Chapter 4

I didn't sleep at all that night. I just lay in our bed, staring at the ceiling, the sound of his lies echoing in my head.

He slipped into the room just before dawn, reeking of Elyssa' s cheap perfume. He tried to hide it, but I was trained to notice details. A faint red lipstick smudge on his collar, a single long, blonde hair on his jacket. He was so careless. So arrogant.

He thought I was a fool.

"You're awake," he whispered, surprised to see me sitting up.

I just looked at him.

"Long night," he said, running a hand through his hair. "Company stuff."

I saw the way his eyes avoided mine. He knew he was lying. He just didn't think I knew.

He forgot I was allergic to her perfume. He'd bought it for her, the same one he bought me two years ago, the one that gave me hives. He' d forgotten that detail about his own wife.

The thought left me feeling hollow.

It was over. Whatever we had, he had burned it to the ground. In a few days, I would be gone. I would be free of this. The thought was the only thing keeping me from screaming.

As I stood up to go to the bathroom, a sudden wave of dizziness hit me. I swayed, grabbing the bedpost to steady myself. A sharp cramp twisted in my stomach.

"Gregoria!" Darwin was by my side in an instant, his hands grabbing my arms. "What's wrong? Are you sick?"

The concern in his voice was a performance, but his grip was real.

"I'm fine," I said, shrugging him off. "Just stood up too fast."

"No, you're pale. We're going to the doctor," he insisted, his brow furrowed in a perfect imitation of worry.

I managed to push past him, his touch making my skin crawl. "I'll go this afternoon. I have a briefing this morning." It was a lie, but it was a plausible one.

He seemed to hesitate, a flicker of suspicion in his eyes. He knew my work was classified, that I couldn't always tell him everything.

Just then, his phone rang. Not the burner phone, his regular one. But his face changed instantly. The color drained from his cheeks.

"I have to take this," he said, turning his back to me and walking out onto the balcony.

I didn't need to guess who it was. It was her. Always her.

He came back a few minutes later, his expression tight. "It's an emergency at the office. I have to go."

Another lie. He was running to her.

I just nodded, watching him grab his keys and rush out the door. He didn't even kiss me goodbye.

I went to the hospital alone. The waiting room was cold and impersonal. I felt detached, like I was watching a movie of someone else's life.

The doctor was a kind-faced woman with tired eyes. After a series of tests, she came back into the room, a gentle smile on her face.

"Congratulations, Mrs. Mcintosh," she said. "You're pregnant."

The words hit me like a physical blow. Pregnant. A baby. Our baby.

For a wild, hysterical moment, I felt a surge of joy. Darwin and I had tried for years. We'd gone through tests, treatments, endless heartbreak. We had finally given up, accepting it wasn't meant to be.

And now... now, when everything was shattered, a baby was coming. A child conceived in a marriage built on lies.

The timing was a cruel joke.

I remembered all the nights he' d held me while I cried over another negative pregnancy test. "One day, Gregoria," he'd whispered. "One day we'll have a family. I promise."

More broken promises.

As I walked out of the exam room in a daze, my hand resting on my still-flat stomach, I heard a familiar voice from down the hall.

"I can't believe it! We're really having a baby!"

It was Elyssa. She was standing outside another exam room, clutching a piece of paper. And standing in front of her, his face lit up with a joy I hadn't seen in years, was Darwin.

He threw his arms around her, lifting her off the ground and spinning her in a circle. "A baby!" he shouted, his voice echoing in the quiet hospital corridor. "Our baby! I'm going to be a father!"

He was ecstatic. The pure, unadulterated happiness on his face was a dagger in my heart. He had never looked at me that way. Not once during all our years of trying.

I stood in the shadows, watching them. Watching my husband celebrate a new life with his mistress, a life he was building on the ashes of ours.

He had wanted a child. He had just never wanted one with me.

All those years, all those tears, all those whispers of "one day." He had been lying then, too. He'd probably been sleeping with her the whole time.

The last embers of love for him in my heart died out, leaving nothing but cold, hard ash.

This child inside me... it was a complication I couldn't afford. It was a link to a man I now despised. It couldn't be part of my new life.

With a resolve that felt like ice in my veins, I turned and walked back toward the doctor's office. There was one more arrangement I needed to make.