Chapter 1

At thirty-seven weeks pregnant, my tire blew out on an interstate in the middle of a downpour, and my husband told me to wait ninety minutes for roadside assistance.

Ten minutes later, a photo from another woman showed him down on one knee in her brightly lit private garage, inspecting a tire that was not even flat.

My phone had three percent battery left, and my contractions had already started.

All she had to do was see her tire pressure light come on, and my husband came running.

I was not so lucky.

That evening, I had attended our childbirth class alone.

Callum had promised to pick me up, but he texted before the class ended.

"Emergency meeting. Drive yourself home."

The rain was coming down hard.

When the tire blew, the steering wheel jerked sharply to the right. I hit the brakes and barely managed to pull onto the shoulder. At that exact moment, the baby kicked hard inside me.

Semi trucks roared past, making the entire car shudder.

I turned on my hazard lights and called Callum.

"My tire blew out."

"Call roadside assistance."

His voice was low, as though he was afraid of disturbing the meeting.

"They said it will take ninety minutes. There are no streetlights here, my phone is at three percent, and I think I just had a contraction."

The line went quiet for two seconds.

I thought he would at least ask where I was.

Instead, he said, "Maeve, you are sitting inside a locked car. You are safe. Stop assuming the worst every time something happens."

"Can you come get me?"

"I am in a meeting."

"It will only take twenty minutes."

I heard the impatience enter his voice.

"I cannot abandon everyone because you are scared. You are about to be a mother. You need to learn how to handle an emergency."

He hung up.

Rain hammered the roof while I gripped my phone and waited for the contraction to pass.

Just before the screen went dark, a new message appeared.

It was from Celeste.

The photo had been taken inside a brightly lit private garage.

Callum was in his dress shirt, kneeling beside her car as he checked the tire.

His suit jacket was draped over Celeste's shoulders.

She looked down at him with a smile.

There was only one line beneath the photo.

"My tire pressure light came on, and I almost panicked. Thank God he will always come when I need him, no matter how late it is."

Celeste had been Callum's neighbor and closest friend for seventeen years. She was also his business partner.

Whenever I said their relationship felt too intimate, Callum told me they had simply known each other for too long.

"If anything were ever going to happen between us, it would have happened before I met you."

I used to believe him.

Until that moment.

My tire had actually blown out on the interstate, and he thought I needed to learn independence.

Celeste's tire pressure light had merely come on, yet he had abandoned his supposed meeting and gone there himself to kneel beside her car.

It was not that he could not come to me.

He had simply decided her fear mattered more than mine.

When the second contraction hit, I doubled over until my forehead rested against the steering wheel.

Before my phone died completely, I took a screenshot of the photo.

Twenty minutes later, a patrol car pulled up behind me.

The officer saw that I was pregnant and immediately called an ambulance.

When I arrived at St. Anne's Hospital, a nurse asked where my husband was.

I looked at the wedding ring I had not yet taken off and suddenly had no idea how to answer.

The baby was not in immediate danger, but the doctor wanted to keep me under observation for several hours.

After borrowing a charger, I sent Callum a message.

"I am at the hospital."

It was marked as read almost immediately.

He did not reply.

I waited one quiet minute, closed our chat, and called another number.

When the attorney answered, I did not cry or explain.

"Please draw up divorce papers for me."

The attorney was silent for a moment.

"Would you like me to contact Callum first?"

"No."

I watched the lines jump across the fetal monitor and spoke softly.

"This time, do not give him another chance to make decisions for me."