Chapter one

Veldana pov

"My son deserves better than you."

I paused with a crate of sealed medical supplies balanced against my hip, making sure I had heard her right. The air vents hummed their usual rhythm, pushing cool air down the lower storage corridor.

In front of me, Evelyn Gibson sat on a folding chair as if it were an armchair in a parlor. She wore a beige cardigan, her silver hair pinned into its usual tight chignon.

Even after seven months underground, she still looked like a woman waiting for high tea.

"Excuse me?" I set the crate down on the table behind me.

"You heard me, Veldana." Evelyn didn't look up from smoothing her slacks. "A man in Lincoln's position needs a partner who elevates him. A proper woman who carries herself with poise. Not someone who spends her days hauling crates, covered in grime, smelling of motor oil and stale sweat."

A sharp laugh slipped out of me. I pressed a hand to my lower back, easing the ache of being nearly eight months pregnant. I had just spent five hours auditing medical rations.

"Evelyn, if this is about the ration limits, I already told you why the canned peaches were cut," I said, keeping my tone calm. "The southern supply run almost cost us two scouts. The guards on watch need the high-calorie rations. Three hundred people in this shelter depend on those supplies."

Evelyn raised her eyes. Her look was flat and cold, out of place for a petty domestic argument. "You think my concern is canned fruit?"

"Then I don't know what you're getting at." I crossed my arms. "Lincoln has a warm bed, a secure perimeter, and control of the best-fortified facility in the sector. My trust fund paid for every inch of reinforced steel and every air filter in this bunker before the virus left the coast. I worked beside him every day. I went out on supply runs until my second trimester, and I run our logistics now. Lincoln knows what I've done for this family, and he appreciates it."

Lincoln was nothing like his mother. That very morning he had wrapped his arms around me before heading up to the command desk, kissed my temple, and told me to sit down more often. For three years he had told me my strength was what he loved most. Whenever Evelyn made snide remarks about my weight or my family's commercial background, Lincoln squeezed my hand under the table. 'She comes from a different era, Vel,' he'd say. 'You're the one holding our world together.'

"He appreciates it," Evelyn repeated. She let the words sit between us, her mouth curving into a thin, brittle line.

"Yes, he does," I said. "We built this place together. And I'm carrying his daughter. Your granddaughter. Whatever mood you're in today, Evelyn, I don't have the bandwidth for it. I have two more manifests to clear before the night shift."

I turned back to the inventory sheet on my clipboard, expecting one last bitter remark before she went back up to her quarters. She didn't leave. Instead, a sharp, ugly sound filled the basement. Evelyn was laughing. It echoed off the concrete walls. She leaned back in her chair, shaking her head as if I'd told the funniest joke she had ever heard.

Unease crept down my spine. I turned fully around, gripping the edge of the table. "What is wrong with you?"

"Oh, you foolish, pathetic girl." Evelyn sighed and dabbed the corner of her eye with a handkerchief. She stood and brushed imaginary dust from her knees. "You really believe every word you say, don't you? You stand there looking like a swollen draft horse, telling yourself your husband looks at you with anything but revulsion. Has the pregnancy blinded you, or were you always this dense?"

"Watch how you speak to me," I snapped. "I've put up with your insults for years because you're Lincoln's mother, but I'm done being treated like an intruder in a shelter I built."

"A shelter you paid for," Evelyn corrected coolly, stepping toward me. Before I could pull back, she grabbed my wrist. Her fingers were bony and tight, pinching the skin near my pulse. "Come with me. It's time someone cured your willful ignorance. Let's see how loudly you talk once you see what the rest of this facility has known for months."

"Let go of me, Evelyn!" I tried to jerk my arm free, but she held on, already pulling me toward the security corridor.

"Walk, Veldana," she said without glancing back. "Unless you're afraid of the truth."

A knot formed in my gut. I didn't believe her. I couldn't. Lincoln was my husband, and we had survived the collapse together. He wasn't capable of the malice she was implying. I kept pace down the bright hall, telling myself this was another attempt to drive a wedge between us.

At the security annex, Evelyn swiped her level-one keycard, and the lock disengaged with a solid thunk. Inside, dozens of security feeds glowed along the console wall. Gary, a junior technician, sat in the swivel chair. He jumped when the door opened, his eyes darting between Evelyn and me.

"Leave us, Gary," Evelyn said. "Take half an hour."

"Mrs. Gibson, I'm supposed to keep the main gate feed monitored—"

"I said get out," she interrupted, not looking at him.

Gary hesitated, glanced nervously at my belly, then grabbed his radio and hurried out. The latch clicked shut behind him.

"What is this?" I rubbed my wrist, where her fingers had left red marks. "If you brought me here to look at supply logs, just say it."

Evelyn didn't answer. She typed a short password and pulled up an archived recording, timestamped 01:18:42 AM from two nights ago. The screen showed the executive lounge on Sub-level 2, a room Lincoln kept for administrative planning. The door opened and Lincoln walked in, wearing his gray fleece, his dark hair messy, a folder in his hand. Someone followed him inside. Jenny Hall.

Jenny was Lincoln's adopted cousin. He had brought her to the shelter when the northern suburbs fell and asked me to give her a room. I had shared my clothes with her and treated her like family.

"They had a late logistics meeting," I said, my voice uneven. "He told me he had to review the inventory with her."

"Keep your eyes on the screen."

On the monitor, Lincoln tossed the folder onto the coffee table, turned, and pulled Jenny against him. She didn't resist. She laughed softly and wrapped her arms around his neck, and he kissed her with a hunger I hadn't seen from him in months. My breath caught. My mind refused to make sense of it, as if I were watching a stranger's life.

"No," I whispered. "This is a misunderstanding. Someone edited the footage."

"Edited?" Evelyn sneered. "With what? You paid for this system yourself." She unmuted the audio.

"I can't keep doing this," Lincoln said, his voice ragged as he buried his face in Jenny's neck. "Every time I look at her, I feel sick."

Jenny giggled. "Careful. Your devoted little wife thinks you walk on water."

"She doesn't suspect a damn thing," he muttered. "She waddles around down there playing savior. Her father's money was the only reason I ever looked twice at her. The second this started, I wished I'd married you."

"You promised she wouldn't be here forever," Jenny pouted.

"She won't be," Lincoln said. "Once she delivers the kid, the trust settles under family estate law. We push her out. She won't last three days out there, and this place is ours."

My knees buckled and I dropped onto the cold linoleum, clawing at the console. Three years. I had gone hungry through the first winter so his mother could have soup.

"How long?" I choked out. "Did everyone know?"

"Jenny was always the woman for him," Evelyn said. "You served your purpose. You built the walls."

A violent cramp tore through my pelvis, and I cried out, curling over my belly.

"Get up," Evelyn said. "Don't make a scene."

"Something's wrong," I gasped. When I pulled my hand from my trousers, my fingers were red with blood.

My heartbreak vanished under terror. "Evelyn, I'm bleeding! Call Dr. Alvarez! It's the baby. She's your granddaughter!"

"My son doesn't need a child with your bloodline," she said, pressing the override button. "Security to the annex. Bring restraints."

"Lincoln wouldn't do this!" I cried. "Call him down here!"

"Lincoln approved it an hour ago," she said.

Two guards dragged me down the corridor while workers watched and no one moved. "Please, just save the baby!" The guard threw me onto the cracked concrete outside, and the door slammed shut.

A wet hiss came from behind me. Infected lurched toward me, drawn by blood. I covered my belly.

'I'm sorry, my little girl. Mommy couldn't save you.'

Teeth sank deep into my shoulder.