Chapter 2
The room went completely silent.
I looked at Rachel.
Then at Ethan.
“Told me what?”
Ethan’s face had gone pale.
Rachel slowly placed the glass on the kitchen counter.
“Rachel,” Ethan warned.
She smiled.
“What?”
“Don’t.”
“You’ve had months.”
My hand tightened around the hospital folder.
“Months?”
Neither of them answered.
I looked directly at Ethan.
“What has been happening for months?”
He stepped closer.
“Emily, you’re stressed. Let’s sit down.”
“Do not tell me to sit down.”
“The doctor said—”
“I just came from the doctor.”
That stopped him.
I held up the folder.
“Our daughter is measuring small.”
His expression changed.
“What?”
“She’s measuring almost two weeks behind.”
For the first time since I entered the house, Rachel looked uncomfortable.
Ethan stared at me.
“Why didn’t you call me?”
I laughed.
The sound shocked even me.
“I did.”
He frowned.
“What?”
“I called you twice from the parking lot.”
He immediately reached toward his pocket.
I already knew what he would find.
His phone had been on silent.
Because he had been busy sitting with another woman in our living room.
“I didn’t see it.”
“Obviously.”
“Emily—”
“Answer my question.”
“What question?”
I stared at him.
“What haven’t you told me?”
Ethan looked at Rachel.
That was mistake number one.
Because I saw it.
The silent conversation between them.
The kind married people were supposed to have.
Not husbands and women holding their spare house keys.
Rachel crossed her arms.
“I think she deserves to know.”
Ethan’s jaw tightened.
“Stay out of it.”
Rachel laughed.
“I’m already in it.”
My stomach dropped.
“In what?”
Ethan turned toward me.
“It’s complicated.”
“No.”
I shook my head.
“Taxes are complicated. Insurance is complicated. This is my husband sitting with another woman who has a key to my house.”
Rachel corrected me.
“Our house.”
I stared at her.
“What did you just say?”
Ethan snapped.
“Rachel!”
But she did not back down.
She looked straight at me.
“Our house.”
I felt suddenly dizzy.
I reached for the counter.
Ethan moved toward me.
“Emily.”
“Don’t touch me.”
He stopped immediately.
I looked around the kitchen.
The white cabinets I had chosen.
The lights I had spent three weekends shopping for.
The hardwood floors my father helped Ethan install before he died.
The nursery upstairs that I had painted while Ethan worked late.
My house.
Our house.
Ethan and mine.
Or so I thought.
“What does she mean?”
Rachel answered before Ethan could.
“My name is on this house.”
I almost smiled because it sounded so ridiculous.
“No, it isn’t.”
“It is.”
“I was at closing.”
“So was I.”
I stared at her.
“No, you weren’t.”
“Not your closing.”
The room seemed to tilt.
Ethan whispered, “Rachel, stop.”
She ignored him.
“My family owned this property before you ever saw it.”
I looked at Ethan.
“What is she talking about?”
He rubbed his face.
“Emily, the property arrangement is complicated.”
Again.
That word.
Complicated.
The favorite word of people who had been lying.
“Explain it simply.”
Ethan looked at Rachel.
She smiled bitterly.
“Tell her about the loan.”
My chest tightened.
“What loan?”
Ethan’s shoulders dropped.
“The down payment.”
“What about it?”
“We didn’t get all of it from my savings.”
I stared at him.
“Yes, we did.”
“That’s what I told you.”
My heart began beating harder.
We bought the house three years earlier.
Ethan told me he had saved aggressively before we got married.
He put down nearly eighty thousand dollars.
I had put in thirty thousand from the money my father left me.
Together, we were supposed to own everything equally.
“Where did the money come from?”
Ethan did not answer.
Rachel did.
“Me.”
I laughed again.
Not because anything was funny.
Because my brain refused to believe her.
“You gave my husband eighty thousand dollars?”
“More.”
“How much?”
Rachel glanced at Ethan.
