Chapter 3

Marielle didn't come home that night. Dorian didn't call to ask where she was.

He already knew. Elias had posted photographs on social media.

After leaving the hospital, they'd gone straight to the Bruckner house to announce the pregnancy. In one picture, Elias's grandmother held Marielle's hand while Marielle rested her other hand on her stomach, smiling warmly.

In five years together, Marielle had visited Dorian's parents only once, after accepting his proposal. Their homes were less than half an hour apart, but she always said she felt awkward around other people's parents. Even that one visit had been polite rather than affectionate.

She'd never looked at the Halbergs the way she looked at Elias's family.

Dorian closed the app.

The next day, he gathered a few close friends and told them the wedding was canceled.

Marielle had never wanted a ceremony. To her, weddings were pointless formalities. At Dorian's insistence, she'd agreed to a small celebration with their closest friends and family.

Everyone knew how long he'd loved her. His friends were stunned.

"You spent half your life trying to win Marielle over," one said. "You're finally about to marry her, and now you're walking away?"

Did he want to? Of course not.

He'd followed her for twenty years before she agreed to marry him. Letting go hurt.

But their relationship had never been equal. He'd spent his life moving toward her. She'd never taken a step toward him.

He'd thought marriage would give him more time to reach her heart. Even after five lonely years together, he'd believed patience would eventually be rewarded.

Then Elias, her supposed savior, reappeared six months earlier.

For the first time, Dorian saw that Marielle wasn't cold with everyone. She smiled easily at Elias and treated him with a tenderness she'd never shown her boyfriend. Dorian had tried to excuse it as gratitude.

Then came Elias's cancer diagnosis. Marielle agreed to bear his child, pretended to seek Dorian's permission, and secretly became pregnant anyway.

That was when he understood. There was nothing left to save.

Dorian didn't tell his friends the details. He said only that he'd be joining a restricted research project and might be unreachable for long stretches. Feeling guilty about the sudden cancellation, he stayed out drinking with them until midnight.

Marielle arrived home at roughly the same time he did.

She caught the scent of alcohol and immediately stepped back, covering her nose.

"Stay away from me. That smell makes me sick."

Her other hand moved instinctively to protect her stomach.

Dorian gave a faint, humorless smile. She hadn't even considered hiding it.

But if she wasn't ready to tell him, he wouldn't ask.

He showered. When he came back out, Marielle was typing rapidly on her phone, smiling at the screen. He was heading to bed when she called after him.

"There's something I need to discuss with you."

He stopped.

The last time she'd said those words, she'd announced her plan to have Elias's baby. They'd argued for a month afterward.

Now that she was already pregnant, what could she possibly want?