Chapter 1

[Doctor, I got involved with a married man. I had his baby behind my boyfriend's back. Does that make me a terrible person?]

Rose Laurent was a psychiatrist, and today it was her turn to take online consultations. That was the first question from the client who'd just messaged her.

A mistress. An affair. A secret child.

That identity, that guilt clinging to every word...

No wonder the woman wanted to stay anonymous.

Rose typed back in her usual professional tone.

Rose: [Would you mind telling me more about your situation?]

Patient: [Our families have known each other for years. We grew up together, practically promised to each other since we were kids, and both sides of the family were thrilled about it.]

Patient: [But right before we were supposed to get engaged, he fell for someone else. He even had me shipped off overseas so he could keep that woman happy.]

Rose let out a quiet breath. A childhood sweetheart passed over for someone new. Nobody would take that well. No wonder this woman's mind had cracked under it.

Rose: [Go on, I'm listening.]

Patient: [I'm not some cheap woman, either. After I left the country, I tried to get over him and started seeing someone, who is my current boyfriend.]

Patient: [The day I posted about my new relationship status online, he came looking for me behind his wife's back. We got together.]

Patient: [I know it wasn't right. But I couldn't resist him. It didn't take long before I was pregnant, and I had the baby without telling my boyfriend.]

Patient: [Back when I offered him everything, he didn't want it. Now, I'm not about to leave my boyfriend for him.]

Patient: [Doctor, you know what's funny? When I gave birth, his wife was due any day too, and he chose to stay by my side instead. Doesn't that prove he loves me?]

Sleeping with someone else's husband, keeping the affair going, refusing to leave her own boyfriend for him. Rose wondered whether this could possibly be a real person's life, or whether the woman was making it up.

If this was really happening, then by comparison, Rose's own life was remarkably fortunate.

Her husband, Zach Peyton, had a childhood friend of his own. Her name was Scarlett McQueen. She'd made no shortage of trouble trying to keep Zach and Rose apart, until Zach finally lost his patience and had her sent abroad.

Since then, Rose and Zach's life together had been warm and steady. She was eight months pregnant now, with a month left to go.

Even though her body had grown heavy and her looks weren't what they'd once been, Zach still doted on her exactly the way he had when they were first falling in love, ready to climb out of bed at midnight and go buy her a late-night snack just because she mentioned wanting one.

Her friends all told her Zach spoiled her rotten. She was, without question, the luckiest woman alive.

A notification chimed and pulled Rose back to the screen.

Patient: [He's from a powerful family. He still changed our son's diapers himself, and set up a ten-million-dollar education fund for him the moment he was born.]

Patient: [This time, when our son and I came back to the country, he came to the airport to pick us up in person. He bought us a huge house and hired a housekeeper and staff so we'd never want for anything.]

A mistress bragging about her affair like it was something to be proud of. This woman's mind really had come unraveled.

Rose was trying to figure out how to steer the conversation toward something more productive when another message came through.

Patient: [Doctor, you must be very good at your job to have this career. Let me ask you something. If your husband cheated and had a child with someone else, would you divorce him?"

Rose felt a flare of irritation. This woman had no manners at all.

Then again, she reminded herself, the woman was a patient. There was no point arguing with someone who wasn't well.

She thought it over and typed: [A relationship only works if both people are invested in it. Once one person betrays that, the balance is broken. No one should have to hold onto a relationship that's lost its sincerity.]

Patient: [You're so right, Doctor. Every wife should be as reasonable as you.]

The woman logged off right after that.

Rose sat there for a moment, stunned. This person had to have some kind of serious problem.

If it weren't for doctor-patient confidentiality, she'd have wanted to post a warning on social media, for the sake of whichever unlucky wife this woman was out to ruin. But it was her job, so she kept it to herself and moved on.

Just then, her phone rang on the desk.

Rose picked it up. It was her best friend, Kimberly Barrett.

"Rose! I just saw that Scarlett McQueen is back in the country. She's got a baby with her!"

Rose's stomach dropped. Her eyes flicked instinctively to the grayed-out avatar of the client who'd just logged off.

"Rose? Are you even listening to me?"

She shook herself back to the present. What was she thinking? Zach loved her. Cheating, a secret child, none of that would ever happen to him.