“One hundred and fifty.”
My mouth went dry.
“Why?”
Ethan finally spoke.
“Because we had history.”
I stared at him.
“What kind of history?”
Nobody answered.
Then I understood.
I looked at Rachel.
Then Ethan.
“You two were together.”
Rachel tilted her head.
“For six years.”
My knees almost gave out.
Ethan reached for me.
I slapped his hand away.
“Six years?”
“It ended before we got serious.”
Rachel laughed under her breath.
Ethan spun toward her.
“Would you stop?”
“Why? She asked.”
I looked at him.
“When did it end?”
“Emily—”
“When?”
“About six months before I met you.”
Rachel looked away.
I noticed.
“What?”
She said nothing.
I moved closer.
“What aren’t you saying?”
Ethan raised his voice.
“Enough.”
I turned on him.
“No. Not enough. I have been married to you for four years. I am eight months pregnant with your child. I just found another woman in my home with your arm around her waist. There is no enough until I know everything.”
Rachel’s eyes met mine.
“We were engaged.”
My chest tightened.
“You and Ethan?”
“Yes.”
Ethan closed his eyes.
I remembered our first date.
He told me he had never come close to marriage.
He said he had dated, but nothing serious.
Another lie.
“What happened?”
Rachel took a breath.
“My mother got sick.”
Ethan muttered, “You don’t need to tell her all of this.”
Rachel ignored him.
“She had cancer. I moved to Boston for almost a year.”
“And Ethan?”
“He promised to wait.”
I looked at him.
His face was full of shame.
Rachel continued.
“For a while, he did.”
My throat tightened.
“And then he met me.”
“Yes.”
Ethan stepped forward.
“It wasn’t like that.”
Rachel laughed.
“It was exactly like that.”
“You ended things.”
“I said I needed time.”
“You disappeared for eleven months.”
“My mother was dying!”
“And I was supposed to put my life on hold forever?”
I flinched.
Rachel did too.
Ethan immediately realized how cruel he sounded.
He lowered his voice.
“That came out wrong.”
Rachel stared at him.
“No. It came out honest.”
I suddenly felt like I was watching a relationship I had never known existed.
Their anger was old.
Familiar.
Practiced.
That scared me more than affection would have.
“How did she end up owning part of my house?”
Ethan looked exhausted.
“When her mother died, Rachel inherited money.”
“And?”
“I was starting my consulting business.”
I knew that part.
Ethan launched Hartwell Consulting two years before we met.
He always said he built it alone.
Apparently there was no part of his life he had built alone.
“I invested,” Rachel said.
“How much?”
“Two hundred and fifty thousand.”
I stared at Ethan.
“You told me you started with twenty thousand dollars.”
“That was my money.”
“You left out the quarter million from your ex-fiancée?”
“It was an investment.”
Rachel laughed.
“Not according to the original agreement.”
Ethan glared at her.
“What original agreement?”
I asked.
Rachel looked at me.
“I would help fund his business. If it succeeded, I would own thirty percent.”
I turned toward Ethan.
“She owns part of your company?”
“Not anymore.”
Rachel smiled.
“That’s what he thinks.”
My head started pounding.
I pressed my fingers against my temple.
A sharp tightening moved across my belly.
I froze.
Ethan noticed.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.”
“Was that a contraction?”
“No.”
Another tightening came.
I breathed through it.
Rachel’s expression changed.
“Emily, sit down.”
“I’m fine.”
“You don’t look fine.”
“I said I’m fine.”
I did not want her concern.
I did not want Ethan’s either.
I wanted the life I had when I pulled into my driveway twenty minutes earlier.
A life that apparently never existed.
Ethan stepped toward me carefully.
“You should rest.”
“I should leave.”
His face changed.
“What?”
“I’m going to my sister’s.”
“No.”
I stared at him.
“No?”
“You’re eight months pregnant.”
“Yes.”
“You shouldn’t be driving while upset.”
“Then I’ll call Jessica.”
