Chapter 2

I found myself grateful, in the end, that Damien and I had only done the church ceremony, and had never made it to City Hall.

If we had, breaking away from him would have been a great deal messier than it already was.

I spent the whole afternoon packing.

While I was sorting through my documents, I found a photograph tucked into the lining of my wallet.

It was of the three of us.

I stood in the middle, my left arm through Damien's, my right arm through Celeste's, my eyes crinkled into two half moons.

Julian had taken the picture.

At the time, I had thought there wasn't a happier person in the world than me.

Looking at it now, all I could think was how spectacularly stupid I had been.

I drew a long breath and forced myself out of the false comfort of the memory.

Just then, Damien called.

"Baby, something's come up over here. I have to handle it."

"Have dinner without me. I'll come home later and make you a midnight snack, okay?"

I tore the photograph into pieces, dropped them into the trash, and said softly:

"I told you. We're over."

"I don't accept that we're over."

There was an urgency in his voice on the other end, as though he had more to say.

Then, in the background, a familiar voice broke in.

"Damien, the doctor said…"

Celeste never got to finish. Damien cut the line dead.

A text came through immediately after.

【Bad signal on my end. We'll talk when I'm home.】

【But I'll say it again. I don't accept a breakup.】

Watching him keep at the lie, right down to this moment.

Something inside me quietly went out.

At that exact moment, Celeste posted to Instagram.

The photo was of two men's hands.

One was peeling an apple for her. The other was massaging her leg.

Being surrounded by the man I love and my best brother. Life is a blessing.

I tapped like.

A second later, the post, which she had clearly forgotten to hide from my account, vanished.

From the curtains in the background and the logo on the headboard, I recognized the place. Beacon Hill Private Clinic. The Vestrani family's own preferred hospital.

Some things, I decided, needed to end.

It took me a while to find Celeste's room. But just before I pushed the door open, I heard Julian's voice.

"Damien. This baby. What are you planning to do?"

My hand froze on the handle.

I suddenly remembered the child who had called me Aunt Sloane in my last life.

Damien and I had never had children of our own.

So I had loved that "niece" as though she were my own daughter.

Never once suspecting she was the child of my husband and my best friend.

Through the gap in the door, Damien's face was blurred.

"The baby can't stay. Sloane will suspect."

Celeste's expression, which had been so hopeful, twisted into something ugly.

"Damien! Are you even human? This is your child!"

Julian reached out, trying to steady her.

He pressed his lips together and made the same choice he had made in the life before.

"We'll say the baby is mine. Sloane will only be happy. She won't think twice."

"And it'll make it easier for you to be around the child later."

The room fell into silence.

At length, Damien nodded.

The weight in his face finally eased, and he softened his voice into something coaxing.

"I'll get a vasectomy in a while. Don't worry. This will be the only child I ever have. Consider it my apology to you."

"We'll tell everyone that Sloane is the one who can't conceive. I know a private doctor in Zurich. He can prescribe something that won't show up on any test she runs on herself. Every result will point back to her."

I gripped the handle so hard I couldn't move.

So this was how it was.

In my last life I had carried that guilt like an idiot for forty years. I had flown to every top fertility clinic in North America.

Even done IVF. Eight times.

Every single cycle had failed.

It had never crossed my mind that the whole thing was a trap, laid for me, by hand, by the three people I loved most in the world.

Just then, a nurse's voice came from behind me.

"Ma'am? Are you looking for someone?"

In the same instant, all three sets of eyes inside the room swung toward the door.