Chapter 2

The moment Carter slammed his hand over the agreement, Chloe suddenly gasped.

She clutched her hand.

"Carter, the ring is way too tight."

Carter let go of the paper instantly.

He turned and gently took her hand in his.

Head bowed.

Completely focused.

Seven years ago, he put a ring on my finger with that exact same intensity.

His hands had been shaking back then, terrified he had hurt me.

Now, he was only worried about hurting someone else.

I stood frozen, ink from the signing pen staining my fingertips.

Chloe pulled her hand back.

The ring scraped loudly against the edge of the wooden table.

Carter reached out to catch her, his shoulder shoving me aside.

The sharp edge of the table slammed into my lower back.

My bag fell to the floor.

The positive IVF test result slid out onto the tiles.

I bent down to grab it.

Just then, Julian knocked over his glass.

Iced wine poured over the table, soaking the paper completely.

The words ‘Pregnancy: Positive’ began to smudge across the wet page.

Chloe snatched it up before I could.

She took one look at it, her eyes lighting up.

"Oh, I get it now. Evelyn isn't upset about losing her marriage. She's using a baby as leverage."

I reached to grab it back.

She took a step backward, holding the paper up near the edge of the camera.

Carter immediately stepped between us, blocking my path.

"Evelyn, don't intimidate her."

He grabbed my wrist.

His grip was painfully tight.

I looked down and watched red marks quickly bloom across my skin.

He didn't notice. He was too busy watching the tears well up in Chloe's eyes.

"Give it back to me," I said, my voice dangerously low.

Chloe tightened her grip on the soaked paper.

"Since this is all part of the bet, we should verify if this test is even real.

"Who knows what a high-stakes divorce lawyer is capable of faking?"

The live chat erupted.

Carter's face went pale.

He finally reached out and cut the live stream.

The moment the screen went black, his first thought wasn't to ask if I was hurt.

"Why didn't you tell me earlier?" he demanded.

"Why did you have to drag this out right in front of Chloe?"

I let out a cold laugh.

A sharp, numbing pain radiated from my lower back.

"I didn't drag it out. You two knocked it out of my bag."

Chloe lowered her head, her voice trembling. "Carter, I didn't mean to..."

Carter's tone softened instantly. "I know."

When he turned back to look at me, his voice went ice-cold again.

"You need to calm down. We'll talk about the baby when we get home."

His phone buzzed on the table.

It was a call from his mother.

Carter answered and put it on speaker.

His mother's sharp voice filled the room.

"I watched the live stream. Get Evelyn over to the family house right now and explain yourselves.

"Don't bring humiliation onto this family with that child."

Humiliation.

I reached down and picked up the soaked paper from the floor after Chloe had dropped it.

The paper was soft and tearing apart, the handwriting ruined.

I ripped it straight down the middle.

Carter stared at me.

"What are you doing?"

I didn't answer him.

I tore off the small strip containing the hospital's official barcode and slid it into the back of my phone case.

He thought it was just a preliminary test sheet.

He had no idea my doctor had already scheduled my follow-up scan for tomorrow morning.

He also didn't know that ever since my back hit the table, a sharp, heavy pain had been building in my lower abdomen.

Suddenly, Chloe swayed.

Her knees buckled, and she fell directly into Carter's arms.

Carter caught her without a second thought, wrapping his arms around her.

"Chloe!"

I gripped the edge of the table to keep my balance.

A wave of excruciating pain crashed over my abdomen.

My knees gave out, and I collapsed onto the floor, right into the pool of melted ice and wine.