Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 1 - Chapitre 5

HARPER:The examination room smelled like antiseptic. I hated that smell. It made me feel like I was already dying. “The test is positive,” Dr. Ross said, lowering her clipboard. “Five weeks. Everything looks normal.” My hands trembled around the paper. Positive. The word blurred in front of my eyes. “I’m…I’m going to have a baby.”“You are.” Ross leaned back in her chair, arms crossed. The wrinkles in her white coat told me she hadn’t slept well. “So. Will you be divorcing your husband today?”I blinked. “I haven’t decided yet.”“Harper. It’s day thirty.”“I know how to count.”Her lips curved. “Then you also know you owe me a hundred dollars if you don’t leave him.”That was our deal. Thirty days. If he cheated again, I walked. No excuses. No forgiveness. No ‘but I love him.’My nails dug into my palms. “He hasn’t cheated.”Yet. The word sat on my tongue but I didn’t say it. Ross didn’t push. She never did. But the way her eyebrows narrowed told me all I needed to know… she wasn

HARPER:I didn’t cry when Alexander left. Which was shocking, honestly. I used to cry over everything. Sad movie? Cry. Burnt toast? Cry. Alexander ignoring me for three days? Cry, cry, cry like my life depended on it. But that day?Nothing. I just stood there. The marble floor was cold under my bare feet, I had kicked off my heels at some point. He had signed his name like he had signed for a package delivery. I laughed. “Three years,” I muttered. “Three whole years, Harper. Congratulations. You played yourself.”It didn’t take time to pack my bag. Everything I owned fit into two suitcases. Minimalist queen. Love that for me. This was it. I packed my bags and walked out. The hallway stretched before me and I thought about the first time I caught him with Rowena. I had come home early from a doctor’s appointment. The bedroom door was open. Neither of them heard me. Afterward, he bought me dinner. A fancy place with dim lights and soft music. He didn’t touch me much, didn’t s

HARPER:Four years laterI had built a life, a small one. It had no Alexander or the dramas that came with the Banks empire. I was free from a golden cage that was disguised as a marriage because no matter how gilded a cage was, it was still a cage. Now it was just me and my son. And a hotel room on the fifteenth floor with a view of the city skyline. Well, the room was nice, nicer than anything I could afford on my own, but I wasn’t paying for it. The culinary conference had covered my stay. Three days of cooking demonstrations, networking events and a chance to promote my small catering business. Ethan had caught a fever on the first night.“Mommy, I don’t want it!” Ethan whined. I sighed, holding the cup of medicine while my four year old flared at me from the bed like I had personally betrayed him. Which, to be fair, in his mind… I had. “It’s just medicine. Drink it and you’ll feel better.”“No!”He crossed his arms dramatically. His dark hair, Alexander’s hair, stuck up fro