Chapter 1 Don't call him that

"Can you please keep that thing quiet or take him outside?"

I stopped right in the doorway with our son against my chest. The words hit me so hard I just stood there staring at him.

That thing. He meant our baby. His own child.

Thane sat on the couch with his laptop open, eyes locked on the screen like I wasn't even in the room. Our little boy made those soft, restless sounds babies make when they want someone to notice them. He wasn't crying. His small fist kept opening and closing against my shirt.

I shifted him higher on my hip. "Thane."

He didn't answer.

"Thane, look at me."

He typed something, then let out a short breath through his nose. "I said take him outside. I'm trying to finish this."

My hands started to shake a little around the baby. "He's not even crying. He's just making noises. Babies do that."

"Well, I can't work with it." He finally glanced up, and the look on his face made my stomach turn. "Take him somewhere else."

I stayed where I was. "He's your son. You can at least look at him for one second."

Thane closed the laptop with a hard snap. The sound made the baby jump in my arms. "Don't start this again, Veyra. I've had a long day."

"You've had a long day every single day since he was born." My voice came out thicker than I wanted. "You don't hold him. You don't talk to him. You act like he doesn't exist unless he's making noise, and then you call him a thing."

He stood up and pointed at the baby. "Watch your mouth."

"No. You watch yours. That's your child."

Thane dragged a hand down his face and looked at our son like he was something left on the floor by mistake. Then his gaze dragged over me, taking in my soft, curvier frame, the way my hips had widened, and the extra weight my body still held after carrying our child. The sheer disgust in his eyes was like a physical slap.

"My child? Look at him properly," he spat. "Who even knows if he's mine?"

The room went quiet. Heat rushed up my neck and into my face. My arms tightened around the baby without me meaning to.

"Don't you dare say that to me."

"Why not? Is this how people's bodies look after getting pregnant?" Thane said, his voice dripping with malice as he gestured toward my figure. "You don't look like the sleek, perfect girl I married anymore. Looking at you just makes me sick. And now this baby cries every single day. Can't I have a single moment of peace?"

I took a step closer. My voice cracked on the first word. "You said you would love me forever. You used to wait outside my classes with coffee just so you could walk me home. What happened to that man?"

Thane let out a short, ugly laugh. "I didn't sign up for this. Just look at yourself! Look at him. I work all day and come home to noise, mess, and a wife who can't even keep the house quiet or her body in shape."

"I gave birth to your son six months ago. My body is still healing. The doctor said..."

"I don't care what the doctor said." He grabbed his laptop off the table. "That noise is stopping. Take him outside or put him somewhere I can't hear him."

Our son started to fuss for real now, small cries building in his chest. I rocked him without thinking, one hand under his bottom, the other supporting his head.

"You don't get to talk about him like that," I said, my throat tight. "You don't get to call my baby a thing. He's your son too."

Thane started for the stairs. "I'm done with this conversation."

"We're not done."

He stopped on the first step and looked back at me over his shoulder. "Yes we are. Keep him quiet or I swear I'll sleep in the guest room again. Better yet, maybe I should just stay gone for good."

He walked up the rest of the stairs. The bedroom door shut hard enough that the picture on the wall downstairs rattled.

I stood there in the middle of the living room with our son crying against my collarbone. His little body shook with the force of it. I sank down onto the couch and pulled him closer, tucking his head under my chin.

"It's okay," I whispered. "Mommy's here. I've got you."

He kept crying, fists grabbing at my shirt. I rocked him side to side the way I always did when nothing else worked. My eyes burned, but I didn't wipe them. I just kept talking to him in that soft voice that only he ever heard.

"Daddy doesn't want us right now," I told him. "But you are my whole world, you hear me? You are everything good I have left. I will protect you. I promise you that."

I stayed like that until the cries turned into hiccups and then into tired little breaths against my neck. His hand stayed curled in my shirt even after he calmed down. I sat there longer than I needed to, just feeling the weight of him, the warmth, the way his body trusted me completely.

When I finally stood up, my legs felt stiff. I carried him upstairs slowly, past the closed bedroom door, into the small room we had turned into a nursery. I laid him in the crib and waited until his breathing evened out completely. One of his arms stayed up near his face the way it always did when he slept deep.

I watched him for a long time in the low light from the hallway. Then I went back downstairs.

The house felt different. Quieter in a way that hurts. I picked up my phone from the coffee table just to have something in my hands. The screen lit up with a message from a number I didn't know.

Mrs. Veyra, We have been looking for the right time to contact you.

I sat down on the edge of the couch and opened it.

You are twenty-five years old today. We have watched your character, your resilience, and the potential others have failed to recognize since your school days. We will be happy to welcome you as part of our Sterling family.

My thumb froze over the screen. Another message came in before I could even close the first one.

This is not a prank, Mrs. Veyra. The Sterling family has made its decision, and we are prepared to welcome you into the inner circle of Sterling Global.

I stared at the words. My heart started beating so hard I could feel it in my ears. Before I could type anything, the phone rang in my hand. Same unknown number.

I answered on the third ring, voice low. "Hello?"

A man's voice came through, calm and steady. "Mrs. Veyra. I trust you've read our messages."

I pressed the phone harder against my ear. "Who is this? And why is Darius Sterling interested in bringing me into his family?"

There was a short silence on the line.

"Those are questions Mr. Sterling would prefer to answer in person."

I tightened my grip on the phone until my fingers ached. "And if I refuse?"

"You are free to refuse. But before you make that decision, there is something you should know."

My breath caught. "What?"

"Mr. Sterling has instructed us to inform you that your place in this empire has been recognized for years. Your husband's treatment of you has nothing to do with your true worth."

I couldn't speak for a second. The living room suddenly felt too small. How did they know about Thane and me?

Then the man delivered the words that made my blood run cold.

"Tomorrow morning, the chairman himself will arrive at your residence. Mr. Sterling expects to meet the woman who is bound to become his goddaughter."