Chapter 1_Eloise Pov

My phone buzzed against my swollen belly and I flinched because the baby kicked hard right where it sat. I grabbed it with one hand while the other rubbed the spot where tiny feet pressed against my ribs.

Unknown number.

I should have ignored it but something made me answer.

"Hello?"

Heavy breathing came through the speaker and then a woman's laugh that made my skin crawl.

"Is this Eloise Vale?"

"Who is this?"

"Oh sweetie you don't know me but I know everything about you." Her voice dripped with fake sweetness. "I know you're eight months pregnant. I know you sleep alone most nights."

My heart hammered against my chest and I sat up too fast. The room spun a little.

"What do you want?"

"I want you to see the truth." She giggled like this was funny. "Check your messages."

The line went dead.

My hands shook as I opened my messages and there it was. A video from the same unknown number, i pressed play even though every instinct screamed at me not to.

The video quality was grainy but I could see everything perfectly. A hotel room with dim lighting. Julian, my husband on top of a woman with red hair spread across white pillows.

I watched his hands grip her waist the same way he used to grip mine before he stopped touching me altogether. I watched him kiss her neck while she moaned his name. I watched him whisper something in her ear that made her laugh.

The video was timestamped from two hours ago.

My phone slipped from my fingers and landed on the bed. The video kept playing and I could still hear the sounds. Her voice, his voice and the bed creaking.

I couldn't breathe right. My chest felt tight like someone was squeezing all the air out of my lungs. My stomach churned and for a second I thought I might throw up.

The baby kicked again. Hard. Like she knew something was wrong.

I picked up the phone with trembling hands and paused the video. Then I called Julian.

It rang four times before he answered.

"What?" His voice sounded irritated and breathless.

"Where are you?"

"At work. Why?"

The lie came so easily to him. No hesitation at all.

"Come home."

"I can't. I'm in the middle of something important."

I heard a woman giggle in the background and my blood went cold.

"Julian."

"What Eloise? I'm busy."

"I know where you are." My voice came out steadier than I expected. "I know what you're doing."

Silence.

Then he laughed. Actually laughed.

"So what? You gonna cry about it?"

"You're my husband."

"And you're my wife who can't even give me a healthy child." His words cut through me like broken glass. "Do you know how many times you've disappointed me? How many times I've had to watch you fail at the one thing women are supposed to be good at?"

Tears burned behind my eyes but I refused to let them fall.

"I'm pregnant right now."

"Barely. The doctor said the baby is too small and underdeveloped. Just like everything else about you."

My free hand instinctively went to my stomach.

"That's not true."

"Rite doesn't disappoint me." He said her name like it tasted sweet. "She's everything you're not. She's strong, beautiful and fertile."

"I'm carrying your child."

"For now." He paused and I heard shuffling sounds. "Look Eloise I don't have time for this, take your pills and go to sleep. We'll talk later."

He hung up.

I stared at the phone screen until it went black. Then my phone buzzed again.

Another message from the unknown number.

This time it was a photo. Julian and the red haired woman. Rite, they were at a restaurant I recognized. The one where he proposed to me three years ago. She wore a diamond ring on her left hand.

The message below the photo read: "He proposed to me last week. Said he'd divorce you after the baby comes. If it even survives."

My vision blurred and I realized I was crying. Hot tears rolled down my cheeks and I couldn't stop them.

The phone rang again. Same number.

I answered.

"Did you see it?" Rite's voice was cheerful. "He picked the same restaurant where he proposed to you. Isn't that romantic?"

"Why are you doing this?"

"Because you need to know your place." Her tone shifted from sweet to sharp. "Julian is mine. He's always been mine. You were just a placeholder until he got tired of pretending."

"We're married."

"For now." She laughed again. "But marriages end sweetie. Especially when the wife is useless."

Something twisted in my chest. Not pain exactly. Something deeper, something that felt like it was trying to claw its way out.

"He married me."

"He married your father's money and connections. But your daddy's dead now so what good are you?"

The line went dead again.

I sat there in the dark bedroom holding my stomach while my phone kept buzzing with more messages, more photos an videos. Julian kissing her, holding her and smiling at her the way he used to smile at me.

Each image felt like another knife in my chest.

My body started shaking and I couldn't tell if it was from anger or grief or something else entirely. My skin felt too hot. My heart beat too fast. The tightness in my chest got worse.

I looked down at my phone one more time.

The last message was a video. Julian and Rite in bed again. But this time he looked directly at the camera and smiled before mouthing the words "I love you" to her.

The phone fell from my hands and this time I didn't pick it up.

I just sat there in the dark while my world collapsed around me and my unborn baby kicked against my ribs like she was trying to fight her way out.

The video kept playing on the floor and I could hear everything and I realized that the sounds I was hearing were happening right now in real time because I could hear Julian's phone ringing faintly in the background of the video.

The same phone I had just called.

He was filming himself with her while talking to me.