Chapter 2

"Why did you lie to your wife? Why would you do something so vile to her?"

If they wanted to put on an act, I'd just play along.

Aaron pressed a hand to his stinging face, his eyes calm.

"What's wrong with any of this?"

"She needs a child to avoid jail time, so you won't neglect me every single day over someone else's kid, and you won't wear yourself out and abort our child!"

"She killed one of my children. Isn't it only right she gives me another in return?"

When I lost my child, I was heartbroken too.

Because that was my and Aaron's first child.

It was also the one thing he needed to reclaim the shares of the Rowe family that rightfully belonged to his mother.

The Rowe family had always struggled to produce heirs.

His scumbag father had given him one year to produce an heir before I would be allowed into the family.

But not long after I got pregnant, I miscarried from sheer overwork.

Aaron gave me no end of grief over it.

And once my body had recovered, I did everything I could to conceive again.

I even suggested that we pretend Maurice was his and my child, so he could get back the shares his mother had left behind.

But Aaron refused.

"If my dad finds out I tricked him with someone else's kid, I won't get a single cent!"

I felt I had let him down, and that I had let Serena down too.

Every day after work I did the laundry, cooked, and looked after the child, waiting on the two of them like royalty.

And in the end, all it got me was the two of them having an affair behind my back.

"No matter what, that child cannot be born!"

The words had barely left my mouth when my phone buzzed.

It was a message from Serena:

Yola, I'm so sorry. Your brother's wife can only atone with her death!

All I could see in my mind was the hatred in Serena's eyes when she looked at me.

Remembering that Maurice was still in her hands, panic seized me, and I rushed back home.

I heard the baby crying nonstop inside, and my hands shook so badly I couldn't even fit the key in the lock.

In the end it was Aaron who opened the door.

And Serena lay collapsed in a pool of blood, holding Maurice.

Shocked and furious, I called 911.

Thank God I'd gotten back in time. She and Maurice were both fine.

I held my nephew, not daring to cry out loud.

And I put on a show of apologizing to Serena, in case she used her standing as his mother to turn against Maurice.

Serena, just like before, gently stroked the top of my head.

"Silly girl, it's not your fault. I'm just cursed with bad luck."

"That's why I brought death on your brother, and then did something that betrayed him."

At the mention of my brother, tears poured out of us both.

Aaron stood off to the side, his hands folded together, and suddenly spoke.

"Since you're not even afraid of death, then live properly and stop always dragging other people down."

His words sounded like he was scolding Serena, but they also drew a clear line between us.

I was the "other people" he meant.

I stood up and pounded on him like a madwoman.

He took every blow without resisting.

Only when I had no strength left did he hold me and say gently,

"Yolanda, this child has to be born. Once I get the shares that belong to me, I'll take responsibility for you both, including your brother's child."

I shoved him away hard, looked at Serena, and said flatly,

"Once you're feeling better, I'll have the doctor schedule the surgery."

But she closed her eyes and refused.

"Listen to your Aaron."

"Maurice needs me."

When she was killing herself, she hadn't thought about how Maurice needed her.

Aaron had promised to take responsibility, and yet she said Maurice needed her.

I dug my fingernails into my palm to keep from giving myself away.

She had ended up facing prison to save me, yes.

But now, to spare herself the suffering, she wanted to use a child to dodge her sentence and tangle herself up with my fiancé, betting that guilt would make me soft.

But I didn't want to swallow that half-cooked mess.

I forced down my anger and made a decision.

"If you're keeping this child, then Aaron, we're through. You marry Serena, and Maurice comes with me."

But the two of them rejected my decision in the same breath.

The way they were in sync sent the anger crawling back up my chest.

To keep from saying something full of resentment, I carried Maurice off to the nursing room to rest.

Aaron didn't come out after me.

He stayed behind in the hospital room instead.

I didn't go back to the room until Maurice got hungry and needed to nurse.

And I took the phone that had been left there on purpose.

When I opened it, a notification popped up saying a recording had been saved.

I hesitated for a long time, and finally tapped it.