Chapter 1

The world had turned into a blur of white. The wind howled, a physical force that shoved against me, trying to tear me from the side of the mountain. Snow, thick and wet, clung to my eyelashes, making it impossible to see more than a few feet ahead. Every breath was a painful gasp of frigid air that burned my lungs.

My husband, Ethan, was a few yards away, his broad shoulders a dark shape against the blinding snow. He wasn't looking at me. His attention was entirely on Sarah, his childhood sweetheart, who was crumpled near a large rock, her face pale and her sobs carried on the wind.

"Ethan!" I screamed, my voice raw and thin against the storm's roar.

He turned, his expression a mask of irritation. He had a renowned adventure photographer's face, handsome and weathered, but right now it was just ugly.

"What, Chloe? Can't you see I'm busy?"

"I'm hurt," I said, my hand instinctively going to my stomach, where a sharp, cramping pain was beginning to build. I had slipped on a patch of ice not ten minutes ago, landing hard on my side. "My ankle... I think it's broken. And my stomach..."

"Chloe is tough," he had said to the others at the company retreat just this morning, clapping me on the shoulder. "She can handle anything." Now, that same sentiment was a weapon he used against me.

"Sarah's in shock," he snapped, turning his back on me to kneel beside her. He gently brushed the snow from her hair, his voice dropping to a low, soothing murmur I could barely hear. "It's okay, Sarah. I've got you. I'll get you back safe."

Rage and a terrifying, cold dread washed over me. "Ethan, please," I begged, the words tearing from my throat. "You have to help me. I can't walk."

He looked over his shoulder, his eyes cold and dismissive. "Stop being so dramatic, Chloe. You're an architect, not an actress. Sarah is fragile. You' re strong enough to manage for a bit. Just find some cover."

"I can't!" My voice cracked. I took a desperate, shuffling step toward him, my injured ankle giving way immediately. I cried out as I fell to my knees in the deep snow, the impact jarring my whole body. The pain in my abdomen intensified into a sharp stab. "Ethan, the baby! Our baby!"

He froze for a second. I saw a flicker of something in his face-confusion, maybe disbelief. But then Sarah let out another pitiful whimper, and his expression hardened again.

"Don't you dare," he said, his voice low and menacing as he stood up and walked toward me. "Don't you dare try to manipulate me with that. Not now."

He thought I was lying. After all our years together, after everything we'd been through, he thought I would invent a pregnancy to get his attention. The cruelty of it stole my breath.

He reached me and didn't offer a hand. He didn't even look at my face. He looked past me, back toward the resort that was now completely invisible in the blizzard.

"I'm taking Sarah back. You wait here."

"No! You can't leave me!" I grabbed his pant leg, my fingers numb with cold. "Ethan, I'm telling you the truth! I'm pregnant! We're having a baby!"

"Let go of me, Chloe," he said, his voice flat and devoid of any emotion.

He shook his leg, trying to dislodge my hand. When I held on tighter, a desperate, primal fear giving me strength, he reached down and pried my fingers off, one by one. His touch was not gentle. It was rough, angry.

He shoved me.

It wasn't a hard shove, but I was already off-balance, weak, and terrified. I tumbled backward, my head hitting the same jagged rock I had tried to use for support. A flash of white-hot pain exploded behind my eyes, brighter than the snow. The world tilted, the sound of the wind fading into a dull roar.

My last clear sight was of Ethan turning his back on me completely. He walked back to Sarah, scooped her effortlessly into his arms, and started the slow, determined trek down the mountain, leaving me bleeding and broken in the heart of the storm. The cold from the rock seeped into my skull, and a deeper, more permanent cold began to spread from my core. He didn't look back. Not once.