Chapter 1

"Hazel, let me explain."

Henry Lancaster pulled the boy behind him, shielding him on instinct. Just watching him do it made something twist in my chest.

I cut him off as I grabbed my bag, "This isn't the place. Have that woman come pick up the kid. We need to talk."

"Vera's not feeling well."

"Henry." I looked at him coldly. "Would you rather I call your father right now or have my lawyer send a letter?"

Henry shut his mouth. The agreement I had on him was enough to strip him of his title, his career—everything.

The boy, Aiden Lancaster, suddenly poked his head out from behind Henry and shouted at me, "You're a bad lady! Don't you bully my daddy!"

Children didn't hold back, but that didn't make it sting any less. Henry scrambled to cover the boy's mouth and stared at me in panic.

"Well-trained." I forced a thin smile. "Vera hasn't picked up much over the years, but she's certainly gotten better at poisoning a child against someone."

I turned and walked out of the station. The snow outside was coming down hard, cold enough to cut through bone.

I thought back to five years ago, right after I caught Henry cheating. He pleaded with bloodshot eyes, telling me Vera Ashmore had no parents, that she was just some girl from a small town with nobody to lean on. He begged me to let her go just once.

I had just had a miscarriage. My body was at its weakest.

I signed the agreement and set two conditions. First, Vera would drop out and leave the city for good. Second, Henry would sign a contract stating that if he ever stepped out of line again, he'd walk away from the marriage with nothing.

His father, a towering figure in the academic world, was so furious he nearly took his cane to Henry right then and there. But to keep my anger from boiling over into something worse, he grudgingly let it go.

Henry swore to me that day, "Hazel, I just lost my head. You're the only one I love. My money, my life, it's all yours. As long as you don't go public, I'll spend the rest of my life making it up to you."

And for five years, he did exactly that. No matter how busy he was, he video-called me every single day. He never let a holiday pass without a gift. He even turned down deals worth a fortune just to spend weekends with me.

I started to believe that time really could heal everything. But what I never saw coming was that Henry had never let go of Vera and that he'd fathered a child with her behind my back.

The snow stopped. Henry had his driver take the boy home first. He didn't dare leave, and he didn't dare let me leave either, so we ended up sitting across from each other in a coffee shop next to the station.

"Hazel, it's not what you think." Henry pressed his clasped hands against his forehead, his voice low.

"Vera did drop out and leave the city back then. But she'd already found out she was pregnant by that point. I couldn't just walk away from that, and I was too afraid to tell you."

He went on, "And the boy was born with asthma and a heart condition. The medical bills were too high for her to handle on her own."

"So you brought her back." I stirred my coffee. "And it didn't stop there, either. You set her up in a luxury apartment and go see her once a week. Henry, is this charity work, or are you keeping a mistress?"

"I only go to see the boy!" Henry's voice rose in desperation.

"Hazel, the kid didn't ask for any of this. Aiden is sick. Every time he has an episode, he cries for his father. What am I supposed to do? I can't just stand by and watch him die."

"But you can stand by and watch me play the fool this whole time?" I shot back.

"Did you really think that as long as you kept them out of my sight, it wouldn't count as breaking our agreement? Then, what was the point of every promise you made?"