03

Hannah's POV

By midnight, thousands of strangers already believed I had cheated on my husband.

I sat under the bright lights of a gas station on Sheridan Road with Leo held close inside my coat while snow hit the windows. The whole place smelled like gasoline. A television above the counter showed the late news with the sound turned low.

Nobody there knew who I was. That night it felt like a small gift.

Leo slept against my chest. Every few minutes I slid my fingers under the coat to check that he was still breathing. My hands were so cold I could barely feel his back rising, but each tiny movement let me breathe again.

My phone lit up. Another stranger had shared Brett's post.

The post already had more than forty thousand shares, and the comments were even worse than the number.

She married him for his money. What did he expect?

Women like this are disgusting.

Imagine carrying another man's baby into your husband's home.

Someone had posted a photo from our wedding. Someone else had found a picture of me standing outside Brightwater Fertility. My face was all over the internet next to the word cheater.

My throat closed up. I locked the screen before I could read any more.

Leo made a small cry. I pulled his blanket higher and rubbed his back until he settled again.

"You're all I have now, sweetheart," I whispered.

I needed diapers. I needed formula in case nursing became hard. I needed somewhere warm to sleep.

I stood up carefully so I would not wake Leo and picked up a pack of newborn diapers, some wipes, and a bottle of water. The diapers cost more than I expected.

The cashier scanned everything without looking at me. "Twenty-three forty-seven."

I put my debit card in and typed my PIN.

DECLINED.

"Could you try it again, please?" I asked. "It worked this morning, so I don't know what's wrong."

The cashier sighed and ran it again. The same message appeared.

Heat rose up my neck and into my face. The man behind me shifted his weight and checked his watch.

"Maybe your bank is having problems tonight," the cashier said as he pushed my things back toward me.

"Probably. Sorry, let me try another card," I said.

The second card was declined. So was the third.

"Can you hold these for one minute? I need to check something," I said, and I walked over to a table by the window.

I opened my banking app. Every account with my name on it was locked, and every credit card was frozen. When I called the bank, a recorded voice told me the accounts could only be unlocked by the person who controlled them.

That person was Brett.

He had frozen every card I had. My son needed diapers, and I could not pay for them.

I pressed my fist against my mouth to hold back the sob.

At 11:58 my phone buzzed with an email from the Ashcroft family lawyer. He only needed three cold paragraphs. Because of the DNA test and my "infidelity," the prenup left me with nothing. My personal belongings would be released "at a mutually agreed time."

They were keeping even my clothes until they decided I could have them.

I looked down at my wedding ring. The diamond flashed under the lights. Brett used to hold this hand every night when another pregnancy test came back negative.

I pulled the ring off, sliding it over my knuckle. I wanted to throw it across the store, but instead I squeezed it in my palm and pushed it into my pocket.

I might need to sell it.

That hurt more than the email.

"Hannah?"

Rosa stood just inside the door with snow on her shoulders and her dark hair tucked under a wool cap. Navy scrubs showed under her parka.

My best friend from nursing school took one look at Leo and my wet slippers, and her eyes filled with tears. "Oh, honey, look at you. You're freezing, and you've got that tiny baby out in the cold."

I tried to stand, and my legs gave out.

Rosa dropped her bag on a chair and wrapped both arms around me and Leo, pulling her coat around us. Someone was finally touching me like I was still a person.

I broke.

I cried into her shoulder so hard that my whole body shook. Every sound I had held back in that living room came pouring out, and Rosa held me up while Leo slept between us.

"I'm sorry," I said through the tears. "I'm so sorry you had to drive out here in the middle of the night."

"Stop that." She rubbed my back firmly. "You called me, so I came. That's all that matters right now, Hannah. Nothing else."

She paid for the diapers and the wipes herself, put them in her bag, and walked me to her car with one arm around me. The heater blew hot air at us, and feeling slowly returned to my fingers.

Rosa drove slowly and looked over at me twice before she spoke. "Hannah, did you?"

She held the steering wheel tightly and stared at the road. She had seen the post. Everyone in Chicago had seen it by then.

"No. Never," I said.

Rosa reached over and squeezed my knee. "Then I believe you."

I had to look out the window so I would not fall apart again.

"You don't even want to hear my side? The whole internet thinks I slept with another man, Rosa."

"I've known you for years. I watched you cry over one failed exam and stay up all night with patients who weren't even yours. You spent years trying to give Brett a baby. I'm not going to believe some post over everything I know about you."

I watched the windshield wipers push the snow away. "He asked me to quit my job after our first IVF cycle. He said we had to focus on the baby, and he promised I would never have to worry about money again. I believed him, Rosa. I gave him everything, and tonight I could not buy my own son a pack of diapers."

"Then we find evidence," Rosa said. "That little boy did not do anything wrong, and he deserves a mother who is not afraid to fight for him."

Leo's mouth hung open a little in his sleep, one small fist curled beside his cheek.

"I need my fertility records from Brightwater," I said.

Rosa frowned. "Why? What are you thinking?"

"On the day of the transfer, a lab technician checked my name twice. Her hands were shaking, and she could not look me in the eye. I told myself it was just nerves. After what that test said tonight, I do not believe that anymore."

Rosa slowed the car. "Hannah, that is a serious thing to say."

"Something happened at that clinic."