Chapter 1 - THE PROMISE HE MADE
Maren stared at Adrian as if she had suddenly realized the floor beneath her was disappearing.
“You told me she knew,” she whispered.
Adrian’s face tightened.
“I said I would handle it.”
“That’s not what you said.”
I stood beside the hospital bed, one hand instinctively resting over my own pregnant stomach.
“Handle what?”
Neither of them answered.
The monitor beside Maren began beeping faster as another contraction approached.
A nurse entered the room.
“Everyone needs to step back. She’s progressing.”
Adrian moved immediately.
“I’m staying with her.”
I looked at him.
“You’re staying?”
He nodded.
“She's having your baby.”
The words landed harder than I expected.
Your baby.
Not our baby.
His baby.
Another child.
Another life he had apparently been preparing for while I was decorating a nursery at home.
I stepped outside the room.
Adrian followed.
“Hannah, please.”
“Don't.”
“I can explain.”
“You had the entire morning to explain.”
“I didn't know how.”
“You could have started with the truth.”
He rubbed his face.
“I met Maren years ago.”
“How many?”
“Seven.”
My heart sank.
Seven years.
We had been married for five.
“You knew her before me?”
“Yes.”
“And you have a daughter with her?”
He looked down.
“Yes.”
I swallowed.
“Does she have your last name?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because I wasn't ready.”
I stared at him.
“You weren't ready to be her father?”
“I was young.”
“You were thirty.”
He flinched.
I continued.
“And you weren't ready when she was five? Six? Seven?”
“I supported her.”
“Financially?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
He hesitated.
That hesitation was familiar now.
“Through a trust.”
“What trust?”
He looked toward the room where Maren was being treated.
“I can't talk about this here.”
“Then tell me why Maren thought I knew about her.”
He closed his eyes.
“Because I told her you knew.”
My entire body went cold.
“You lied to her too.”
“Yes.”
A nurse appeared at the doorway.
“Mr. Cole?”
Adrian turned.
“Maren wants you.”
He started walking.
I grabbed his sleeve.
“One question.”
He looked back.
“Did you know she was pregnant before I became pregnant?”
His silence told me everything.
“Yes.”
“How long?”
“Four months.”
I let go of his sleeve.
Four months.
For four months, while I celebrated every ultrasound, every tiny heartbeat, every box of baby clothes, my husband had known another woman was carrying his child.
And then something strange happened.
Maren called my name.
“Hannah.”
I entered the room.
She was crying.
“I’m sorry.”
“You don't have to apologize for his lies.”
She shook her head.
“You don't understand.”
“What don't I understand?”
Maren reached beneath her pillow and pulled out a small envelope.
She held it toward me.
“He told me never to show you this.”
I stared at the envelope.
“What is it?”
“Something your husband gave me three years ago.”
I opened it.
Inside was a copy of a bank statement.
The account holder wasn't Adrian.
It wasn't Maren.
It was me.
My name appeared at the top.
And beside it was a transaction I had never authorized.
$185,000.
Transferred seven years earlier.
To an account controlled by Maren.
I looked at Adrian.
His face had gone completely white.
May you like
Because whatever secret he had been hiding wasn't simply about another child.
He had been using my identity long before I knew Maren existed.