"I heard you. She's back, so what? What's that got to do with me?"

"How is it nothing to do with you? What if she tries something again? Have you forgotten why she got sent away in the first place?"

How could Rose possibly forget? Scarlett had drugged her on her own wedding day and tried to have another man take advantage of her.

If Zach hadn't found out in time, she'd have been ruined.

That was the only time Rose had ever seen Zach lose his temper like that. His eyes had gone bloodshot, the veins standing out on his forehead and neck, pure violence radiating off him as he wrapped his hands around Scarlett's throat.

If his mother hadn't rushed in and pulled him off her, Zach might genuinely have strangled her to death.

Afterward, Zach had Scarlett sent out of the country for good, and severed every last bit of Peyton Group's business with the McQueens, even though it cost him a fortune in penalties. It caused a scandal across all of Calizzy City at the time.

People still repeated a saying in certain circles: never cross Rose Laurent, because Zach Peyton's temper was more than anyone could survive.

"Didn't you say she has a kid now? That means she's moved on. Why would she still bother with me?"

"Fair point. And Zach loves you so much, even if she did try something, he'd never let her get away with it."

Before Rose could say anything else, the line went dead.

Had something come up on Kimberly's end? Rose wondered.

Right then, a new client logged in, and she went back to her consultations.

At five o'clock, Rose shut down her computer and headed home for the day.

Technically, Zach had already told her to take leave and rest at home for the rest of her pregnancy. But she was a key member of the psychiatric department, and the hospital director wanted her help mentoring the new interns.

She didn't want to sit around the house doing nothing either, so she'd decided to follow the standard schedule and start her maternity leave two weeks before her due date.

Rose walked out of the hospital with a hand resting on her round belly, and spotted Zach right away, standing by the car on his phone.

He was dressed in a custom-tailored, silver-white suit, tall and lean, his profile cut clean and striking.

The sight carried her straight back three years, to when he'd first taken over Peyton Group. He'd stood by a car in a suit just like this one, waiting for her, then dropped to one knee and held out a ring.

The Peyton family had fiercely opposed the two of them being together, since Rose came from an ordinary background while the Peytons were the richest family in Calizzy City. The gap between them had felt too wide to close, and she'd turned him down, certain of her own place in the world.

What had truly made up her mind to marry him was something that happened one winter night.

The wind had been howling that night, snow falling heavily outside. Curled up in her bed in the hospital dorm, chatting with Zach, she'd mentioned offhand that she was craving crispy fried chicken, still hot from the fryer.

He'd texted back: [Give me a minute.]

She'd assumed he had something to deal with on his end. Half an hour later, though, he called and told her to come downstairs.

She'd found him waiting there, his clothes soaked through, pulling a carefully wrapped, still-steaming container of fried chicken out from inside his coat and handing it to her with a doting smile. "The chicken you wanted."

The container had still been scalding when she took it from him. She'd lifted the hem of his shirt, worried, and found a bright red mark burned into his chest.

That was the moment, with her eyes stinging as she called him a fool, that she'd decided she was going to marry Zach.

"What are you thinking about?"

His familiar voice pulled her out of the memory. She looked up to find Zach standing right in front of her.

She shook her head. "Nothing. Why are you here to pick me up today?"

Usually it was their driver, Todd Owen, who came for her.

"It's the anniversary of the day we first met. Of course, I had to come get you myself. I've got us a table booked at Libre. Let's go."

Zach took her hand and started walking toward the car, asking as they went, "Tired? Was the baby giving you trouble today?"

Rose felt the warmth of his palm against hers and couldn't help smiling. "Not tired. The baby's been kicking a lot more lately, though."

Zach's gaze softened as it dropped to her belly. "Behave yourself in there and stop wearing your mother out, or I'll spank you the second you're born."

Rose shot him a look. "What kind of father talks about spanking a baby before it's even born?"

The two of them laughed and joked the rest of the way to the car. Zach pulled open the passenger door for her.

Just as Rose was about to climb in, a faint, cloying scent of perfume drifted past her.

That smell. It seemed familiar somehow, but she couldn't quite place where she'd caught it before.

She turned to look at Zach, who was holding her steady as she got in. "Why does your car smell like a woman's perfume?"