Chapter 1
A few of us were at the hospital for fertility checkups, and somehow, we ended up turning it into a little competition to see whose husband would come running the moment she called.
When it was my turn, everyone looked at me with envy.
Someone laughed and called out, "Hazel, your husband loves you so much. Tell him to come pick you up right now."
Ryan had once sworn that if I ever called, he would cross the world to get back to me.
I was about to call him when my phone buzzed first.
The location Ryan sent was right outside the courthouse.
Then his call came through. "I lost a dare. Rosalie asked if I had the guts to marry her for a day, just for fun. Hazel, come meet me and get a divorce.
"Don't worry. We'll get married again tomorrow. You know I can't back down in front of Rosalie."
Everyone around me fell silent.
If this had happened before, I would have cried and demanded to know how he could do this to me. This time, I simply answered, "Okay."
He let out a sigh of relief, convinced that I had finally stopped making a fuss.
Everyone here knew that Ryan and I had been married for five years and had spent those years going from one hospital to another, desperate to have a baby. I had just found out today that I was pregnant.
They also knew that Rosalie had been Ryan's childhood sweetheart, and that she was always dragging him into those stupid dares to see what he would or wouldn't do.
Now I finally understood. Maybe those dares had never been jokes at all.
If Rosalie wanted something, Ryan would do it. And if what she wanted was my place, he would give it to her.
Fine, then. I hope the two of you stay together for good.
*****
"Hazel, don't forget your ID and personal files." Ryan's voice came through the phone, warm and casual. "Rosalie can be very stubborn. If I don't go along with her, she'll throw a fit all day.
"Just come help me out."
The air in the hallway seemed to freeze. The women who had been teasing me moments ago exchanged awkward glances.
The envy on their faces had disappeared, replaced by sympathy and embarrassment.
I folded up the ultrasound report and slipped it into the inner pocket of my bag.
"Okay," I said into the phone.
"I knew you'd understand," Ryan said with a soft laugh. "I'm waiting for you at the intersection across from the hospital. It's windy outside. Get yourself a jacket."
He was always like this. He could make the cruelest decisions in the gentlest voice.
I hung up, ignoring the curious stares around me, and headed straight for the elevator.
When I stepped out of the hospital, a black Maybach was parked under the tree. Ryan was in the driver's seat with one hand resting on the steering wheel.
When he saw me coming, he rolled down the window and pushed open the passenger door for me. "Hop in. We're right on time."
He checked his watch.
I stood outside the car door, unmoving.
"Ryan, I'm pregnant." I looked him in the eye and said it as calmly as if I were telling him what the weather was like.
He froze for a second.
Then, the smile on his lips deepened, and he rubbed his forehead. "Hazel, are you going to use pregnancy as an excuse simply because you don't want me to win this game? You weren't like this before."
He sighed, his voice filled with indulgent exasperation. "I know this is hard on you, but you know Rosalie has always been insecure.
"She only wants to know there's someone in this world who'll stand by her no matter what.
"I'll be waiting for you at the courthouse first thing tomorrow. After we get remarried, I'll take some time off and take you to Vaskar for travel. How does that sound?"
I looked into his tender eyes and felt a faint ache twist in my stomach.
I'd heard these promises too many times before.
Three years ago, on our wedding anniversary, he booked out the entire top-floor restaurant.
As the food arrived, Rosalie called. She was drunk at a bar and asked him if he had the guts to show up within ten minutes.
That night, I sat alone at a table full of food, staring at the neon lights outside the window.
Later, I spent two days at home with a high fever.
When he finally came back, he used that same gentle voice to tell me that Rosalie was only a clueless girl, and that I should be more understanding.
I should have realized then that his priorities had never included me.
"Get in the car. Don't keep Rosalie waiting," he urged.
I looked away, opened the back door, and got in.
Ryan glanced at me in the rearview mirror, his brow barely creasing. However, he said nothing and pressed down on the gas.
Soft background music played in the car. He drove with one hand while rapidly typing on his phone with the other.
The glow from the screen lit up his face, revealing how pleased he was.
I turned my head to the window, watching the trees outside blur past.
The ultrasound report lay quietly in my bag. It was the first record of a life that was barely six weeks old and also the child he had once whispered beside my ear that he desperately wanted, a little girl who looked like me.
Now, in his eyes, this child was nothing more than a lie meant to keep him from winning a game.
I closed my eyes and gently placed my hand over my belly.
Fine. If he thought it was a lie, then he'd never get to know the truth.