Chapter 5

Aubrey Ellison POV:

I turned without another word and walked back to my room, the slap still stinging on my cheek. I didn't look back. I didn't want to see him choosing her again. Inside, I sank onto the edge of the bed, my body numb. The silence was a heavy blanket, suffocating me with memories.

I remembered his proposal. He had taken me to the half-finished shell of the first building I ever designed. Standing amidst the concrete and steel skeletons, under a sky streaked with sunset, he had knelt and told me he wanted to build a life with me, a life as strong and enduring as the structures I created. At our wedding, he had vowed to be my foundation, my shelter from the storm.

Love, I realized with a devastating clarity, was the most fragile architecture of all. It could be bulldozed in an instant.

The door opened and Gordon walked in. He didn't look at me. He busied himself with a stack of papers on the bedside table.

"The doctor officially diagnosed you with severe postpartum depression," he said, his tone clinical. "She says your emotional state is volatile. Unpredictable."

I said nothing.

"Given what happened tonight... with Leo..." he continued, finally meeting my eyes. "I don't think you're fit to be his primary caregiver right now. It's not safe."

A cold premonition slid down my spine. "What are you saying?"

"I'm saying Frida will look after him," he stated, as if it were the most logical conclusion in the world. "She feels a great sense of responsibility for what happened, and she's eager to make amends. She'll be a wonderful caretaker."

The woman who had just dropped my son out of a window. He wanted her to be his caretaker.

"Absolutely not," I said, my voice trembling with a rage so profound it felt like it could split the earth. "You will not let that monster near my son."

"Don't be hysterical, Aubrey," he sighed, running a hand through his perfectly styled hair. "You're not thinking clearly. This is what's best for Leo."

"Best for Leo?" I laughed, a harsh, broken sound. "Or best for your campaign? Best for keeping the Rodriguezes happy?"

"You will not speak to me like that!" he warned, his voice low and threatening. "There is nothing going on between me and Frida."

He was still lying. Even now.

"I'm going out of town for a few days," he announced, changing the subject. "A conference in Chicago. When I get back, I expect you to have a better attitude."

He left without a backward glance.

The next evening, I was listlessly flipping through channels on the hospital TV when a flash of familiar faces caught my eye. It was an entertainment news segment. "Rising political star Gordon Ortiz was spotted getting cozy with campaign intern Frida Rodriguez at the exclusive opening of a new vineyard in Napa Valley..."

There they were. Not in Chicago. In Napa. Gordon had his arm draped around Frida's shoulders, his head bent close to hers, whispering in her ear. She was laughing, her head thrown back, looking up at him with pure adoration. They looked like a couple. They looked happy.

A strange calm washed over me. The pain was so vast, so all-encompassing, that it had become a kind of numbness. I thought of his touch, once so tender, now reserved for another. I thought of his lies, once so convincing, now so transparently hollow.

When I was discharged from the hospital, I went home to a house that no longer felt like mine. I began to pack. Not to leave, not yet. But to erase. I took down our wedding photos, our vacation pictures, every smiling memory of the life we had built. I packed them into boxes and stored them in the attic, burying the past.

In the back of the guest room closet, tucked away behind a stack of old shoe boxes, my hand brushed against something hard and leather-bound. It was a diary. Frida's diary.

My heart hammered against my ribs. I shouldn't. It was a violation of privacy. But privacy was a luxury I could no longer afford. My son's safety was on the line. I opened it.

The pages were filled with a looping, girlish script, a chronicle of a years-long obsession.

June 12th, six years ago: Saw Gordon again at Daddy's fundraiser. He's even more handsome than I remember. He's dating some architect. She's not right for him. He needs me.

March 3rd, four years ago: Gordon came to visit Daddy. He looked so tired. I made him his favorite tea. He told me I was a good listener, that he could tell me anything. He touched my hand. I will never forget it.

My breath caught. I turned the page, my hands shaking.

August 5th, two years ago: He got married today. I watched the photos online. She wore white, pretending to be so pure. She has no idea. She has no idea that the night before he proposed to her, he was with me. He was in my bed. He told me he was confused, that he felt a duty to her, but that his heart... his heart was mine.

The diary slipped from my fingers, falling to the floor with a soft thud. It wasn't just an affair. It wasn't just a political dalliance. It was a lie. Our entire marriage, from the very beginning, was built on a foundation of deceit. He had been with her the night before he asked me to be his wife.

I picked up the book, my movements stiff, robotic. I turned to the last entry, dated the night Leo was born.

Gordon called. The architect is in labor. He's annoyed, says the timing is terrible. He's with me now. He held me and told me not to worry. He said, 'Once this is over, I'll find a way for us to be together. Properly. I promise.'

A promise. The same promise he had made to me. He was a collector of promises, scattering them like seeds, not caring which ones took root and which ones withered and died.

I took out my phone and photographed every single page. Evidence. Proof. My ticket out of this hell.

Suddenly, I heard footsteps in the hallway. I shoved the diary back into its hiding place just as the bedroom door swung open.

It was Gordon. He was back early.

"What are you doing in here?" he asked, his eyes filled with suspicion.

"Just... looking for an old blanket," I lied, my voice remarkably steady.

He seemed to accept it. He looked around the room, a strange expression on his face. He noticed the diary, half-hidden by a shoe box, and for a split second, I saw a flicker of panic in his eyes. But I had pushed it back so well, he must have thought he was imagining things. He relaxed.

"Come on," he said, his tone softening. "Let's go. It's time to pick up Leo from the hospital."

We drove to the hospital in silence. At the NICU, the head nurse met us at the reception desk, her face etched with confusion and alarm.

"Mr. and Mrs. Ortiz," she said, her voice trembling slightly. "I thought you had already picked him up."

The world tilted. "What? What are you talking about?" I asked, my voice barely a whisper.

"A woman came about an hour ago," the nurse stammered, wringing her hands. "She said you sent her. She had the official paperwork, your signature... she took him."

The floor rushed up to meet me. Gordon caught me just before I fainted, his arms a cage I no longer wanted.

"Don't worry, Aubrey," he said, his voice tight with a forced calm I knew was for his own benefit. "I'll find him. I'll find our son."