Chapter 4

Saturday morning, I arrived at St. Peter’s before seven.

Family Welcome Day would not begin until nine, but I needed the empty hour before parents started filling the halls.

The pregnancy report was still inside my bag.

I had not told Dominic.

Dominic still had no idea that St. Peter’s was the school I had bought. Irene had handled the twins’ application, and he had never asked me about the school again.

At nine twenty-three, a black sedan stopped outside the gate. I recognized the car before Dominic stepped out of the driver’s side.

That morning, he had kissed my forehead, reminded me to eat breakfast and left the house for his “client meeting.”

Irene Foster got out of the passenger seat.

For a second, I could only stare.

Then the back doors opened.

James climbed out carrying a brightly wrapped box, while Juliet waited for Dominic to come around and unfasten her seat belt.

He bent into the car and lifted her out.

“Daddy, my dress is stuck.”

“I’ve got it.”

Dominic freed the yellow fabric from beneath her coat and smoothed it down before taking her hand.

Irene walked around the hood and handed him another gift.

The four of them crossed the parking lot together.

My husband had left our house pretending to meet a client.

Instead, he had picked up another woman and the children who had called him Daddy for 1,825 days.

And now he was bringing his family into my school.

I moved deeper into the admissions office, where the glass wall gave me a clear view without putting me directly in sight.

Juliet tugged Dominic toward the courtyard.

“Daddy, you promised you’d see my classroom first.”

“I remember.”

He smiled down at her.

My hand moved toward my stomach before I realized what I was doing.

Less than forty-eight hours ago, a doctor had told me I was carrying his child.

For years, I had imagined what Dominic might look like if I ever gave him that news.

Now I knew what Dominic looked like as a father: happy, proud and completely at ease.

Just not with me.

Helen, our admissions coordinator, approached with a clipboard.

“James and Juliet Vance?”

“That’s us,” Dominic said.

“And you’re their father?”

“Yes.”

He answered without hesitation.

“Dominic Vance.”

The photographer called them toward the welcome backdrop.

James stood between Dominic and Irene while Juliet climbed into Dominic’s arms.

“A little closer together, please.”

Dominic moved toward Irene until their shoulders touched.

She rested one hand against his chest as naturally as if she belonged there.

The flash went off beneath the words:

WELCOME TO THE ST. PETER’S FAMILY

Something inside me finally went quiet.

He had spent 1,825 days giving those children a father while letting me believe I had failed to give him a family.

I raised my phone and took one photograph of my own.

Then I left through the staff entrance before Dominic could see me.

At home, I pulled one suitcase from the closet and packed only what belonged to me: clothes, my passport, my mother’s jewelry and the documents from the safe.

Everything Dominic had given me stayed behind.

When I finished, I returned to the dining room.

The separation agreement went in the center of the table.

I placed my wedding ring on the signature page.

Beside it, I laid the photograph I had taken that morning: Dominic holding Juliet, James standing beside him and Irene’s hand resting against his chest. The four of them were smiling beneath the words WELCOME TO THE ST. PETER’S FAMILY.

Then I reached into my bag and took out the pregnancy report.

After years of appointments and disappointment, I was finally six weeks pregnant with my husband’s child.

I placed the report beside my wedding ring, turned it over and picked up a pen.

I did not want to leave Dominic a question or an explanation.

There was only one thing I wanted him to read when he came home.

I wrote a single sentence across the back of the report, capped the pen and left it on the table.

By the time Dominic saw it, he would know that I was pregnant—and that his wife was gone.

Then I picked up my suitcase and walked out the front door.