Chapter 2

Alan's POV

Cody was the one who pushed me first. He fell into the lake himself, then blamed me.

I had no way to prove my innocence back then, and no one believed me now.

My mom, Pamela Kent, rushed over and tried to calm me down. "What's done is done. Just think of the children as gone.

"You got through it the last few times. You can get through it this time too."

With one offhand remark, she brushed aside the pain of losing six children over eight years.

I stared at the youngest child in Cody's arms and screamed, "No! They're my children. I watched Hannah carry them to full term and was there through every birth. They can only be my children!

"I'm taking all of them, not just the youngest."

I lunged forward and reached for the baby.

The other five children scrambled behind the adults, crying in fear.

In the chaos, a sharp slap rang out.

The blow snapped my head to the side, and it felt as if half my face was burning.

Fred Lowe, my best friend, had hit me.

He stared at me with pain and bitter disappointment. "Alan, you're being selfish. Cody gave up the woman he loved and let you have her for eight years because he didn't want to upset you.

"It's one thing to be ungrateful, but now you're trying to take his kids too? Do you have no conscience?"

As he spoke, he pulled two marriage certificates from his bag and threw them at my feet.

"Take a good look. Cody is Hannah's legal husband! The kids belong with him. That makes them legitimate children of the Leywood family.

"If you take them away, do you want them to spend their whole lives as illegitimate children?"

Trembling, I lowered my head and stared at the date printed in the bottom corner of the certificates.

It was August 16—the anniversary of my first child's death.

That was the day I clutched my baby's clothes and cried until I thought I would break, wishing I could follow my child in death.

And on that same day, the woman I loved married another man.

A metallic taste rose in my throat, and I suddenly spat out blood.