“We can talk about this.”
“You had years to talk.”
“Emily.”
I turned toward the hallway.
Ethan grabbed my arm.
Not hard.
But enough.
I looked down at his hand.
He immediately released me.
“Sorry.”
Rachel said quietly, “Let her go.”
Ethan turned on her.
“You have done enough.”
Rachel’s face hardened.
“I did enough?”
“Yes.”
“You invited me here.”
I stopped.
Slowly, I turned around.
“He invited you?”
Ethan went still.
Rachel realized what she had said.
I looked at him.
“You invited her into this house today?”
“I needed to talk to her.”
“About what?”
“The business.”
“On our couch?”
“Emily.”
“With your arm around her?”
“She was upset.”
“About what?”
Rachel looked at Ethan.
Then she laughed without humor.
“You really haven’t told her anything.”
“Stop saying that.”
“What else?”
I asked.
Rachel hesitated.
For the first time, she seemed unsure.
“What else hasn’t he told me?”
Ethan stepped between us.
“Nothing.”
Rachel’s eyes hardened.
“You’re still lying.”
“I said stop.”
“You told me she knew.”
My heart stopped.
“Knew what?”
Rachel looked at me.
Then down at my stomach.
That movement made every nerve in my body tighten.
“What does my baby have to do with this?”
Ethan’s voice became sharp.
“Rachel, don’t.”
She ignored him.
“You should ask your husband why he came to see me three weeks after you told him you were pregnant.”
I stared at Ethan.
He looked terrified.
“Did you?”
He said nothing.
“Did you go see her?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Rachel answered.
“Because he asked me for a second chance.”
The room went completely silent.
My baby kicked again.
Hard.
I stared at my husband.
“You asked her to take you back?”
“Emily, listen.”
“You asked another woman to take you back after I told you I was pregnant?”
“It wasn’t like that.”
Rachel laughed.
“It was exactly like that.”
Ethan spun toward her.
“I was scared!”
Rachel’s face changed.
“So you admit it.”
“I was panicking.”
I whispered, “About becoming a father?”
He looked at me.
“Yes.”
“And your solution was Rachel?”
“No.”
“Then what was your solution?”
He had no answer.
Tears finally filled my eyes.
I hated that.
I had been angry enough to stay strong until that moment.
Now my vision blurred.
Ethan took one step toward me.
“I love you.”
I backed away.
“Don’t.”
“I do.”
“Do not say that while she’s standing in my kitchen holding my house key.”
“She doesn’t mean anything like that to me.”
Rachel went still.
I looked at her.
That hurt her.
Whatever she pretended, it hurt.
She placed the key on the counter.
“I’m leaving.”
Ethan turned.
“Rachel.”
“No.”
She grabbed her purse.
Then she looked at me.
For the first time, the arrogance disappeared from her face.
“I’m sorry.”
I stared at her.
“For what?”
She looked at Ethan.
Then back at me.
“For believing him when he said your marriage was already over.”
My breath stopped.
“When did he say that?”
Rachel opened the front door.
“Last month.”
Then she walked out.
I stood frozen.
Behind me, Ethan whispered my name.
I turned slowly.
“Last month?”
He said nothing.
“Last month you told another woman our marriage was over?”
“I can explain.”
A sharp pain suddenly ripped through my lower back.
I grabbed the counter.
Ethan rushed forward.
“Emily?”
I felt another pain.
Stronger.
Then warmth ran down my leg.
I looked down.
Ethan went pale.
“Oh my God.”
I could barely breathe.
“My water.”
He reached for his phone.
But I grabbed his wrist.
“Call my sister.”
“What?”
“I don’t want you taking me to the hospital.”
His face broke.
“Emily, please.”
“Call Jessica.”
Another contraction hit.
I screamed.
Ethan dialed.
As he did, his phone lit up with an incoming message.
I saw the name.
Rachel.
May you like
And beneath it, the preview.
You need to tell Emily the baby isn’t the only reason you married her.
