Chapter 3

Drake' s phone wouldn' t stop buzzing, the insistent vibration a third presence in the suffocating silence of the room. He didn' t even glance at the papers I held out.

"Whatever it is, just put it on my card," he said dismissively, reaching for a pen on the hall table. He scribbled his name at the bottom of the last page without a second thought. "I have to go, Elaine. This is important."

He thought it was a wish list. A shopping list. That' s all my needs had become to him. Something to be paid for and forgotten.

He pressed a quick, distracted kiss to my forehead. "Buy whatever you want. Don' t worry about the cost."

Then he was gone.

I stood there, staring at the closed door, the signed divorce papers clutched in my hand. He had just signed away our marriage as if it were a credit card receipt. The absurdity of it was so profound, it was almost funny.

The puppy in my arms whimpered, nuzzling its small head against my chest, and the fragile dam holding back my emotions cracked. But I didn' t cry. I couldn' t.

Some sick, twisted part of me still wanted to follow him. To see it again. To burn the reality of his betrayal into my brain until there was no room left for the ghost of the man I thought I loved.

I found them at her penthouse. Kiana was waiting for him at the door, their son, Cody, in her arms.

The boy looked so much like Drake it was a physical blow. The same dark, intense eyes. The same stubborn set of his jaw.

"I' m sorry, Drake," Kiana was crying, her face buried in his shoulder. "Cody missed you so much. He cried himself to sleep last night calling for his daddy."

Drake' s arms went around her, his hand stroking her hair. It was a gesture of comfort, of ownership.

"It' s okay," he murmured, his voice a low rumble. He took the boy from her, his movements gentle, practiced. He held Cody with a tenderness I had only ever dreamed of receiving. The way he looked at that child... it was with a pure, uncomplicated love he had never shown me.

He cradled Cody, rocking him softly, murmuring nonsense until the boy' s eyes fluttered shut.

A bitter laugh escaped my lips before I could stop it.

I remembered when I was pregnant the first time. He had been so attentive. He read every book, attended every class. He' d talk to my belly for hours, telling our unborn child stories about his day, promising to teach them how to sail, how to build things. He' d rub my swollen feet and cater to my every craving, no matter how ridiculous. He was the perfect, doting father-to-be.

It was all a lie. A performance for his precious wife, while his real family waited in the wings.

I hated him. But in that moment, watching him with Kiana, I hated her more. She had orchestrated all of this. She had stolen my husband, my life, my child.

Now, he was holding her child as if he were the most precious thing in the world.

I bit my lip so hard I tasted blood. I forced myself to watch, to sear the image into my mind. This was my reality now. This was the truth.

"Look at him, Elaine," a cold voice inside my head said. "Look at what he is. Forget the man you married. He doesn' t exist."

I closed my eyes, the tears finally coming, hot and silent.

I' ll give myself tonight, I thought. I' ll let myself grieve for the man I lost. And then, tomorrow, I will be done. I will never look back.

"I love you so much, Drake," Kiana was saying, her voice thick with adoration. "Cody is turning five soon. He' s going to start asking questions. Kids at the park are already teasing him for not having a daddy." She let out a shaky breath. "I know I drugged you to get pregnant, and I' m sorry. I was just desperate. But I did it for love."

She was playing her part perfectly. The repentant sinner, the devoted mother.

"Please, Drake," she begged. "Let me bring Cody home. To your home. Just for a little while. I want him to know what it' s like to have a father."

I knew her game. She wanted to invade my space, to plant her flag in my territory, to slowly push me out.

I held my breath, a tiny, stupid flicker of hope igniting in my chest. He wouldn' t. He couldn' t. Our home was our sanctuary. He was pathologically private. He would never allow her, or her son, to cross that threshold.

Drake was silent for a long time. I could hear my own heart beating, a frantic drum against the silence. This was the test. The final, definitive test.

Please, Drake. Say no.

He looked from Kiana' s tear-streaked face to the sleeping child in his arms. His expression was unreadable.

Then, he nodded.

"Okay."

The single word was a gunshot in the quiet night.

My heart didn' t just break. It turned to dust.

I had lost. The last seven years, my love, my hope, my pain-it was all a wager I had placed on the wrong man.

And I had lost everything.