Chapter 2
The rain hit me so hard that for a few seconds, I could barely see the driveway.
I made it halfway to the sidewalk before another contraction folded me forward.
My hospital bag slipped from my fingers.
I grabbed the hood of Grant's car to keep from falling.
Behind me, the front door closed.
He had actually shut me outside.
I looked back through the rain.
The porch light disappeared.
Then I heard the lock click.
Something inside me went completely still.
I pulled out my phone and called the one person I knew would answer.
Major Elise Mercer picked up after one ring.
“Colonel?”
She heard my breathing.
Her voice changed immediately.
“Ma'am, what's wrong?”
“I'm in labor.”
“Where is Grant?”
I looked at the darkened house.
“Not available.”
Elise knew me too well to ask what that meant.
“I'm sending an ambulance.”
“No.”
“Tessa—”
“My blood pressure is already high. I don't want to stand in the rain arguing. Just get me to Belvoir Community.”
“You are not driving.”
“I know.”
A contraction hit before I could say anything else.
I gasped.
The phone nearly fell from my hand.
Elise's voice became sharp.
“Sit down. Now.”
I lowered myself onto the covered edge of the neighbor's porch two houses away.
“Ambulance is coming. I'm coming too.”
“Elise—”
“That's an order I'm comfortable disobeying.”
Despite everything, I almost laughed.
Instead, tears slipped down my face.
I wasn't crying because of the pain.
I was crying because a woman who worked for me sounded more concerned about my daughter than the man who helped create her.
The ambulance arrived within nine minutes.
It felt like an hour.
My blood pressure was dangerously high.
The paramedic looked at me twice after checking it.
“Ma'am, have you had preeclampsia concerns?”
“My obstetrician has been monitoring me.”
“Any bleeding?”
“No.”
“Water broken?”
“Not yet.”
Another contraction.
This one stole my answer.
They moved quickly.
As the ambulance doors closed, I saw Grant's bedroom light come on.
A shadow passed behind the curtains.
He knew I was being taken away.
He never came outside.
At the hospital, everything accelerated.
Monitors.
Questions.
Needles.
A nurse named Rachel helped me change while another called my obstetrician.
Elise arrived soaked through, still wearing the uniform she'd left work in.
She came straight to my bedside.
“I swear to God, Tessa, if he—”
“Not now.”
Her jaw tightened.
“Fine.”
She took my hand.
“But when you're ready, I have several creative ideas.”
I squeezed her fingers.
My phone vibrated.
Grant.
For one stupid second, hope rose inside me.
Maybe he had realized what he'd done.
Maybe he was calling to apologize.
I opened the message.
It wasn't an apology.
It was a photograph.
My suitcase was sitting outside our front door.
Beside it were two cardboard boxes filled with my clothes.
His message read:
Pick up the rest tomorrow. Sophia doesn't want your things around.
I stared at the screen.
Elise saw my face.
“What?”
I showed her.
She said nothing for several seconds.
Then she whispered, “He threw a woman in active labor out of her own house.”
I locked the phone.
“Apparently.”
“Tessa, you paid the down payment on that house.”
“I know.”
“And you've covered the mortgage for almost four years.”
“I know.”
“He can't just—”
“I know.”
She stopped.
My voice sounded calm.
Too calm.
The kind of calm I had used in crisis rooms when everyone else was panicking.
Grant had always mistaken that calm for weakness.
He had never understood what it meant.
A doctor entered.
Dr. Patel had been caring for me throughout my pregnancy.
Her expression worried me immediately.
“Tessa, your blood pressure is continuing to rise.”
“How's the baby?”
“Her heart rate is showing some decelerations during contractions.”
Elise's hand tightened around mine.
I looked at the monitor.
“What do we do?”
“We're giving medication to stabilize you, but if her heart rate keeps dropping, we may need to deliver quickly.”
I nodded.
“Do whatever protects her.”
Dr. Patel touched my arm.
“We will.”
When she left, I stared at the ceiling.
I had faced hostile intelligence briefings.
I had sat across from generals and cabinet officials.
I had made decisions that affected thousands of soldiers.
None of it had frightened me like watching my unborn daughter's heartbeat dip on a monitor.
My phone rang again.
This time it was Evelyn Pierce, my grandfather's estate attorney.
I almost ignored it.
Then I remembered the review hearing scheduled for the next morning.
“Elise, answer it.”
She placed the call on speaker.
“Tessa?”
“I'm here.”
Evelyn heard the monitors.
“Where are you?”
“Hospital.”
There was a pause.
“Is the baby coming?”
“Yes.”
“Oh, sweetheart.”
The tenderness in her voice nearly broke me.
Then she added, “I hate to bring business into this, but there's something you need to know tonight.”
I closed my eyes.
“Tell me.”
“The final probate objection was withdrawn this afternoon.”
My eyes opened.
“What objection?”
“Your cousin Marcus challenged one administrative provision. It was weak, but it delayed final certification.”
“And now?”
“Now the trust is yours. Legally and irrevocably.”
I swallowed.
“Tonight?”
“As of 8:42 p.m.”
Twenty million dollars.
It became mine less than two hours before Grant called me dead weight.
The irony should have felt satisfying.
It didn't.
Not yet.
Evelyn continued.
“One more thing. Grant called my office yesterday.”
My entire body went cold.
“What?”
“He asked whether Everett had left assets to you.”
Elise looked at me.
I stopped breathing for a second.
“What did you tell him?”
“Nothing. Confidentiality prohibited it. But Tessa, he knew enough to ask.”
Seven months of cheating.
Sudden impatience.
A demand that I leave the house the exact night before he planned to file for divorce.
Something shifted in my mind.
“What exactly did he say?”
Evelyn hesitated.
“He said he was your husband and needed to know whether any inheritance would become marital property.”
The room seemed to shrink.
Grant had known.
Not everything.
But enough.
My daughter had not been the only future he'd been planning around.
He had been planning around my grandfather's money too.
Before I could respond, alarms sounded beside me.
The baby's heart rate dropped.
Dr. Patel rushed in.
“Tessa, we need to move.”
The room filled with people.
Elise stepped back.
I grabbed her wrist.
“If something happens to me—”
“No.”
“Elise.”
Her eyes filled.
I forced myself to finish.
“You stay with my daughter.”
She nodded.
“I will.”
As they rolled me toward surgery, my phone buzzed one last time on the bed.
A message from Grant appeared across the screen.
Don't expect me at the hospital. I've made my choice.
May you like
I looked away.
So had I.
