Chapter 1
1.
I was still holding my sonogram when my boyfriend turned to me.
"Erin, there's something I have to tell you."
My heart skipped a beat. My hand instinctively went to my flat stomach. I thought he was finally going to propose.
"I'm married to someone else."
I froze. The sonogram slipped through my fingers.
"What did you just say?"
Alexander quickly pulled me into a hug.
"It's a marriage of convenience. A business arrangement between our families. We're husband and wife in name only."
"Name your price. Cars, an apartment, cash. I can give you anything you want, as long as we keep this quiet."
"Don't worry. You and the baby are my real family."
Looking at the absolute hypocrisy in his eyes, the warmth drained out of me.
I pushed him away. My voice was dead calm.
"We're done, Alexander."
"And I'm getting an abortion."
"Are you out of your mind?"
Alexander's voice echoed down the hospital corridor.
His fingers clamped around my wrist like a vise.
"That is my child too! You don't get to just terminate this pregnancy!"
I yanked my arm, but he wouldn't let go.
A nurse leaned out of the examination room, her voice sharp.
"Sir, let go of her. Now."
The security guard by the entrance took a step forward.
Alexander finally released me, backing up toward the door.
Those eyes I had looked into for eight years were now staring at me in absolute disbelief.
"Your child? You're a married man, Alexander. If you want a baby, go ask your wife."
"Erin, be reasonable."
"I am."
He looked at me, his eyes actually turning red.
"What do you want that I can't give you?"
"Cars, an apartment, cash. Name your price. I can give you everything except the title."
I stared at him.
Eight years ago, he stopped me outside the university library, holding a crumpled bouquet of cheap roses, telling me he had a crush on me for three years.
Eight years later, he stood in a hospital corridor telling me he could buy me anything except a marriage license.
"Alexander." My own voice sounded so detached it didn't even feel like mine.
"I am not going to be your mistress."
His face changed.
"Who called you a mistress?"
"I did."
He choked on his words.
"If I keep this baby, I am nothing but a cheap side piece."
"When this kid grows up and asks why I'm not married to their dad, what exactly am I supposed to say?"
He went dead silent.
Silent enough that the nurse down the hall poked her head out again.
Then he looked up.
The anger and desperation were gone from his eyes, replaced by a cold, corporate calculation I had never seen before.
"If you do this, Erin, we are truly over."
"We've been over."
"We were over the day you married her."
He took a step closer.
I didn't back down.
"Who do you think is keeping your father's company afloat right now?"
My blood ran cold.
"What does that mean?"
He didn't answer.
But I read it in his eyes.
I turned on my heel and walked toward the clinic door.
"Erin!" he barked from behind me.
I kept walking.
"Stop!"
I pushed the door open.
The OB-GYN was sitting at her desk, filling out a chart.
She looked up.
"Do you need help?"
"I need to schedule an abortion. Can we do the intake today?"
The doctor glanced past me at Alexander standing in the hallway.
"We're booked for procedures today, but we can do the intake and consent now. Earliest slot is in three days."
"Book it for three days from now."
She looked at me, then at the door, and didn't ask any more questions. She looked down and started processing the paperwork.
I took the documents and turned around.
Alexander was still standing in the doorway.
He stared at the paper in my hand like it was something toxic.
"Erin..."
I walked right past him into the corridor.
Sunlight spilled through the windows, casting neat squares on the linoleum floor.
Three days.
I would come back.
And then, there would be nothing left tying us together.