chapter Two

Evelyn's POV

"Liam…" I called out to him, wondering what might be in those photos to make him so furious. How did those pictures even get in there? I couldn't help but wonder what was going on.

The room went so quiet I could hear my own heartbeat. Liam crossed the floor in three long steps and grabbed my wrist. His fingers were hard. He pulled me toward him, the photos still crushed in his other hand. "You," he said. His voice shook. "You couldn't even be decent."

"You couldn't keep your legs closed." He held the pictures up in my face. That was when I saw it; it was me in those photos in a hotel with a man. My head on his chest. One stare at it and I froze, grabbed the pictures from his hands to really confirm it was me. “But…how…?” 

"Of all days, you had to do this today? On my birthday. And you rub it in front of everyone?" If I was sure of one thing in this world, it was that I had loved Liam since we were teenagers back in high school. Back then, he was soft and gentle. When the other children laughed at my broken shoes, he stood up for me. He would whisper silly, sweet things just to pull a smile out of me.

 From that day on, I never looked at another man the way a woman looks at a lover. Now, as I stared into those angry eyes, I understood that none of it had ever mattered to him. "Liam, please." I kept my voice low. The whole room was staring. "Let's not do this here. Come inside. Let me explain."

Truth is, there was no explanation I could give; it was my face on the pictures, wearing the necklace he bought on my 25th birthday. There was no excuse I could give. Whoever did this planned it carefully. Explain?" He laughed, but there was no joy in it now. "Explain what? There is a man's hand all over you in this!" 

"On my birthday, Evelyn." His grip tightened. "Of all the days. This is unacceptable."I looked around at his friends' surprised faces, open mouths. Behind Liam stood Cherry, her arms folded, her beautiful face set in shock. But her eyes were not shocked. Her eyes were calm. Watching and pleased. "Please," I whispered to him. "Come inside with me. Just us. Let me talk to you."

He did not move. He would not give me even that. My legs began to shake; I had one thing left: one true thing. I dropped down to my knees on the cold marble floor, right there in front of everyone, and I looked up at him. "Liam," I said. "I'm pregnant." The room went silent all over again.

The result of his drunken nights. The sober him would never choose me. Alcohol was the only thing that lowered the wall he kept up every other hour of the day. So the touch doesn't feel like love. It felt like I was something he lets himself have when he's not fully himself, like a thing he'd be ashamed of in daylight.

He froze. For one second, just one, his face opened. Something flickered in his eyes. Surprise. Maybe something softer under it. I held my breath. Please,” I begged him in my mind. Then his face closed like a door. "Pregnant." He said the word like it tasted bad. "By who?"

"By you. It's yours. It…" Liam did not let me talk. A disgusting look was written all over his face. "Mine?" He dropped the photos. They scattered on the floor between us.  "You think I'm a fool? It's probably one of those hotel men. You lie down with strangers and then come crawling to me with a baby?"

"Liam, no…" Tears flowed like rain from my eyes. "No." He stepped back from me like I was dirty. "Let me tell you the truth, Evelyn. The only truth. I married your brain. Your mind made my father’s company millions. That part of you, I respect." His lip curled. "But you? The woman? You are nothing. Emotionally, you are dumb. Empty. You always have been."

I knelt there on the floor, and I let the words hit me one by one. And the worst part was this. He was not wrong. I was dumb. I had married a man who hated me. I had signed my life away to a stranger. I had spent three years hoping a locked door would open for me, when I knew, it never would. But I had done it for a reason.

The hospital came back to me all at once. The white room. The machine breathing for my little brother. The doctor's soft, terrible voice. "Evelyn, I'm sorry. Ethan has one week. Maybe less."

I had been twenty-two, holding my dying brother's hand, with no money and no time. And Liam Marlon had been the only door open to me. So I had walked through it. I had given up everything, my pride, my heart, my whole self, to keep Ethan alive.

Dumb, maybe. But I would do it again. I would do it a hundred times for my brother. I lifted my head. "I did what I had to do," I said quietly. "You will never understand that." Liam did not even hear me. He turned to his friends. Andrew would not look at me. Matteo stared at the floor.

"I'm leaving," Liam said. I pushed myself up off the floor. My knees ached. "Leaving? It's your birthday. Your guests, I will leave instead"

"I don't care about any of this." He was already pulling off his jacket. "Where are you going?" The words came out small. He looked at me. And he smiled. A cruel, slow smile. "Cherry's," he said. "I'm spending the night at Cherry's." Across the room, Cherry's mouth curved up just a little.

Liam rejected the life growing inside of me, half mine, half his, in front of our friends. I stood there and watched my husband walk out on his pregnant wife to go spend the night in another woman’s arms.