Chapter 1

I had a fever of 102 degrees, but Caleb Sterling forced me to deliver his stomach medicine in the pouring rain.

When I finally arrived, soaked to the bone, I heard him laughing with his friends.

"I told you she'd come with just one phone call. I won the bet, so pay up, everyone."

His childhood sweetheart, Maisie Reed, smirked cruelly. "Elara really is a loyal dog, isn't she? Maybe she should bark for us too!"

The room erupted in mocking laughter.

I couldn't take the humiliation and turned to leave.

"Aren't you afraid she'll get angry and dump you?" someone asked.

"She's damaged goods that nobody else wants," Caleb replied coldly. "Who else would take her? Just wait, she'll be begging for my forgiveness in a few minutes."

But this time, he was wrong.

I walked away in the opposite direction and went to the hospital alone for a procedure to terminate my pregnancy.

This man no longer deserved to be the father of my child.

1

Before I entered the operating room, the doctor asked if any family members were coming.

Caleb...

A sharp pain flared in my chest. I looked down and whispered, "My family is all dead."

Under the doctor's sympathetic gaze, I was wheeled inside.

It rained for a day and a night, and my phone remained silent. Not a single message.

The trip from the hospital back home felt like a marathon. I was exhausted, barely holding on by a thread of will.

But even through the front door, I could hear the sound of a man and a woman laughing.

When I opened the door, the two people on the sofa stopped and looked at me.

Caleb was leaning back, his hand gently rubbing Maisie's stomach.

His smile vanished when he saw me. He slammed his glass onto the table and shouted.

"Elara Vance, you finally decided to show up!"

"Maisie and I were just joking. How could you throw such a tantrum over something so small?"

"I didn't even hold your past against you, and yet you're playing these disappearing games!"

I touched my cheek, which had been scratched by a flying shard of glass. I felt nothing.

I had once shown him my deepest vulnerabilities, and now he was using them as weapons against me.

I remembered how he once held me, his eyes red as he promised to protect me forever.

Now, he was the one hurting me the most.

Since I didn't speak, he assumed I was yielding and gave an impatient order.

"Maisie and I haven't eaten. Go make two bowls of pasta. One without onions."

He liked onions. The one without them was clearly for Maisie.

I looked at Maisie. She was wrapped in the brand-new bath towel I had just bought, barely covering her.

She clung to his arm and walked toward me with a smug look.

"Elara, I'm staying over for a few days and didn't have clean clothes. I hope you don't mind me using your towel."

She was even wearing my favorite perfume.

I turned to Caleb and asked quietly, "Aren't you going to explain this?"

Caleb's face turned cold.

"Enough! Stop being jealous over nothing. Maisie is hungry, and you're complaining about a towel!"

He didn't care that his wife had been missing for twenty-four hours while pregnant. All he cared about was his towel-clad childhood friend.

If this were yesterday, I would have been furious.

But now, it all felt meaningless.

I pushed Maisie aside and headed straight for the bedroom.

The towel caught on my nail and fluttered to the floor.

Maisie screamed and covered herself. "Caleb!"

I heard heavy footsteps and a roar behind me. "Elara! What the hell is wrong with you!"

I didn't look back.

I didn't see the complicated expression on Caleb's face.

I thought it would be a long, loud night, but after my shower, Caleb walked into the room with a band-aid.