Chapter 1

Edward Foster broke up with me in a fit of anger. So I packed my bags and left that same night while I was still pregnant. Forget that jerk.

"Mom, where's my dad?" my son, Lucas Evans-Foster, asked.

"He died a hero," I replied.

"What does that mean?"

"It means he's gone."

Everyone in Brighton knew Edward had a terrible temper, except with me. But everything changed when his first love, Emily Lane, came back.

"Fine, we're done!" I once shouted at Edward.

We broke up. Five years later, he saw a little boy who looked exactly like him.

*****

"Julia, do you really have to make this such a big deal?" Edward asked.

On the other end of the phone, his voice carried a hint of annoyance.

I gripped the phone until my knuckles turned white, my other hand clutching the flimsy test result.

It says, "Early pregnancy, six weeks."

The cold letters hit me like poison-tipped needles, stabbing straight through my chest.

Outside, Brighton's night skyline glittered with neon lights, each one seeming to mock my misery. I'd just come from the hospital, desperate to share this amazing news with him first.

But when I called, Emily answered instead. She was the woman Edward truly loved.

She said he was in the shower and couldn't come to the phone. Her voice was sweet and intimate, like she was marking her territory.

My heart turned to ice in that moment.

Now Edward had finally called back, only to fire accusations at me.

I took a shaky breath, forcing down the sob in my throat, but my voice still trembled.

"Edward, I'm not feeling well today. Can you please come home?" I asked.

"Emily just got back to the country, and she's sick with jet lag. I can't leave her." He said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

It was always about Emily.

Ever since she came back, her name had been the source of every fight between me and Edward.

"So I'm supposed to just suffer alone, is that it?" I was practically screaming now.

All the hurt and fear I'd been bottling up for weeks exploded out of me.

"Julia." His voice turned cold. "You weren't like this before. Why can't you cut Emily some slack? She's fragile. Can't you be the bigger person?"

'The bigger person?' I thought. 'With what? The baby growing inside me that I hadn't even told him about yet?'

My heart felt like it was being crushed by an invisible hand. I couldn't breathe.

Everyone in Brighton knew Edward. He was cold, ruthless, with a temper that could level buildings.

But he'd also braved a thunderstorm and crossed half the city only to buy me my favorite cake.

He'd prepare a cup of hot cocoa during my period, burning his own hands in the process.

He'd rest his chin on my head and murmur in that deep voice, "Julia, I've got you. No one's ever gonna hurt you."

I thought I was special to him and that I was the exception.

Then Emily came back.

She was Edward's "fragile, sickly childhood friend" he'd told me about, the one he had to take care of.

She was his first love, the one he'd always kept on a pedestal.

It turned out I was only special because his real love wasn't around.

I was some cheap knockoff.

"Edward," I said, my voice suddenly eerily calm. "Let's break up."

There was a long and heavy silence on the other end.

I even thought he'd already hung up.

Then I heard his voice, cold as a blade, slicing through my last shred of hope.

"Fine, let's break up. Julia, don't you dare regret this," he replied.

Click. He hung up.

I stood there in the living room, phone still pressed to my ear, for what felt like forever.

Then the tears came. One by one, they splattered onto the floor, silent and invisible.

'Regret?' I thought. 'The only thing I regret is ever loving you.'

That night, I didn't cry for long.

I calmly deleted all his contact info and blocked his number.

Then I opened a travel app and booked the first flight out of Brighton.

I wanted to move to a city where no one knew my name.

I placed a hand on my still-flat stomach and whispered to the little life inside me. "Baby, it's just you and me from now on.

"But don't worry. Mommy's going to love you enough for two."

As for that jerk Edward, I didn't need him.