Chapter 1

After the first decent night’s sleep I’d had in ages, I was jolted awake by my phone.

Adrian Cole’s voice blasted through the speaker.

“Vanessa Sterling, where the hell are you? Evan didn’t go to school. His teacher called me directly. Are you trying to let this whole family fall apart?”

Before I could answer, Sophie Blake’s soft, affected voice drifted in from the background.

“Mr. Cole, don’t be angry. Vanessa still might not be feeling well. It’s just that Evan is already late. If the teacher asks too many questions, it might not look good for you.”

That was all it took for Adrian’s temper to flare.

“What does she know about looking good? She sits around the house all day pretending to be sick and lazy, and she still can’t handle one child.

“You did this on purpose, didn’t you? You wanted to embarrass me.

“I must have been blind when I married you. You don’t have half of Sophie’s sense.”

I hung up.

A second later, my phone started buzzing again. Adrian’s name flashed across the screen over and over.

I muted it and tossed it onto the nightstand.

The old me would never have dared.

Ten years ago, when I first met him, I followed him around like a fool in love.

When he worked late in the winter, I stood outside his office building for two hours in a down coat just to hand him a cup of hot ginger tea. When he said his company was short on cash, I went to my father in secret and begged him to invest, then made sure Adrian never found out.

I had graduated from a top university, but the moment Adrian said women were better off staying home with the children, I put away my resume and traded my life for a stove, a washing machine, and a house that never stayed clean.

To protect his pride, I never told anyone I was the daughter of Sterling International Bank.

The Chanel in my closet disappeared behind cheap cotton T-shirts. When I went out with him, I didn’t even dare carry an expensive bag.

I thought if I was gentle enough, quiet enough, useful enough, he would eventually love me back.

In the end, when I was burning with fever, he couldn’t spare me a single word of concern.

But when his secretary complained that her villa’s living room felt too cold because it was too large, he signed a thirty-million-dollar purchase contract without blinking.

He had never been stingy.

He had only been stingy with me.

I got out of bed and made myself breakfast. Behind me, I heard my son Evan Cole come in.

He slammed his backpack onto the dining table.

“Why aren’t you better yet? Ms. Blake prepares me breakfast every morning and takes me to school. You even forgot to drop me off. You’re the most useless mom ever.

“If I got to choose, I would have picked Ms. Blake as my mom a long time ago.”

Something in my chest seemed to crack.

When I gave birth to him, I was afraid painkillers might affect him, so I endured three days and three nights of labor to bring him into the world.

For eight years, I cared for him day and night. Even when I was exhausted and sick, I dragged myself up to cook for him. No matter how badly I was hurt, I still forced a smile in front of him.

If not for Evan, I would never have endured Adrian and Sophie’s betrayal for so long.

But in the end, he was Adrian’s son after all.

Cold. Ungrateful. Cruel.

My fingers tightened around the sandwich in my hand. Then I turned to him and smiled.

“Fine.

“I’ll take you to Ms. Blake later.

“From now on, she can be your mother.”