Chapter 1

I'd just finished watching the video the gossip reporter had sent me and was about to delete it when he sent another message.

"Adrian Shaw's dirty little scandal. Two and a half million dollars will keep his reputation and your perfect marriage intact. Not too high a price, is it?"

I scoffed.

I replied, "Go ahead and leak it. I don't care."

Then I blocked him.

When I turned around, the nanny had just brought my son, Noah Shaw, home from preschool. He was rubbing his red, teary eyes.

"Mommy, when is Daddy coming home? All the kids at preschool say I'm the kid without a dad," he sobbed.

My chest tightened, and tears burned my eyes.

I pulled him into my arms, but my mind drifted back to that night five years earlier.

We'd been on a business trip. Adrian, the man I'd quietly loved for ten years, had barged into my hotel room drunk.

He was barely conscious, so I let him stay.

I thought we'd get through the night without bothering each other. Instead, he suddenly started burning up, and before I knew what was happening, he forced himself on me.

The next morning, Adrian saw the bright red stain on the sheets, and surprise crossed his face.

"Don't worry. I'll take responsibility.

"Once things settle down in a few days, I'll take you to City Hall for a marriage license. We'll get married."

I was so happy I felt like I was floating.

It had happened so suddenly that I could barely believe it.

I was still daydreaming about our life together when I overheard Adrian talking to his best friend.

"Adrian, what's going on with you? You're married now, aren't you? Stop being so picky. Your wife is a good person. She's beautiful, and she loves you. Is Chloe really so important that you still can't get over her after all these years?"

Adrian sighed and shook his head. "You don't understand. She's not the sweet, innocent woman I thought she was."

I heard the contempt in his voice.

"I'll admit it. I liked Mandy at first. But then I found out she'd drugged me at the hotel that night, and that's why—

"Whatever I'd felt for her vanished, just like that.

"It's disgusting."

I stood hidden outside the door, cold all over.

Before I had the chance to explain, Adrian took charge of the company's overseas operations and left the country, abandoning me just after I learned I was pregnant.

He stayed away for five long years.

In those five years, I went to the hospital alone in the pouring rain and gave birth to a son I'd believed was conceived in love.

In those five years, my son learned to say "Daddy" and began asking me over and over where his daddy was.

Every day and every night, we waited for Adrian to come home.

But he never came home to us. All I heard were rumors about him and another woman.

Then the front door swung open.

It was Adrian!

I shot to my feet. My mouth opened, then closed. I was about to ask, "What are you doing home?"

But then I saw he was holding a little boy's hand.

My son bounced with excitement, then threw himself into Adrian's arms.

"Daddy! You're finally home. This is the best. Now I'm not the kid without a dad anymore!"

He'd barely finished speaking when Adrian frowned and impatiently pushed him aside.

Then he cleaned his hands with a sanitizing wipe.

A second later, the boy Adrian had brought home shoved my son to the floor.

"Who do you think you are? Stop clinging to my daddy!

"Get out!"