liam. Whatever you think is best."

He squeezed my hand, relieved. He thought I believed him. He thought I was still his compliant, loving Olivia. But something inside me had broken in that fire, something had died and been reborn as cold, hard resolve.

Later that night, I pretended to be asleep. I heard him step out of the room, his voice a low murmur on the phone. I crept to the door, pressing my ear against the cool wood. It was Chloe.

"What do you think about the name Noah?" Liam was saying, his voice soft and full of warmth. "Or maybe Leo? For our son."

The last piece of my heart turned to stone. His true desires were never hidden, I had just refused to see them. He wanted a son. He wanted a family. Just not with me.

I made my plans in the quiet of the hospital. I agreed to the divorce. I signed the papers. And as he celebrated his future with Chloe, I was erasing my past. I booked a one-way ticket, not to the resort he thought I was recovering at, but to Canada. I closed my bank accounts, changed my name, and disappeared, leaving Liam Miller and his perfect "family of three" behind forever.