LOGINWhen Melanie loses her unborn child, she loses the last thing tying her to her marriage. While she lies alone in a hospital bed after another devastating miscarriage, her husband, Patrick, is just down the hall comforting his beloved stepsister and her son instead. After years of sacrificing her brilliant career, managing his family, and loving a man who stopped choosing her long ago, Melanie decides she’s done. But walking away isn’t as simple as she imagined. Patrick refuses to sign the divorce papers, convinced she’s only throwing another tantrum. Just when she’s ready to leave everything behind, Christian Sinclair, Patrick’s influential uncle who has just returned from abroad, steps into her life. Christian sees the woman everyone else overlooked, but falling for her means crossing a line that could tear the Sinclair family apart.
View MoreMELANIE
~•~ “I’m afraid you might not be able to give birth again, but—” My heart stopped for a second at the doctor’s words. I blinked repeatedly, trying to keep the tears at bay. It wasn’t my first miscarriage, and it didn’t hurt any less each time, but the possibility that I might never be able to bring a baby into this world again was something completely different. “You’re free to go home now.” As soon as the doctor left, I pulled out my phone to call my husband, Patrick. He hadn’t been at home when I... when the baby... I didn’t even want to think about it. He didn’t answer the first time, but after calling him again, he picked up on the third ring. “What?” “I—” I gulped, taken aback by his cold tone. “C-can you come pick me up? I’m in the hospital.” “You were fine this morning. How did you suddenly end up in the hospital?” His suspicious tone instantly ignited my anger. “Are you coming or not?” “I’m busy. Call the driver.” I pressed the end-call button without hesitation. The discharge process took about forty minutes. I signed document after document without reading a single word. By the time I stepped into the hospital lobby, my legs already felt weak. The stitches pulled painfully, forcing me to slow down. I stopped beside one of the pillars to catch my breath when a familiar voice echoed across the hall. Following the sound, I slowly turned my head and saw a scene that made my blood run cold. It was Seth, Vivian’s son. He was sitting on a hospital bed with a small injury on his arm, while Patrick sat beside him, gently holding his hand and comforting him. Vivian stood nearby, her face filled with worry, as Patrick softly reassured her. For a moment, everything around me seemed to disappear. So, while I was undergoing a miscarriage procedure, he had been in the same hospital all along. But he was accompanying his stepsister and her child. My hands trembled as I took out my phone and tapped Patrick’s contact, never taking my eyes off him. As the call connected, he reached into his pocket, but without hesitation, he pressed the red button with an annoyed expression and put his phone back into his pocket. Something inside me shattered. I turned around and walked away. Each step back to my room felt heavier than the last, but by the time I reached it, I had wiped every trace of my tears away. The nurse was already waiting for me there. “I was beginning to get worried,” she said with a pleasant smile. “Here are your discharge papers. Is any family member coming to pick you up?” I chuckled, but there was no humor in it. “My husband is busy taking care of his stepsister.” The nurse looked confused, but she didn’t ask any further questions. Then I flagged down a cab and went home. The house was empty when I arrived. Of course. I went straight to what was supposed to be the nursery. The moment I found out I was pregnant, I had excitedly arranged the room in a gender-neutral style, filling it with toys suitable for both boys and girls. But now, most of those toys had been replaced by Seth’s belongings, and his things were slowly being moved into the room. Patrick never said anything about it. He always let Vivian and her child have their way. The sound of the front door opening caught my attention, and I went downstairs to see them arriving, laughing about something I didn’t understand. I couldn’t stop the bitter scoff that escaped my lips. “What a perfect family.” They looked up at the sound. Patrick’s eyes narrowed immediately. “Mel, you’re home,” Vivian said. “Where else would I be?” Patrick, who was carrying Seth, gently placed him on the floor. The little boy quickly disappeared into his room.“Why are you being rude? Viv just had a long day.”
She had a long day? Did he even know what I had gone through today?“I’m sure she did.”
