Chapter 1

A dull, pulling pain pulsed through my lower abdomen. I stared at the interlaced hands on the screen and dialed Daniel's number.

It rang for a long time before he picked up, his voice deliberately low. "Irene, what is it? I'm in a closed-door meeting with a few fund representatives. Now's not a good time."

The other end of the line was unnervingly quiet. No rustle of papers, no one speaking in the background.

I clenched my fists and forced my voice steady. "Daniel, are you really in a meeting?"

He paused for a beat, and impatience crept into his tone. "Of course. I skipped lunch chasing the next round of funding for the company. Didn't you have your follow-up today? If the doctor said everything's fine, just go home and rest. Don't make trouble for me right now."

He didn't ask about the results. He didn't ask why my voice was shaking.

Over the past few weeks, my morning sickness had been getting worse, and there had been warning signs at my prenatal checkups. Every time, Daniel told me the funding round was at a critical stage and I shouldn't blow small issues out of proportion. I had planned to wait until he came home to tell him the bad news in person. Only now did I understand: he wasn't too busy to be with me. He had simply saved his presence for someone more valuable.

The line went dead.

I pulled up the airline's website and found that a connecting flight from Florence to Boston would be landing in forty minutes. The doctor had told me to stay in bed for at least a day, but I pulled on my coat anyway, bracing myself against the wall as I walked out of the hospital.

By the time I reached the airport, my legs had gone numb. The post-operative bleeding had left my body ice-cold, as though I'd been plunged into freezing water. I could only grip the arrivals barrier, eyes locked on the exit, not daring to blink.

Forty minutes later, Daniel wheeled his suitcase through the gate.

He wasn't wearing the dark suit he usually traveled in. Instead, he had on a casual hiking jacket that made him look younger. Claire clung to his arm, the silver bracelet glinting on her wrist.

They said something I couldn't hear, and Daniel ducked his head with a laugh, dropping a casual kiss on her forehead.

I rushed forward and blocked their path.

The instant he recognized me, the smile froze on Daniel's face. He instinctively pulled his hand free, but Claire only tightened her grip.

"How long has this been going on?" I stared at Daniel, my voice so raw it didn't sound like my own.

He glanced at the people who had stopped to watch, then lowered his voice and reached for my arm. "What are you doing at the airport? This isn't the place for a family discussion. Let's go home first."

I shook him off and pointed at the silver bracelet on Claire's wrist. "A factory tour? A high fever from the flu? Daniel, I just got off the operating table today. We lost our baby. Meanwhile you were in Tuscany, kneeling under an ancient olive tree, fastening a bracelet that promised lifelong devotion around another woman's wrist."

Claire ducked behind him, yet showed not a flicker of panic at being caught. She lifted her wrist, admiring the bracelet, and gave a thin smile. "Irene, you're older than me, and you've been in the industry long enough. You should know a travel ritual is just a ritual. Daniel was simply joining me to experience the local culture. There's no need to make an ordinary trip sound so ugly."

She bit down on the word "older," making sure it stung.

Blood rushed to my head. I reached for the bracelet, the one that was supposed to mean a promise.

Daniel shoved me hard.

I had just come out of surgery. My body couldn't absorb the force. I hit the cold marble airport floor. My lower abdomen felt as though it had been ripped open again. A warm rush of blood ran down my thigh and quickly stained my light-colored pants red.

Daniel saw the blood and his expression shifted. He took an instinctive step toward me.

But Claire pressed a hand to her forehead, swaying against him. "Daniel, I feel so dizzy. I think my fever's coming back."

He stopped mid-step, turned, and caught her, handling her as carefully as if she were an expensive, fragile piece of art.

"You're being irrational," he said coldly, then walked away with his arm around Claire.

Airport medics arrived quickly and asked if I wanted to file a police report. I stared in the direction Daniel had gone and, in the end, only let them tend to my wound. Not because I still wanted to protect him, but because at that moment, I was using every ounce of strength I had just to breathe. I didn't have the energy to recount my humiliation to strangers.

I sat in the crush of travelers, staring down at the blood on my legs, and finally understood: some people don't change overnight.

They simply decide, at last, that you have nothing left to offer. And they stop pretending.