Chapter 1

1.

My best friend, Olivia, and I married the Hayes brothers.

I married my brother, Elias Hayes, a doctor with a private practice on Manhattan's Upper East Side. She married the younger, Lachlan Hayes, a firefighter with the FDNY.

On my birthday, a gas line in my kitchen exploded. Olivia, who was there to celebrate with me, was trapped in the inferno with me.

I was three months pregnant. My hands shook as I dialed Elias's number.

"Chloe, please." His voice came through the static, laced with that professional tone he used to calm hysterical patients, a tone I had grown to hate. "You know you always overreact."

"Are you sure it's as bad as you say? I'm dealing with Kendall's son, Jack, and his high fever. I can't just drop a patient for what's probably a false alarm you imagined."

"Calm yourself down first."

Right. My apartment was turning into a giant oven, and I was just "overreacting." I really married Mr. "Keep Calm and Carry On."

Olivia wiped the soot from my face, snatched the phone, and dialed Lachlan.

The background on his end was noisy, with a child crying.

"I just pulled Kendall's son out of the pool. Oli, can you two stop being so dramatic? I've got a mess here, I'll talk to you later."

Thick smoke began to choke us.

We were out of time.

That day, we jumped from the third-floor balcony.

We survived.

But we both lost our babies.

Lying in a hospital bed, I heard my own voice, terrifyingly calm. "Olivia, I want a divorce."

Her eyes were bloodshot, her voice raw. "Count me in. This whole thing is a pile of bullshit."

Let them live out their high school dream forever.

But when the brothers received the letters from our lawyers, they completely fell apart.

After Elias's practice was shut down by a malpractice suit, he waited for me in the pouring rain outside my new clinic, a pathetic mess.

And after Lachlan was suspended from the fire department, he left message after message on Olivia's voicemail, his tone shifting from anger and confusion to desperate pleading.

…

After escaping the fire and losing my child, I was physically and emotionally drained. I was still in my hospital bed when I had my lawyer send the divorce papers to Elias.

He called almost immediately, his voice dripping with accusation. "Are you done with your drama? I told you, Jack almost drowned. Can't you have a little compassion?"

I almost laughed out loud.

When Elias was courting me, he'd said my kindness and empathy were what he loved most about me.

Now, he was the one accusing me of lacking compassion.

And all because his unforgettable high school sweetheart, Kendall Monroe, was back in town.

"It'll be easier for you to take care of Jack once we're divorced," I said, my voice rising despite myself. "You can move into their basement for all I care!"

"Chloe, how many times do I have to tell you?" His tone was thick with impatience. "The boy is my godson. I'm just doing my duty."

"Only a cold-hearted person like you could watch a child in danger and do nothing."

"Stop threatening me with divorce."

"For God's sake, think about how this stress will affect our baby!"

"Elias―" I wanted to tell him. His baby was already gone.

"Daddy! Daddy!" A little boy's cries echoed from his end of the line.

"Jack, buddy, Daddy's on the phone… Oh, God, Elias, I think Jack's fever is back. Can you come look?"

That was Kendall's voice.

The line went dead.