Chapter 1

"You look tired," Adrian said, not looking up from his tablet. "You stayed up late?"

Ivy set his coffee down exactly where he liked it, two inches from his right hand, and the handle turned toward him. "I couldn't sleep. You didn't come home until past two."

"Dinner took a while. You know how Halloran gets once the wine comes out." He scrolled through his tab, his thumb moving fast, the way it always did when he wanted a conversation to end. "I told you not to wait up."

"I wasn't actually waiting up. I couldn't sleep."

That got him to glance at her, just for a second. He was deciding whether it was worth his attention. It wasn't. He just went back to the tablet.

Ivy poured her own coffee and stood at the counter instead of sitting across from him.

"I'll be in Singapore next week," Adrian said. "The Meridian deal closes Thursday, so I'll fly out Tuesday, be back by the weekend."

"Which weekend?"

"This one. Obviously this one." He finally looked up properly. "Is something wrong?"

Ivy could have said yes. She had been circling the word for weeks. He was always forgetting to keep their time together.

Instead she said, "No. I just thought we were doing the Hendersons' anniversary dinner on Saturday."

"Reschedule it. Tell Marissa I said sorry." He was already standing and already buttoning his jacket. 

He kissed her cheek on his way past quickly, like a robot as usual.

"Don't wait up tonight either. I'll be at the office late."

The door closed behind him, and silence settled over the apartment. Ivy had grown used to it by now.

The first few weeks, she'd filled it with music or television. Now she let it be.

Overwhelmed with boredom, she went to his study to look for the folder with the Meridian paperwork, the one she'd forgotten to have Renata print last week. 

She pulled open the second drawer of his desk, the one he kept locked most days and had left unlocked this morning in his hurry.

The folder wasn't there. A phone was. It wasn't the one that usually sat on the nightstand or rang during dinner.

This one was older and looked cheap. The kind you buy with cash and never register. It was fully charged. Someone had used it recently.

She thought about putting it back for exactly as long as it took her thumb to find the button and press it.

It didn't have a passcode. Whoever this belonged to hadn't expected anyone to look.

There was only one conversation on the entire phone. At the top of the screen, saved plainly as a contact name: Lauren.

Ivy opened it anyway.

Fri, July 17, 2023

“We landed safely, miss you already, babe.

Thank you for the flowers; they were beautiful”.

She stared at the date before she let herself read the words properly. July, three years ago, was the week of the Kaufman merger. The week Adrian told her he was in Singapore.

Tue, July 21, 2023

“I want to pick a name soon. I told the doctor we still have time. Do we, Adrian? Be honest with me.”

Her stomach dropped before her mind caught up to why she wanted a name. She scrolled up, then down, then up again, trying to find something that would make this mean anything other than what it very clearly meant.

Mon, November 4, 2025

“The pediatrician asked if you were coming by today. I didn't know what to say, so I told her you were traveling for work. She looked at me like she didn't believe it”.

There it was. This wasn't some strange business contact with a familiar tone. It was a child.

Years of this, sitting quietly in a drawer in her own home, while she'd been upstairs picking out throw pillows for a marriage that had apparently never really included her.

There were photos too; casual and constant.

A whole life documented in parallel to her own.

Newborn wrapped in a hospital blanket, dark hair, Adrian's exact chin, an expression Ivy recognized instantly, because she had seen it on her husband's face a hundred times.

She scrolled back to the very first photo in the thread. The date stamped in the corner made something in her chest go completely still.

The same week as the Kaufman merger. He hadn't been in Singapore that whole week. He'd been somewhere else entirely, in a hospital room, holding a child he had never once mentioned to her.

She immediately put the phone back exactly where she had found it and carefully left it at the same angle. She was reaching to close the drawer when her fingers brushed something else, tucked beneath a stack of documents.

A hospital bracelet. Thin plastic they give to new fathers, so staff knows who belongs in the room. Only a few details were printed on it. But they were enough.

A date and a name that wasn't hers.

Ivy stood there holding it for a long moment, as hot tears trickled down her face. She had been heartbroken from the cold treatment Adrian always gave her, but this one was premium.

 All her hard work and stress to keep her husband's company thriving flashed before her eyes. She realised how much she emptied her cup to make sure his was overflowing. She barely had any property to her name and a meager amount she had in her bank account.

She slid the bracelet into the pocket of her cardigan instead of putting it back. She wasn't sure yet why she needed to keep it. She only knew she wasn't ready to let it go.

She closed the drawer, wiped her face, and smoothed her skirt. She walked back to the kitchen and poured herself a full glass of alcohol while she drowned in her misery.

Adrian's message came through around six.

“Running late, don't wait up, love you.”

She didn't reply right away. She sat at the kitchen island and watched the lights outside.

Turning the bracelet over in her pocket, she decided with a clarity that surprised her.

She wasn't going to confront him tonight. She’d sit across from him at dinner tomorrow, ask about his trip, and listen to every word of the lie he was going to tell her, because for the first time in five years, Ivy Sinclair finally knew something her husband didn't know she knew.

The back door opened.

"Hey," Adrian said, shrugging off his jacket, not quite looking at her yet. "Change of plans. Thought I'd come home early for once."

Ivy smiled at him, her

smile not quite reaching her eyes.

"Perfect timing," she said. "I was just thinking about you.”