Chapter 1

I thought I had a husband, an unborn child, and a best friend I could trust.

But my husband, Adrian, and my best friend, Celeste, had secretly built a family of their own.

Her six-year-old son—the boy I had helped raise—was actually Adrian’s.

When I filed for divorce at seven months pregnant, Celeste revealed an even crueler truth: the baby I was carrying wasn’t Adrian’s.

My marriage, my pregnancy, and my trust had all been part of their twisted game.

Their betrayal cost me my mother and my unborn child.

Years later, Adrian begged me to take him back, while Celeste came to me with her children and pleaded for forgiveness.

But some betrayals only get one chance.

And they had already used theirs.

————————————————————

My husband stood outside the hospital elevators with my best friend tucked against his side and her six-year-old son holding his hand.

I stopped a few feet away, my phone clenched in my fist.

Adrian Mercer had been my husband for seven years. Celeste Ward had been my closest friend since we were teenagers. Her son, Leo Ward, had spent almost as much time in my home as hers.

I'd seen them together like this before. At restaurants, servers assumed Celeste was his wife. At hotels, the staff handed her the second room key. After Leo was born, even our neighbors mistook the three of them for a family.

Adrian never corrected anyone.

Later, alone with me, he would pull me close. "Maya, let them think what they want. You'll always be my only wife."

Now I looked at Leo's face, then at Adrian's, and couldn't make myself accept another explanation. The same eyes. The same mouth. I'd noticed the resemblance years ago. They had laughed when I mentioned it.

"Kids look like the people who raise them," Celeste had said. "He's at your house all the time. Of course he looks like Adrian."

I had wanted to believe her. Standing in that hallway, I finally understood whose son I'd been raising.

"Maya? When did you get here?" Celeste moved away from him. "I wasn't feeling well. You're so far along, I didn't want to worry you. I just happened to run into Adrian."

She came over and slipped her arm through mine. I pulled away, and she staggered back as if I'd shoved her.

"Why shouldn't I be here?" I asked.

Leo ran at me. His fists struck my pregnant belly before I caught his wrists and stepped back.

"Don't hurt my mommy! You're a bad lady!"

I looked down at the child whose fevers had kept me awake, whose meals I'd made whenever Celeste worked late. I had felt sorry for her, raising a boy alone. I'd never hesitated when she needed me.

Adrian stepped between us, drawing Leo and Celeste behind him.

"That's enough, Maya. You're pregnant and upset. We can talk at home."

He hadn't asked whether I was hurt.

"I wasn't planning to make a scene."

I'd done that before. I'd begged and shouted and threatened to leave. None of it had made him choose me.

When my mother, Ruth Bennett, was badly injured in a car accident, the doctors had said Adrian might offer her the best chance of saving her leg. I called him from the hospital and pleaded with him to come.

"I promised Celeste I'd take Leo's kitten to the emergency vet," he said. "It has diarrhea. She's busy with him and can't manage both."

"Adrian, this is my mother."

"A cat's life matters too. That boy doesn't have a father. You want him to lose his kitten as well?"

He never came. Other surgeons treated Mom, but they couldn't save her leg.

Even after that, I had let him hold me while he said he was sorry things had turned out so badly.

Now he reached up to smooth my hair in front of the nurses.

"Be reasonable. Celeste's your best friend. We didn't want you worrying. You know I love you."

One of the nurses smiled at us. "Dr. Mercer takes such good care of everyone. Mrs. Mercer, you're lucky."

His hand rested against the back of my neck. Celeste watched me over his shoulder.

"I want a divorce," I said.

I turned and walked away.