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All Chapters of Kneeling for a Child He Already Had: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

10 Chapters

Chapter 1

I knelt on the stone steps less than a hundred yards from the summit. My knees had gone numb long ago.In the family cloud album, the video was still playing.In the delivery room, Gideon Tarrant cradled the baby, his face full of a tenderness I had never once seen from him. Mom was blowing on spoonfuls of chicken soup to cool them. Dad had the baby in his arms and refused to hand him over.My brother, Jordan Dunbar, laughed beside them. "He's got Gideon's nose. He's one of us, no question about it."Everyone in that frame had a place. Everyone except me.A moment later, a dozen or so more photos synced to the cloud album. There was the baby's hospital bracelet, the birth registration form, and the first video Gideon had recorded while holding the baby.The registration form spelled it all out. Under father, it said Gideon Tarrant. Under mother, it said Amanda Crowley. The baby's name was Oscar Tarrant.They had even picked out a name.Meanwhile, I was still taking pills and ge

Chapter 2

On the way down the mountain, I fell three times.The last time, my knee slammed into a rock, and blood soaked through my pant leg in an instant.The rescue team wanted to carry me down on a stretcher, but I kept a death grip on my phone.The cloud album was linked to the tablet at home. Gideon was so caught up in the joy of becoming a father for the first time that he never noticed every file was syncing over.I kept scrolling.In one video, Mom sat at the dining table, filling a pill bottle labeled folic acid with small white tablets.Dad asked beside her, "Hazel's periods have been getting more and more irregular lately. What if a doctor figures it out?"Mom rolled her eyes at him. "Dr. Pike's already been taken care of. He'll just tell her it's a hormonal imbalance. Mandy hasn't given the Tarrants their first grandson yet. How could we let Hazel get pregnant first?"Amanda's voice came from off camera. "Mrs. Dunbar, maybe we should just stop. Hazel's been through so much tr

Chapter 3

I did not wait for the driver. As soon as my wounds were bandaged, I caught an overnight flight home.At 2:00 am, I dragged my luggage back to the home Gideon and I had shared since our wedding.The fingerprint lock would not accept my print. Gideon had deleted it.I had bought this house before we were married, and I had paid for the renovations too. Now, I could not even get into my own home.It was not until building management let me in that I saw the living room piled high with baby supplies.My study had been turned into a nursery. On the pale blue wall hung three letters, G, A, and B, for Gideon, Amanda, and Baby. It looked like the room of a happy little family of three.My books, my trophies, and the photo album my grandmother had left me had all been stuffed into cardboard boxes and tossed into the storage room.I opened the album.When I was 16, Amanda hugged me and said, "Hazel, we're going to be sisters for life."Her parents divorced that year, and she had nowher

Chapter 4

The welcome party was in full swing.Gideon had invited friends and relatives from both families, along with every business partner of Tarrant Corp.On the security feed, I watched him stand at the entrance with the baby in his arms while Amanda, in a red dress, nestled against his side.The giant screen in the ballroom was looping photos of the two of them, from the day they met in college to their trips together, the pregnancy, and the birth.Anyone who did not know better would have assumed they were the couple who had loved each other for years. As for me, I had become the other woman standing in the way of their love.When someone asked whether Gideon was already married, Mom immediately sighed."Don't get me started. Hazel's been stubborn since she was little. She knew full well Gideon was in love with Mandy, and she still wouldn't leave him alone."Dad chimed in to explain. "Gideon's softhearted, and he felt he owed our family. That's the only reason he stayed married to

Chapter 5

The screens lit up.The first thing to appear was the delivery room video.Gideon cut the umbilical cord with red-rimmed eyes, then leaned down and kissed Amanda. Dad held the baby, Mom dabbed the sweat from Amanda's forehead, and Jordan stood off to the side calling Gideon his brother-in-law.The ballroom went dead silent, then the footage switched.Mom was filling the folic acid bottle with small white tablets."Mandy hasn't given the Tarrants their first grandson yet. How could we let Hazel get pregnant first?"Gideon's voice came through loud and clear. "Keep giving them to her. Hazel trusts you. She won't suspect a thing."The room erupted. The people who had been standing beside Amanda and flattering her all backed away."This isn't just an affair. They banded together to drug her!""They put his wife on birth control and then sent her to get treated for infertility?""That's sick!"Gideon charged toward the control booth. "Shut it off! Who gave you permission to play

