Chapter 1

Eileen's POV

Seven years ago, I gave up my inheritance, canceled my credit cards, and went door to door with Nolan, a broke director shooting street documentaries, knocking on one investor's door after another with my belly out to here.

Everyone called me a fool. Said I'd thrown my whole life away on him.

Seven years later, he's a name everyone in the industry knows. And Emily, the first love who walked out on him when he had nothing, is back in Chicago with her daughter.

That afternoon I got off work early and came home, and I heard him pull five-year-old Ivy into his arms and say softly, "Ivy, you can't ever tell Mom that Daddy and Emily are having a fake wedding."

"But Daddy, Mom will be so sad if she finds out..."

"If you say one word, Daddy won't love you anymore. You got that?"

Her little shoulders shook as she nodded and nodded.

Out in the hallway, I couldn't even be bothered to cry.

I dialed the number I'd kept blocked for seven years. "Dad, can the family plane still come pick me and Ivy up?"

Nolan, what you lost wasn't a housewife you could push around however you liked. You threw away the one person who was ever your whole world.

---

"Ivy, you remember everything Daddy just told you?"

I'd wrapped the documentary planning meeting early, and I'm barely at the door when Nolan's voice, kept deliberately low, slips through the gap.

A single floor lamp is on in the living room. Ivy sits at the edge of the couch, a plastic doll clutched in her small hands. It was her birthday present last month, something Nolan grabbed from a cheap shop on the corner and shoved into her hands with the wrapping still half on.

"I remember." Ivy's voice is soft and obedient. "Daddy and Emily are gonna wear pretty clothes and stand up on a stage. Daddy says it's a pretend wedding."

My breath stops.

Nolan murmurs his approval, like he's coaching her through some lines that don't matter.

Ivy looks up, her eyes already full of tears.

"But Daddy, Mom will be sad if she knows. Why do you have to marry Emily?"

"I'm not really marrying her. I'm just helping her make a wish come true." Nolan strokes her hair, his voice gentle, almost patient. "After Emily got sick, the thing she regretted most was never getting to wear a wedding dress. Daddy's just playing a part for her."

"What about Mom?"

"Mom can't find out about this. She's been really busy lately, and kind of cranky too. If she finds out, she'll start a fight with Daddy for sure. And then Daddy won't love Ivy anymore."

Ivy flinches all over.

"Ivy won't tell." She claps a hand over her mouth. "Please don't stop loving me, Daddy."

In that moment I hear more than the tremble in my daughter's voice. I hear something inside me break clean through.

Emily Warren.

Seven years since I'd heard anyone say that name, and I'd never really forgotten it.

Back then Nolan was just a broke director shooting street documentaries. He rented his gear, edited in a basement, and counted every receipt just to cover dinner.

Everyone said we didn't belong together.

But I gave up everything my family had lined up for me and moved into an apartment with a leaky roof. Once I was pregnant, I ran around chasing down investors, sat through screenings with clients, and rewrote his voiceovers at the computer past midnight. One time I stood outside a producer's office for three whole hours, just waiting for him to agree to watch a cut.

When he finally landed the money, he spun me around in our cramped little living room.

"Eileen, once I make it, I'm going to make you the happiest woman in the world."

I believed him then.

Then his documentary won an award, the studio started landing big projects, and he went from dead broke to the guy everyone wanted a piece of. And Emily, the first love who'd dumped him when he was at his poorest, came back to Chicago with her daughter after her own divorce.

Nolan said it wasn't easy for Emily, raising a kid on her own, that he was just giving an old classmate a hand.

And I fell for it.

Looking back now, the signs were all there. The constant work trips. The phone password he changed out of nowhere. The unfamiliar perfume on his shirts. And the way he smiled at his screen, a smile I hadn't seen in a long time.

The whole time, he'd been quietly planning a wedding with Emily.

Any other day, I'd have stormed in and demanded to know what these years of marriage had even meant. Whether he'd once stopped to think how scared Ivy would be.

But right now there's nothing left in my chest. Just empty.

Some things rot, and no amount of washing gets them clean.

I turn toward the elevator and press the button for the garden downstairs.

The night wind moves through the treetops, and a dead leaf settles on my knee. I sit on the bench a long time before I take out my phone and scroll to the very bottom of my contacts, to a number I'd blocked seven years ago.

It belongs to my father.

I stare at it for a few seconds, unblock it, and call.

It rings once before he picks up. My father's low voice comes through, thick with an excitement he can't quite hide.

"Eileen?"

I bite my lip, but the tears fall anyway.

"Dad," I say. "I want to come home."

There's a few seconds of silence. When he speaks again, his voice leaves no room for argument.

"The plane can take off any time."

I look up at the lit window upstairs and grip the phone tighter.

"Come get me."

I hang up, wipe my eyes, and walk back to the apartment. I've barely reached the door when I hear Nolan's voice again.

"Ivy, remember. You can never tell Mom."

I open the door, and the living room goes quiet.

Nolan turns around. Panic crosses his face for a second before he forces out a smile.

"You're home already?"