Chapter 1

My marriage ended with a phone call while I was bleeding out on the bathroom floor, seven months pregnant. My husband chose to comfort his intern over a stray cat instead of saving me and our baby. He told me I was strong enough to handle it alone.

He then stood by as his mistress tried to murder our newborn son, forcing me to kneel and apologize to protect his political career. He called me unstable, a bad mother, while she wore my clothes and lived in my home.

The hero I married was a lie.

When he gave my son her family name, I knew leaving wasn't enough. I had to burn his world to the ground.

Chapter 1

Aubrey Ellison POV:

My marriage ended not with a bang, but with a phone call while I was bleeding out on our bathroom floor.

The first cramp hit me like a punch to the gut, sharp and unforgiving. I was only seven months along, but the sudden, violent clenching in my abdomen felt terrifyingly final. I stumbled out of the nursery I' d been painting, a soft, hopeful yellow, and collapsed onto the cold marble of the master bathroom. A slick, warm wetness spread beneath me, staining my white linen pants a horrifying shade of crimson.

Panic seized my throat, cold and tight. I fumbled for my phone, my fingers slick with sweat, and dialed Gordon. My husband. The man who was supposed to be my rock.

He answered on the third ring, his voice smooth and professional, the voice he used for donors and constituents. "Aubrey, I'm a little busy right now."

"Gordon," I gasped, the word tearing from my lungs. "Something's wrong. I'm bleeding. It's the baby."

There was a pause. I could hear the faint murmur of another voice in the background, a soft, feminine sound that made the hairs on my arms stand up. It was Frida Rodriguez. The campaign intern. The daughter of the political ally Gordon couldn't afford to lose. The girl who had been living in our guest room for the past two months.

"Bleeding? Are you sure you're not just overreacting?" Gordon' s voice was laced with impatience, not concern. "The doctor said a little spotting can be normal."

"This isn't spotting, Gordon! It's... it's a lot." Another wave of pain washed over me, so intense it stole my breath. I cried out, curling into a tight ball on the floor.

"Damn it, Aubrey." I heard him sigh, a sound of pure annoyance. Then, his tone softened, but it wasn't for me. "It's okay, Frida. Just take a deep breath. It was just a cat, see? It's gone now."

My blood ran cold. Colder than the marble beneath me.

"Gordon, what are you talking about?" My voice was a raw whisper. "I need you. I think I'm in labor. You have to come home."

"I can't right now," he said, his voice dropping to a harsh whisper. "Frida just had a severe anxiety attack. She saw a stray cat in the alley and completely lost it. I'm trying to calm her down. Her father is hosting the fundraiser tonight, I can't have her showing up in hysterics."

The absurdity of his words felt like a physical blow. A stray cat. He was managing a fabricated crisis over a stray cat while his pregnant wife was hemorrhaging on the bathroom floor.

"Her father," I repeated, the words tasting like ash in my mouth. "Of course. It's always about the campaign, isn't it?"

"Don't be dramatic, Aubrey," he snapped. "You know how important this is. I need Senator Rodriguez's endorsement. Frida is fragile. You're strong. You can handle this."

His words echoed in my mind, a cruel parody of a conversation we' d had years ago. It was after the car crash that had killed my parents, the crash he' d pulled me from. He' d held me in the hospital, his grip firm and grounding. You' re so strong, Aubrey. You can handle anything. Back then, his words had been my lifeline. Now, he was using them as an excuse to abandon me.

"Please, Gordon," I begged, the last of my pride dissolving into a pool of tears and blood. "You promised. You promised you'd always be there. For me, for our son."

I remembered our wedding day, standing under an arch of white roses. He had looked into my eyes, his own shining with what I had believed was unconditional love. Whatever happens, he' d said, his voice thick with emotion, you and our family will always come first. Always.

"I'll call you an ambulance," he said, his voice distant, already disconnected. "I have to go. Frida needs me."

He didn't wait for a reply. The line went dead.

The silence that followed was more deafening than a scream. The pain in my abdomen intensified, a relentless, tearing agony that mirrored the shredding of my heart. I was alone. Utterly and completely alone.

The paramedics arrived in a blur of motion and urgent voices. They strapped me to a gurney, their faces a mixture of professional calm and pity. One of them, a kind-faced woman, kept trying to call Gordon, her brow furrowing deeper with each unanswered ring.

"No answer, honey," she said softly, patting my hand. "We need a signature for the emergency C-section consent. The baby's in distress."

His son was in distress. And he couldn't be reached.

With a trembling hand, I signed the form, the pen feeling impossibly heavy. They rushed me into the blinding lights of the operating room. The last thing I heard before the anesthesia took me was the surgeon's grim voice. "We'll do our best to save them both."

I woke up hours later in a quiet, sterile room. A nurse was checking my vitals. My first thought, my only thought, was for my son.

"My baby?" I rasped, my throat raw.

"He's a fighter," she said with a gentle smile. "He's premature, in the NICU, but he's stable. A beautiful little boy."

Relief washed over me, so potent it felt like a drug. He was alive. Our son was alive.

It wasn't until later that night, after being moved to a private recovery room, that the full weight of Gordon's betrayal crashed down on me. He finally showed up, his suit still immaculate from the fundraiser, a faint scent of expensive perfume clinging to him. Frida's perfume.

He didn't come alone.

She trailed behind him, looking pale and fragile, her eyes wide and red-rimmed. She was wearing one of my silk robes, the one Gordon had bought me for our anniversary.

My heart, which I thought couldn't break any further, splintered into a million tiny pieces. I must have made a sound, a choked gasp, because Gordon rushed to my bedside.

"Aubrey, thank God you're okay," he said, reaching for my hand. I flinched away.

"I'm so sorry, Aubrey," Frida whispered from the doorway, her voice trembling. "I... I didn't know it was so serious. I told Gordon to come, but my anxiety... it gets so bad. I feel terrible." She clutched the lapels of my robe, her knuckles white, a perfect portrait of guilt and distress.

Gordon immediately turned to her, his expression softening with a tenderness I hadn't seen directed at me in months. "It's not your fault, Frida," he murmured, his voice a low, comforting rumble. "Don't blame yourself."

He was comforting her.

He had left me to nearly die, left our son to fight for his life alone, and now he was standing here, in this hospital room that smelled of antiseptic and my own private grief, comforting the girl who had caused it all.

The memory of him pulling me from the twisted metal of my parents' car flashed in my mind. The hero. My savior. It was all a lie. The man I married, the man I loved, was gone. In his place stood a stranger, a cold, ambitious politician who saw his wife and newborn son as obstacles on his path to power.

A single, silent tear escaped the corner of my eye and traced a cold path down my temple.

He didn't notice. He was too busy stroking Frida' s hair.

And in that moment, as I watched him soothe her feigned sorrows, the love I had for him curdled into something cold and hard in my chest. It wasn't hatred. It was a terrifying, hollow clarity.

He had made his choice. Now, I had to make mine.