Chapter 6

Gregory was the one who signed the papers. He appeared at my bedside, his face a mask of weary concern. He tried to touch my forehead, but I flinched away.

"Don' t touch me," I said, my voice flat.

He recoiled as if burned. "Bella, I... I' ve sent Holly to a retreat in the countryside. To atone. She' ll be gone for a while."

"Get out," I said, turning my face to the wall.

He left. A few minutes later, my phone buzzed. It was an audio file from an unknown number. I knew it was her. I pressed play.

I heard Gregory' s voice, soft and tender. "Jaden, my sweet boy, Daddy' s here." Then a child' s giggle. "I love you, son."

The phone slipped from my numb fingers and clattered to the floor. Jaden. Jaden. The name echoed in the empty room. He had sent her away to "atone," but he was still a father. His heart was with his son.

The next day, he came to take me home. He didn' t take me to our apartment. He drove me to a ski resort upstate, the one where he had proposed to me years ago.

He was smiling, trying to be the charming man I had fallen in love with. He knelt before me, just like he did that day, and carefully fastened the clasps on my ice skates.

"Remember this, Bella?" he whispered. "I told you I' d hold your hand forever, so you' d never fall."

I remembered. I also remembered that he had let me fall, again and again and again.

I went to the locker room to change. When I came out, he was on the ice. But he wasn' t alone. He was with Holly and Jaden. He was holding Jaden' s small hands, patiently teaching him how to glide on the ice. Holly stood nearby, beaming, occasionally adjusting Jaden' s helmet with a wifely tenderness. They looked like a perfect family on a winter holiday.

I wanted to turn and run, but my feet felt rooted to the spot. Holly saw me. She skated over, a triumphant smile on her face.

"Isn' t he a natural?" she said, holding up her phone to show me a video of Jaden laughing as Gregory spun him around. "Gregory is such a good father. He spent all of last weekend teaching him."

I looked at the date stamp on the video. It was the weekend my mother was dying in the hospital. He had told me he was on a business trip in Asia. He had been here. With them.

A wave of pure, black rage washed over me. At the same moment, a sharp pain shot through my foot. I looked down. There was a shard of glass embedded in the toe of my skate, deliberately placed. It must have been there when he helped me put them on.

"He' s a good father," Holly continued, her voice dripping with venom. "Something you could never give him. You lost your baby, didn' t you? So sad."

"Don' t you dare talk about my child," I hissed, my voice shaking.

"Why not?" she taunted. "He wasn' t real anyway. Not like my Jaden."

The argument drew Gregory' s attention. He skated over, his brow furrowed. He automatically positioned himself in front of Holly, shielding her from me.

"What' s going on?" he demanded. "Why are you upsetting her?"

Jaden, hearing the word "upsetting," took his cue. He skated forward and rammed his head into my stomach, right where my surgery scar was still healing. The impact sent a shockwave of pain through me, and I cried out, doubling over.

"You' re a bad woman!" Jaden yelled. "You bullied my mommy!"

I looked up at Gregory, expecting him to intervene, to defend me. He didn' t. His gaze was fixed on Holly, who had a hand pressed to her stomach, her face pale. He had forgotten I was the one who had just been assaulted.

"Isabella, how could you?" he said, his voice laced with disappointment. "She' s pregnant. You can' t be this reckless."

Before I could even form a response, Holly let out a piercing scream. "The baby! I think I' m losing the baby!"

Gregory' s face went white with panic. He swept Holly into his arms and started skating furiously toward the exit. In his haste, he bumped into me, knocking me off balance.

I fell hard. The sharp blade of my own skate sliced into my calf, a deep, burning gash. He didn' t even look back. The last thing I saw was Jaden, looking over his father' s shoulder, a triumphant, wicked grin on his face.

I lay on the cold ice, blood pooling around my leg, utterly alone. A resort employee helped me up, his face full of concern. He escorted me to the resort' s small clinic.

I sat on the examination table, my teeth chattering from cold and shock. I called Gregory' s phone. Again. And again. It went straight to voicemail every time. He was with her.

A grim, humorless smile stretched my lips. I refused the nurse' s offer of a wheelchair. I limped out of the clinic, my leg wrapped in a thick bandage.

I almost collided with him in the hallway. He was standing outside a room, his back to me. His eyes were cold, hard chips of ice.

"You," he said, his voice dripping with venom. "Because of you, Holly almost had a miscarriage. The doctor said her pregnancy is now high-risk. Are you happy now?"