Chapter One - Daddy

Valerie’s POV

Had I known that cleaning my husband’s study, something I rarely did, would uncover the first crack in our seemingly perfect marriage, I would never have done it.

Because there, inside a half-opened drawer, my eyes widened at the sight of a stack of documents. I pulled them out slightly, my heart beginning to pound as my eyes landed on the words printed across the first page: “Dissolution of Marriage.” “Child Custody.” My breath caught in my throat.

Before I could pull the documents out completely, a voice interrupted me.

“Honey?”

I froze.

“Have you seen my watch?” Silas called softly.

I immediately shoved the documents back into the drawer and rushed out of his study, making my way into the hallway before he could see where I had been.

“Honey, where have you been? I’ve been calling you.”

“Uhmm…” I swallowed, trying to steady my voice. “I was downstairs.”

Then I looked at him properly. He was fully dressed, wearing his favorite shirt.

“Where are you going?” I asked.

He walked closer to me. “We were supposed to spend the weekend together, but I got a call. I have to be at the office.”

“Oh.” I nodded. “Okay.”

He grabbed my hand and led me toward our bedroom.

“I forgot my watch.”

I picked it up from the bedside table and slipped it onto his wrist, trying my best to act normal. My fingers felt cold against his skin.

“I’ll be back before you know it, okay?” He leaned closer and pressed a gentle kiss to my forehead. “I love you.”

Then he rushed out.

I stood there for a moment, staring after him, and sighed. My mind was still trapped in his study, replaying the words I had just seen. Dissolution of Marriage. Child Custody.

The moment I saw his car disappear through the window, I immediately returned to his study. I frantically searched through the drawer—not because I believed Silas could betray me, but because something inside me refused to settle. Silas was the perfect husband anyone could have wished for. Apart from our dull and unsatisfying sex life and our inability to conceive, everything else about our marriage was perfect. I had done everything I could to make our marriage work. I had tried to fix our intimacy. I had tried everything to have a child. Complaining about anything else would have made me feel ungrateful.

I opened the drawer again. The documents were gone. My heart skipped. Had he known I had seen them?

I touched the drawer again, pushing it farther open. That was when I noticed a tin of fertility pills tucked at the back. My brows furrowed. They looked exactly like mine, the ones my doctor had prescribed at the hospital. What were they doing in his study?

I forgot about the divorce documents for a moment and took the pills back to our bedroom. I placed them beside mine and compared the two. They looked similar, but something was different. My hands trembled as I took pictures of both bottles and sent them to my doctor.

His reply came a few minutes later. I read it once. Then again. My entire body went cold. The pills in Silas’s study were the fertility medication. Mine were only vitamins.

I gulped. My fingers tightened around my phone. Had Silas done this? No. He couldn’t have. He knew how much I wanted children. He knew how badly I had fought to make our dream of becoming parents a reality. He couldn’t possibly have done this to me. Could he?

I grabbed my keys, fuming, and drove straight to our company. I needed answers. But when I reached Silas’s office, he was nowhere to be found.

“Has Silas been here today?” I asked his assistant.

She shook her head. “No. He hasn’t come to the office.”

“Not once?”

“Not once.”

I scoffed in disbelief. I tried calling him, but he didn’t answer. With my mind racing, I returned to my car and drove away slowly, barely aware of where I was going.

Then I spotted his car. It was parked on the side of the road. At first I thought I was mistaken, but when I got out and looked again, I recognized it immediately. Silas’s car. Maybe he had decided to work from somewhere else.

I followed my instincts toward the nearby park. I didn’t want to look like a mistrustful wife, but everything I had discovered that day had left me with no choice. I scanned the park. And then I saw him.

I stopped dead.

Silas was sitting with a woman on a bench partially hidden by a cluster of trees. They were smiling, and there was nothing professional about the way they looked at each other. My heart sank.

I moved carefully, keeping to the path that curved behind the trees until I stood in the dense shade. From here I could see them clearly through the gaps in the leaves, but the angle and the thick trunk shielded me from their view.

Then I saw her face. My blood ran cold. It was Nova. My best friend.

What? Why were my husband and my best friend together in a park? They looked like lovers. I brushed the thought aside immediately. Maybe they had met because of me, or for something business-related. But before I could think further, Silas’s phone rang.

He pulled it out and glanced at the screen. Nova suddenly snatched it from his hand.

“Ignore it,” she said, her voice sharp enough to carry. “It’s probably her again. Jeez, didn’t you tell her that you were going to work?”

Silas put the phone aside obediently without answering. Then he leaned toward her and kissed her on the lips passionately, cupping her cheeks the same way he used to kiss me in the past.

I gulped. Every doubt I had been desperately trying to dismiss vanished in that single moment. At first I had convinced myself there had to be an explanation, but that kiss told me everything I needed to know. My legs went weak.

I stayed hidden without making a sound, forcing myself to keep listening.

“I’m tired of hiding,” Nova said quietly. “I’m tired of being the secret. How much longer do I have to wait? I want us to be together officially.”

Silas brushed a strand of hair from her face.

“Not much longer, honey. I’m almost done arranging everything. Once the divorce is finalized, we won’t have to sneak around anymore.”

Nova’s expression softened. “And her?”

“She’ll be fine,” he said. “She’s stronger than she looks.”

I pressed a hand over my mouth to hold back the tears of disbelief that threatened to spill. I couldn’t stay there any longer. I had seen enough. Turning around, I prepared to leave before they could notice me.

But before I could take another step, a small voice suddenly cut through the air.

“Daddy!”

I froze. Slowly, I turned back. A little boy was running toward the bench. My eyes widened as I recognized him, it was Nova’s son. Without hesitation, he threw his little arms around Silas’s waist and cried out again,

“Daddy!”

My heart stopped. I stared at them, unable to breathe, as the single word echoed in my mind. Why was Nova’s son calling my husband Daddy?