CHAPTER ONE

THE DIVORCE

Evelyn Carter stepped out of the Blackwood building with her vision blurred by tears.

She didn't know where she was going.

She only knew she needed to get away from Damien.

Her heels struck the pavement as she walked, one after another, faster than she realized. She ignored the people moving around her. She ignored the cars passing on the road.

Her mind was still inside that office.A

Still hearing his voice.

The marriage is over.

I need you away from me.

I want you to hate me.

Evelyn pressed one hand against her chest.

It hurt.

Not the kind of hurt that disappeared after crying.

This was deeper.

She stopped near the corner of the street and drew in a shaky breath.

Then a sudden wave of nausea rolled through her.

She covered her mouth.

For a moment, she thought she might be sick.

She quickly turned away from the people passing nearby and waited for the feeling to settle.

After a few seconds, it did.

Evelyn lowered her hand.

She frowned.

This wasn't the first time.

For the last several mornings, she'd woken feeling strangely sick. She had blamed the stress. She had barely been sleeping, and the divorce had consumed every thought in her head.

But now another thought entered her mind.

Her period.

She went completely still.

She counted silently.

Once.

Then again.

Her expression changed.

“No.”

Her voice was barely audible.

She reached into her handbag and pulled out her phone.

She opened her calendar.

Her fingers moved across the screen.

She checked the date she had last marked.

Then today's date.

Her heartbeat quickened.

She counted again.

Several days late.

Her throat went dry.

“That can't be.”

She had been so consumed by the problems in her marriage that she hadn't wanted to think about anything else.

But now she couldn't ignore it.

She stood there, staring at the screen.

A memory surfaced.

A few weeks earlier, Damien had held her against his chest one night and told her they would eventually have a family.

Evelyn closed her eyes.

She couldn't stay on the street.

She needed to know.

She walked into a nearby pharmacy.

The bright lights made her headache worse.

A pharmacist stood behind the counter.

“Can I help you?”

Evelyn swallowed.

“Yes.”

Her voice almost disappeared.

“I need a pregnancy test.”

The pharmacist handed her a small box.

Evelyn paid quickly and put it inside her handbag.

She walked into the restroom of a nearby building.

Once the door locked behind her, she leaned against it.

Her hands were cold.

She looked at the box.

For several seconds, she couldn't bring herself to open it.

Then she did.

She carefully read the instructions twice.

Her hands were still shaking.

She followed them exactly.

Then she placed the test on the counter.

Now came the hardest part.

Waiting.

Evelyn looked at the clock on the wall.

One minute.

She looked away.

Then back again.

Her heart was beating so hard she could hear it.

She pressed her fingers together.

“No.”

She whispered the word as though saying it could change the result.

She checked the test.

Two lines.

Evelyn stopped breathing.

She stared.

Then blinked.

She picked it up and looked again.

Two lines.

Her stomach dropped.

“No…”

She slowly sat down on the closed toilet seat.

The test trembled in her hand.

Her eyes filled with tears.

She counted back the days again.

The timing.

The missed period.

The nausea.

The exhaustion.

Everything suddenly fit together.

Her other hand moved instinctively to her lower stomach.

It was still completely flat.

Nothing looked different.

Yet everything was different.

She swallowed hard.

“I'm pregnant.”

The sentence came out as a whisper.

She looked at the test again.

This was real.

Not an assumption.

Not the stress.

Not something she had imagined.

A pregnancy test had turned the most painful day of her life into something even more complicated.

Damien didn't know.

Her eyes closed.

She pictured his face sitting behind that desk.

His cold voice.

His steady hands.

The divorce papers between them.

I need you away from me.

A tear slipped down her cheek.

Then another.

Evelyn pressed her palm against her stomach.

She had just lost her husband.

And now she was carrying his child.

She looked down at the test, her breathing uneven.

“What am I going to do?”

Silence answered her.

Evelyn wiped her cheeks.

Then she looked at the test one more time.

Two unmistakable lines.

A secret had just begun growing inside her.

And Damien Blackwood had no idea that the marriage he had just ended had already left behind a child.