Chapter 6

The next day, Gideon came back to the house with a lawyer.He ripped the lockout notice off the door and sat down in the middle of the living room."We've both lived in this house since we got married, so I have a right to be here. You also inherited the Skyhaven shares during our marriage, which means any income from them is marital property."Hazel, take the videos down and tell everyone that last night was a misunderstanding. If you do that, I'll forgive you."I stood in the doorway, half convinced I had heard him wrong."You'll forgive me?"He walked over and tried to take my hand. "I admit that Mandy and I had something. After her parents split up, she never felt secure, and I couldn't just abandon her. Oscar was an accident. You couldn't get pregnant, and I had to think about the Tarrant family."By the end, he had slipped back into the gentle tone he had always used with me."Hazel, you've always been the one I wanted to marry. If you can just accept the baby, things can

Chapter 7

That night, a video suddenly surfaced online.In it, Amanda wore a hospital gown, her face pale."I know I shouldn't have fallen in love with a married man. But Hazel knew about Gideon and me all along. She can't have children, and she couldn't accept it. She's been mentally unstable for years. At the welcome party, she didn't just hit me. She tried to take my baby."At the end of the video, Mom held up a so-called medical record. It listed a diagnosis of anxiety disorder with paranoid tendencies.It was the assessment Dr. Pike had written three years earlier when he prescribed my ovulation medication.Overnight, I went from victim to jealous wife who had lost her mind over her infertility.Jordan went even further and accused me in an interview. "She's been jealous of Mandy since we were kids. We tried talking to her so many times, but she'd do anything to hold on to being Mrs. Tarrant."The next day, reporters swarmed the entrance of the Skyhaven. Some held up signs cursing me

Chapter 8

Tarrant Corp's board held an emergency meeting that same night. Gideon was suspended from all of his positions. Several partners who had been preparing to renew their contracts pulled out of negotiations.His father reviewed the evidence from his hospital bed and immediately announced that Gideon was cut out of the succession.Gideon finally panicked. He reached out to the police himself and claimed he had never touched the pills."Mrs. Dunbar was the one who bought them and put them in the bottle. All I knew was that Hazel was trying to get pregnant. I didn't know the details."When Mom heard his statement, she slumped in her chair."You told me to do it! You said as long as Mandy had the baby, you'd take care of her for the rest of her life and look after the Dunbar family too!"Gideon gave her a cold look. "Do you have any proof?"Mom opened her mouth, but no words came out.Nearly all of their shady discussions over the years had happened face to face. Gideon had left himse

Chapter 9

Three months later, the case went to trial.Gideon was held legally accountable for his long-term role in drugging me and the harm it did to my health. He was also accused of concealing marital assets.Amanda had known everything and helped plan it, and she did not walk away unscathed either. Dr. Pike lost his medical license.As the one who had directly put the pills in the bottle, Mom was taken into custody. Dad and Jordan had never handled the pills themselves, but they were placed under investigation for concealing assets and giving false statements.Tarrant Corp cut Gideon loose entirely. The company under his name ran out of money, and creditors crowded the lobby of his office building.The people who had once praised Amanda at the welcome party for being so patient and gracious all deleted their photos with her and distanced themselves.The day before the hearing, Dad and Jordan knelt outside the entrance of Skyhaven. Dad's hair had turned white overnight."Hazel, I wasn'

Chapter 10

The divorce was finalized on the first day of spring.Gideon had refused to agree to it and kept insisting we still had feelings for each other. In the end, the court ruled based on the full body of evidence.When I walked out of the courthouse, he was waiting at the bottom of the steps. It had been three months since I had last seen him, and he had lost a lot of weight."Hazel."He pulled a faded prayer ribbon from his pocket. "I went back to Hallow Peak. I prayed for you this time."The ribbon read: [May Hazel be kept safe.]He held it out to me, the last flicker of hope in his eyes. "Can we start over? No Amanda, no baby, no one else."I did not take it."Gideon, you still don't get it. I don't need you to pray for my safety. What I needed was for you to never hurt me in the first place."He stood frozen.The wind caught the ribbon and dropped it into the muddy slush by the side of the road. Just like the ribbon that had read, 'May mother and child both be safe and well',

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