“You’re clearly in a bad mood, and I’m not dealing with this.” He dismissed me easily. “Have you prepared the gift for the banquet?” My lips parted, but no words came out. Instead of asking why my face was so pale, asking why I looked so sickly, all he cared about was his mother’s stupid banquet. “I’m not going,” I said calmly and turned away. “Vivian can prepare the gift.” He reached out and grabbed my arm, stopping me. “What the hell does that mean? You have to go. Aren’t you my wife?” “I don’t know, Patrick. You tell me.” I turned around and looked directly at him. “Who exactly is your wife? Me? Or Vivian?” “Melanie!” Vivian chose that moment to step in. She placed a hand on Patrick’s arm. “No need to raise your voice, Pat. Melanie is probably just tired. I don’t want you two to argue because of me. I can take care of the gift.” “No.” He moved his arm away from her hold. “I want to know why she makes everything into such a big deal. Is it because I didn’t pick you up earlier? I told you I was busy.” It wasn’t the first time he had been busy because of Vivian’s problems. Ever since he brought her into our home because “it was difficult for a single mother,” he had given her all his time and attention while I had two more people to take care of. It was exhausting, especially because Vivian always seemed to have one problem after fucking another. “He was really busy, Melanie. He wasn’t lying about that. There’s no reason to be angry.” “Shut up, Vivian. I wasn’t talking to you.” The words left my mouth before I could stop them. I was tired of her pretending to be innocent, as if she didn’t know exactly what she was doing. Vivian gasped as if I had slapped her. Then, as usual, she lowered her head. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have interfered.” “Why are you taking your anger out on Vivian?” Patrick asked coldly. “She was only trying to stop this family from having another argument. You should learn to be as gentle and considerate as she is.” But he was the one who once said he loved my lively and straightforward personality the most. I looked at him in disappointment. He continued, “And here I thought you could learn from Vivian how to be a good mother.” A sharp pain still pierced through my heart, and my hand instinctively moved to my now-empty stomach. “Is this how you plan to raise our child? When you’re immature yourself?” I took a deep breath, unable to believe those words had come from my husband’s mouth. Our child? The same child I lost today while he was nowhere to be found? He knew there was a possibility that I could lose the baby, yet he never checked on me after I took bitter medicine every morning and night just to make sure our child stayed healthy. The doctor’s words, reminding me that I might never be able to have children again, echoed in my mind. I stared at the man I had loved for five years, and something inside me finally broke.“No need,” I said bitterly. “The child will never be born.”
Patrick glared at me. “What the hell does that mean?” “What I mean is…” I slowly removed his hand from my arm.Then I looked straight into his eyes.
“Our child is dead.”
CHRISTIAN~•~Fuck.I stood there for a long moment after she disappeared back into the club, my pulse still pounding in a way I hadn’t experienced in years, maybe ever, and dragged a hand down my face like that might somehow undo what had just happened.It didn’t.I could still feel the exact shape of her against me, the way she’d fisted my shirt and pulled me closer instead of pushing away, the small, helpless sound she’d made against my mouth right before everything in me had gone up in flames.I’d meant to prove a point. I’d meant to call her bluff. She wanted us to have a professional relationship when she’d been anything but professional last night. I wanted to point out that she was just as affected as I was.Instead, I’d ended up kissing her like a man who’d been waiting months to do so, which, I realized with discomfort, was probably exactly what I had been doing.I paced a short distance along the sidewalk, forcing air into my lungs, trying to regain the composure I was know
MELANIE~•~Christian merely stared at me after that statement, long enough for me to wonder if I had anything on my face. I almost touched my face to check but I forced my hand to stay down.I cleared my throat again and as if that broke him from his trance, he took a step forward, fully stepping out of the building and standing in front of me. “As opposed to what, Ms. Juarez?”“W-what?” My voice was a higher pitch than normal. The corners of his mouth tugged up. “What was the other option?” He asked. “If we weren’t being professional?”My lips parted but I was a little slow because I couldn’t process his words. If we weren’t being professional? What was he—I blinked in surprise when he suddenly moved closer. I tried to move back but there was nowhere to go. I could only stare up at him, breathing heavily as my eyes tracked his face. With those full eyelashes of his and a jaw sharp enough to cut diamond, he definitely had no issues picking women up.Even his lips were full and a li
MELANIE~•~Coming out was definitely fun.I hadn’t been to a club in years, not since I got married to Patrick. I couldn’t even have a girls’ night out because his mother worried about how poorly it would reflect on their family. I’d forgotten just how fun it was to go out, let loose, and have fun.I let myself move to the music without overthinking, without calculating how it looked or whether it was appropriate or not. The guy I was dancing with — I couldn’t even recall his name — settled his hands at my waist as I turned.It was easy and uncomplicated. Exactly what I needed after the day I had.I thought briefly of Christian’s voice in my ear that morning, the low murmur of his words that I still couldn’t make sense of, and I pushed the thought away. This was supposed to be about reclaiming myself, not about spiraling over a man I had no business thinking about in the first place.But even as I danced, I could feel someone watching me.It was a club. It was filled with several pe
CHRISTIAN~•~“Didn’t you come here for a distraction?” Allen asked. “You’ve just been drinking and I haven’t seen you look at even one woman.”I looked up from my drink. “I didn’t come here to pick women up, Allen. I told you I just needed a drink.”My friend shook his head, as if disappointed. “Alright then. So why do you need a drink so badly? I’ve been trying to get you out for weeks but it hasn’t been working.”I stared at him for a few seconds, wondering if I should tell him. Even if I did want to tell him, what would I say? What could I say? I was having improper thoughts about my nephew’s wife and I needed to curb them?Allen would never let it go for the rest of his life.Thankfully, I didn’t have to answer because something caught his attention downstairs, probably a woman.I signalled the waiter for another drink.“Christian…”“Mmh?”“Isn’t that…” he trailed off, standing up slightly so he could look above the railing. “Isn’t that your nephew’s wife? The one you ran a back


















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