Chapter 1

Maeve's POV

"Zachary, please pick up. Please."

My hands shook as I dialed again. Straight to voicemail. Again.

"Zachary, it's me. Mom collapsed. She can't breathe right. I need money for the treatment...fifty thousand dollars. The doctor says if we don't start now..." My voice broke. "Please. Just call me back."

I hung up and immediately called again. Voicemail.

Why won't he answer?

I tried texting: MOM DYING. NEED HELP. CALL ME.

The message showed as delivered. But no response.

I slumped against the hospital wall, phone clutched in my trembling hands.

I had no one.

How did I end up here?

One year ago, Zachary had held my hands across the dinner table, his face so serious it scared me.

"Babe, I got into this special research project. Government-funded, totally classified. It's an amazing opportunity." He squeezed my fingers. "But I have to relocate to another state for it. And the project has strict security rules, I can only come back once a month."

"A whole month?" My heart sank.

"I know. But it's temporary. Just a year, maybe two. We can handle it, right?"

I nodded because I loved him. Because I trusted him.

Every month I waited. Counted down the days. Made his favorite meals. Bought new dresses. Then the cancellations started:

"Project emergency, can't leave this weekend."

"My supervisor scheduled mandatory meetings."

"Data got corrupted, I have to stay and fix it."

One excuse after another. Twelve months of broken promises.

And now, when my mom was dying and I was desperate, he wouldn't even pick up the phone.

Hours crawled by. I called seventeen more times. Sent dozens of texts.

Finally, at 1 AM, I couldn't take it anymore and ran to my car.

If he won't answer, I'll drive there myself. I'll make him listen.

Three hours on the highway.

I got there at dawn. His apartment building was way nicer than I'd expected. I buzzed his unit. No answer.

I called his phone. Voicemail.

So I waited in the parking lot. One hour passed. Then two. Then three.

At 9 AM, my phone rang. Not Zachary, the hospital.

"Miss Harrington? You need to come back right now. Your mother's taken a turn for the worse."

I ran to my car and drove through the rain like a maniac, calling Zachary over and over while tears blurred my vision. He never picked up.

I was almost there when I crashed into a black sedan pulling out of a parking garage. The man who got out, older, maybe forty, with kind gray-blue eyes, he took one look at my hysterical face and drove me to the hospital himself while I sobbed about Mom dying and my fiancé ignoring my calls.

Mom died thirty minutes after I got there.

The man from the accident, Raymond stayed through it all, through the paperwork and phone calls and funeral arrangements when I couldn't function. Zachary never called back, not once.

At Mom's funeral three days later, Raymond was there, and afterward he took me for coffee because I couldn't face going home alone.

Over the next three months, he helped me pick up the pieces of my shattered life, listening when I needed to talk, sitting quietly when I couldn't. He told me about losing his own family years ago, about being alone ever since.

We gradually grew closer. He helped me work through losing my mom, and I finally got over Zachary completely. I sent Zachary an email telling him we were done, he still didn't reply, but honestly? I didn't care anymore.

Then one evening on the pier, Raymond got down on one knee and asked me to marry him, said he'd known from that first terrible night that he wanted to protect me for the rest of his life. Two weeks later we were married at city hall, and for the first time in over a year, I felt safe.

Six months later, I stared at the pregnancy test in my bathroom. Two pink lines.

I grabbed my phone.

"Raymond! I think I'm pregnant!"

"Really?!" Pure joy filled his voice. "Let's go to the hospital right now. I'll meet you there?"

I laughed, giddy and terrified. "Okay. Thirty minutes."

I drove to the hospital with the test wrapped in my purse. Our baby. A completely new beginning.

The parking lot was crowded. I found a spot and walked toward the OB-GYN entrance, checking my phone. Raymond texted: Running 5 min late. Wait at the door.

I stood by the glass doors, watching people come and go.

Then I saw her.

Helena.

Zachary's ex. The one whose photo he'd kept in his wallet even after we got engaged.

Everything inside me went cold.

She walked toward the entrance, scrolling her phone. Then she looked up and saw me.

Recognition flashed across her face. Then she smiled.

"Oh my God. Maeve?"

I couldn't move.

Helena walked right up to me, one hand on her pregnant belly. "Wow. Small world. What are you doing here?"

"Appointment." My voice came out rough.

"Me too! Prenatal checkup." She patted her stomach. "Zachary's inside getting my test results. He'll be right out."

"Zachary?"

"Yeah, he came back last week. Got hired as an associate professor." Her smile sharpened. "He didn't tell you?"

No. He never called. Not once.

"We've been so busy," Helena continued. "Setting up his office, getting the nursery ready. This is his baby, obviously." She rubbed her belly. "Though I'm not planning to marry him."

I stared at her, my brain struggling to process.

"What?"

Helena laughed. "Oh please. Zachary's useful, but marriage? No thanks. I'm just having his kid. But raising it..." She leaned closer. "Zachary said you waited for him all year. Super devoted. So when the baby comes, you can help take care of it. You wanted to be part of his life so badly, right? Well, here's your chance."

Rage exploded in my chest.

"You're insane," I said through clenched teeth.

"Am I?" She smirked. "You're the one who waited like a loyal dog while Zachary and I lived together for two years. You thought those 'project restrictions' were real? That he could only see you once a month?" She laughed. "There were no restrictions, Maeve. The project let family come along. Zachary brought me. We've been together every single day for two year."

"You should've seen your desperate messages," Helena went on. "So pathetic. Especially that night with your mom. You kept calling and calling. Totally ruined my birthday party. Zachary had to turn his phone off because you were so annoying."

Everything stopped.

Mom's last night. The night she died.

He was at Helena's birthday party.