Chapter 1

At thirty-six weeks pregnant, my husband chose his ex-girlfriend’s missing dog over me.

I was trapped in a wrecked car when he made that choice.

The airbag had slammed into my belly. Lily had not moved since.

"Ethan, please." I pressed one shaking hand over my stomach. "The baby isn’t moving."

Snow hammered the windshield so hard I could barely see the highway beyond it.

A few minutes earlier, a car had rear-ended me on the interstate. The impact spun me toward the guardrail and jammed the driver’s-side door shut.

I had already called 911.

The dispatcher sounded stressed. "We have your GPS location, ma'am. But the blizzard is bad. There are multiple pile-ups on the interstate. We cannot guarantee a precise arrival time."

So I called my husband.

He answered on the first ring.

"I crashed," I cried. "Someone hit me from behind."

His car door slammed on the other end.

"I’m coming."His engine started."I’m twenty minutes away."

For the first time since the crash, I managed to breathe.

Then Ethan’s other phone started ringing.

"Hold on."

Before I could answer, the calls merged.

Suddenly, a woman's loud sobs filled my car.

"Ethan! Please!" she cried over the speaker. "Help me!"

My stomach dropped.

Rachel. His ex-girlfriend.

"Rachel?" Ethan’s voice changed. "What happened?"

"Cooper ran into the woods." She was crying so hard the words broke apart. "I can’t find him. The snow is getting worse."

Cooper was her golden retriever.

I closed my eyes.

Of course it was Rachel.

For years, Ethan had called her an old friend. She called when her pipes leaked, when her car would not start, when she needed furniture moved.

And Ethan always answered.

But this time, I was thirty-six weeks pregnant in a crushed car.

This time, surely, there was nothing to decide.

"Call the police for her,"I forced the words out. "Ethan, come here."

Rachel heard me.

"They won’t search the woods for a dog!" she cried. "I can’t leave him out there. He’ll freeze!"

Then she hung up.

The line went dead quiet.

Ethan did not say a word. The silence was heavy.

That was when fear changed into something colder.

He was deciding.

"Ethan," I gasped. My voice cracked. "The airbag hit my belly. The baby isn't moving. The ambulance isn't here yet."

Ethan went quiet for one second.

Then, he spoke to me. He used his calm, logical voice. He sounded like he was solving a math problem, not talking to his injured wife.

"Claire, listen to me," he said. "You’re inside a locked car. 911 knows exactly where you are. Rachel has nobody."

"Ethan, please—"

"Rachel is out in the freezing woods," he interrupted again. "If she keeps walking into those woods, she could get herself killed."

For a second, I thought I had misunderstood him.

My wedding ring bit into the finger beside it as my hand tightened around the phone.

"You know where I am."

Silence filled the line. Beneath it, I heard his turn signal clicking.

"I’ll come as soon as she’s safe."

The call ended.

I opened our location app.

Ethan’s blue dot was moving toward the exit that led south to me.

I watched it approach.

For three seconds, it kept going straight.

Then the dot curved north.

Toward Rachel.

He had known where I was. He had known what had happened.

I stared at the screen until the next cramp tore through my abdomen.

This time, I did not call Ethan again.

I sent my location to Maya.

Then I put my insurance card into the outer pocket of my hospital bag, where a paramedic could find it quickly.

When the next cramp released, warmth spread beneath my clothes.

I lowered a shaking hand.

Blood covered my fingers.

On my phone, Ethan’s blue dot kept moving north.