Chapter 1

I had barely come out of anesthesia after my D&C when a post appeared on my feed.

[My fiancé loves me so much he paid a doctor to end his wife's pregnancy. What's it like to be chosen that completely?]

I was about to call her a liar when I saw her other replies.

[She kept switching OBs. It didn't matter. He made sure every one of them put her on medication that would end the pregnancy. Clean, quiet, and impossible to trace.]

[He proposed with the three-million-dollar pink diamond from this year's Christie's sale. His wife got a little band made from the stones left over after they finished my setting.]

My skin went cold.

Only minutes earlier, my husband, Ethan Hayes, had held my hand with tears in his eyes and told me how devastated he was by our second miscarriage.

I tapped the poster's profile. Right at the top was a photo of two hands laced together.

The door opened, and Ethan walked in carrying a bowl of chicken broth. His voice was as gentle as ever.

"How are you feeling, sweetheart? I know this hurts, but it wasn't your fault. Once you're back on your feet, we'll finally have the fifth-anniversary party you planned. I'll make it perfect."

I looked into his lying eyes.

"Don't bother. Cancel it."

The spoon stopped in Ethan's hand.

He set the porcelain bowl on the nightstand with a dull clink, then sat beside me and tucked a strand of sweat-damp hair behind my ear. His fingertips were warm. The concern on his face would have convinced anyone who did not know better.

"You don't mean that."

His eyes were rimmed red, and his voice caught just enough to sound real.

"I know how badly you wanted this baby. So did I. But Dr. Lewis said the pregnancy was becoming dangerous. If we'd waited, I could have lost you too."

I lowered my gaze to the ring on my left hand. The diamond band was simple and understated.

According to the post, its small accent stones were leftovers from the setting built around Madison's three-million-dollar diamond.

I used to believe Ethan had designed it for me, something understated because he understood my taste. Now all I could see was a jeweler clearing scraps from his workbench.

I pulled my hand out of his and hid it beneath the white blanket.

"I want to speak to Dr. Lewis."

Something flickered in Ethan's eyes. It vanished almost at once, replaced by his familiar tenderness.

"Dr. Lewis flew to Germany this morning for a medical conference."

He picked up the bowl, blew carefully over a spoonful, and held it to my lips.

"Come on. Eat something. I made this myself. It took three hours."

The sight of the golden broth made my stomach roll.

He had skipped a meeting on a fifteen-billion-dollar acquisition to make it. In Chicago business circles, Ethan Hayes was famous for being devoted to his wife.

Yet those same hands had authorized the payment that ended our child's life.

I forced myself to swallow. Ethan smiled and gently wiped the corner of my mouth with a napkin.

"There you go. Your only job is to get well. Let me handle everything else."

His phone buzzed in his pocket. He checked the screen, and a faint crease appeared between his brows.

"Something urgent came up at the office. I'll take the call outside and be right back."

He kissed my forehead and left the room.

The second the door shut, I pulled my phone from beneath the pillow. I saved the post, every reply, and the photograph of those intertwined hands. Then I called Jack Turner, an investigator who had handled international due diligence for my company.

"Find any money that moved from Hayes Group or Ethan's office to Dr. Lewis in the last three months. Check consulting companies, foundations, and offshore accounts."

When the call ended, I sank against the hospital bed, suddenly too weak to move.

Two hours later, an encrypted email arrived from Jack. One of his banking sources had found a wire routed through a shell consulting firm. The night before my procedure, seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars had landed in Dr. Lewis's Swiss account. The authorization traced back to Ethan's executive assistant.

Jack had added a note below the image.

[Dr. Lewis never went to Germany. He and his family moved to Canada this morning.]