Chapter 2

Barbara stared straight at Keagan's impatient face while the bright fluorescent lights of the hallway shone down on the blood-stained gauze on her pale forehead.

She did not answer his question, instead looking right past his broad shoulders at Catina, who was poking her head out from the exam room with an innocent expression.

Seeing Barbara, Catina shrank back immediately, covering her lower stomach with one hand as her voice trembled.

"Keagan, why is she here? Is she going to hurt our baby?"

Keagan's face darkened at once, and he stepped sideways to completely block Barbara's view, his voice full of open warning.

"This isn't a place you should be, go back to the estate right now."

Barbara's throat burned as she swallowed the metallic taste of blood in her mouth, forcing out a few cold words.

"Don't worry, I have zero interest in your disgusting business."

Without looking at Keagan again, she turned around and dragged her heavy legs toward the elevator with a limp, keeping her back straight and distant.

Keagan watched her stumbling figure, his brows furrowing slightly, before he turned back into the exam room and slammed the door shut.

Walking out of the hospital entrance, Barbara hailed a yellow New York cab, where the radio was playing gossip news about Upper East Side socialite Catina Marsh making her big return to Manhattan's elite circles.

She leaned her head against the freezing glass window, listening to the radio host praise the fallen Marsh family, and hot tears finally spilled from her eyes to slide silently into her collar.

The cab drove onto Long Island and pulled up to the Cohen family coastal estate, which sat in the dark night like a heavy, suffocating cage.

Barbara pushed open the heavy oak front doors to find not a single light left on in the living room, the darkness swallowing her whole just like her three years of marriage.

Leaving the lights off, she felt her way up the stairs to the second floor, walked into the cold master bedroom she lived in alone, and dropped her aching body onto the wide king-size bed.

Physical pain and deep exhaustion pulled her under, and she curled up beneath the covers, sinking into restless nightmares filled with flames and falling planes.

Hours later, the sound of a car engine shutting off echoed from downstairs, followed by heavy footsteps pushing open the front door.

Barbara jerked awake covered in cold sweat, glancing at the digital clock on the nightstand to see it was already two in the morning.

The familiar sound of Keagan's leather shoes hitting the wooden floorboards echoed in the hallway, pausing briefly outside the master bedroom before continuing straight to the study at the end of the hall.

Barbara threw off the covers, stepped onto the freezing floor in her bare feet, pulled on a silk robe, and pushed open the bedroom door to walk down the hall.

The study door was left slightly ajar, letting out a thin line of warm yellow light along with the strong, bitter smell of an expensive cigar.

She pushed the door open and saw Keagan standing before the huge floor-to-ceiling window, his custom tie yanked loose at his collar and a half-burned cigar between his fingers.

Hearing the door open, Keagan did not turn around, his cold voice echoing across the empty study.

"I thought I warned you not to use dirty tricks like following me."

Barbara walked up to the desk and braced both hands on the cold wooden surface, staring straight at his back.

"So you came home at two in the morning because that woman couldn't bear to let you go?"

Keagan turned around with dark, angry eyes and crushed the burning cigar into the crystal ashtray.

"Catina has a weak body, I'm only fulfilling my duty as an older brother from a family friend to take care of her."

Barbara let out a short, mocking laugh at his excuse.

"An older brother? Taking care of her right onto an OB-GYN exam table and putting a baby in her stomach?"

Keagan's face turned to ice as he strode to the desk, slamming both hands down on the wood to tower over her.

"What exactly are you trying to say?"

Barbara met his eyes without backing down an inch, digging her fingernails deep into her palms.

"I'm saying that you make me sick to my stomach, Keagan Cohen."

Keagan's pupils shrank, and his hand shot out to grab Barbara's chin with enough force to bruise the bone.

"Watch your mouth, Barbara. Don't forget your place, you're nothing more than my wife in name only."

The sharp pain in her jaw made Barbara gasp for air, but her eyes stayed cold and unyielding.

"Right, a wife in name only, so you don't even care when I'm in a plane crash and almost die."

Keagan's hand froze, a flash of shock crossing his eyes.

"A plane crash? What nonsense are you talking about?"

Barbara slapped his hand away and stepped back, pointing at the bloody gauze on her forehead and the seatbelt bruises on her neck.

"Flight UA452 from New York to Chicago skidded off the runway and caught fire, and I was on it."

Keagan's gaze finally landed on the cuts and bruises covering her skin, and for the first time, clear panic broke through his calm expression.

He took half a step forward without thinking and reached out his hand toward the gauze on her forehead.

"Why didn't you tell me earlier?"

Barbara backed away from his reach with a cold laugh, looking at him like a complete stranger.

"Tell you? I called you three times while you were busy listening to a fetal heartbeat with your childhood friend."

Dead silence fell over the study, with only the antique wall clock ticking loudly in the corner.

Keagan's hand stayed frozen in midair, his face pale and his throat moving hard without a single word coming out.