Chapter 1: Our Contract Has Ended

Hailey's POV 

Pregnant. 

I stared at the two pink lines until they blurred into one. 

The test dropped to the counter as my legs gave out, shaking so much I could barely hold anything. I gripped the sink, my knuckles turned white, stared at my reflection.

A baby. Our baby.

I pressed a hand to my still flat stomach, and for the first time in weeks I felt something other than the constant ache of being the second-best. Maybe this was the universe way of throwing me a lifeline. Maybe this would make Floyd finally see me, actually see me.

Maybe love could grow where contracts were planted. 

I grabbed my phone to dial his number, but no, this deserved more than a text. This was a kind of news that needed to be told face-to-face. 

 I found him in his study exactly where I knew he would be. He didn't look up when I entered, just kept signing documents with that same focus that made me feel safe.

Now it made me feel invisible.

"We need to talk." My voice came out steadier than I felt.

He set his pen down slowly. When he finally looked up and our eyes met, his face was completely blank, and I realized instantly that something was wrong.

"Actually," he said, opening his desk drawer, "I was going to call you in." 

He slid a folder across the desk toward me.

My stomach twisted before I touched it, I knew what was inside without needing to open it.

Divorce Papers.

The papers felt impossible heavy in my hands. It shattered everything we've built for three years like it never existed.

"What...." The word got stuck in my throat. "What is this?" 

"It's been three years, Hailey." His voice sounded detached,cold like he wasn't destroying my entire world. "Our contract specified we'd revisit the arrangement after three years. I'm choosing not to renew." 

The floor felt like it disappeared under me. I grabbed his desks, my nails digging into the table.

"Just like that?" My voice cracked, tears swelling up. "You're just....done?" 

"It was always temporary, Hailey." He leaned back. "You knew that right from the start."

"I knew what we agreed to." The words ripped out of me. "But I thought things changed. I changed. We changed."

" No" the word felt a knife to my chest." We didn't."

The left my lungs in rush. Pain moved through my chest, I was suffocating, my ribs caving in. I gasped, one hand flying to my heart hoping it could make the feeling die down.

"Is this about her?" The question came out before I could think. "About Kimberley?" 

His whole body stiffened. 

"This has nothing to do with her." His voice dropped to something dangerous. "Don't bring her into this." 

"Why not? She's already here, isn't she?" I laughed, but it came out broken. "God, I've been so stupid. All those weeks of you coming home late, shifting away, forgetting everything about me, it was all because of your precious first love finally came back, and I'm suddenly invisible."

"It's not like that." His voice was rough.

"Then what is it like?" I slammed my hands on the desk. "Explain it to me Floyd, because from where I'm standing you're choosing her over what we had!" 

He stood suddenly, his chair scrapping the floor. "You don't understand..." 

"Then make me understand!" Tears were streaming down my face now. "Tell me why she's worth throwing everything away. Tell me why three years of marriage, fake or not, meant less than someone who left you!" 

"Because I love her!" The words exploded out of him. "I never stopped loving her. Not for a single day." 

The silence that followed was deadly. I couldn't speak, couldn't breathe, couldn't think.

"And me?" My voice was barely above a whisper. "What was I?"

He looked away. "You knew what you were. We had a good arrangement." 

"An arrangement." I wiped my face with my shaking hands. "Is that you called three years of me falling in love with you? An arrangement?" 

His eyes snapped back to mine. "You knew the terms, Hailey."

"The terms didn't include you doing everything for me that you used to do for her!" My voice was rising now, but I didn't care. "The pills, the meals, every single sweet thing I thought belonged to us, was just you reliving your greatest hits with someone else! I was living in her shadows, wearing her routines like hand-me-down clothes, and I didn't even know!"

" That's not..." He ran a hand through his hair. "It wasn't like that."

"Then what was it like?" I stepped closer. "Tell me one thing, just one, that actually belonged to me. One moment, one gesture, one routine that you created just for me." 

He opened his mouth then closed, and looked away. The silence was answer enough.

"That's what I thought. "Give me a pen."

The silence was answer enough.

He blinked. "What?"

"The papers." I grabbed his pen, my hands steady despite my world ending. Sign them. Now."

"Hailey you don't have to sign them right away."

" Yes. I do." I signed my name in sharp, violent strokes. "Because I'm done. Done being your backup plan. Done living as her shadow. Done pretending any of this was ever real."

I threw the pen down. It bouched across his desk.

"There. You're free." My voice was cold. "Go be with your first love back."

I turned toward the door, each step feeling like walking through glass.

I walked out. The door closed behind me with a final click.

Outside, I made it three steps before my legs gave out. I collapsed against the side, sliding down until I hit concrete.

The sobs came violent and ugly, tearing out of me like something dying. I pressed both hands against my stomach, protecting the tiny life he'd never know about.

And somehow inside the house, my husband, well my ex husband, was probably already dialing her number.