PART 1

I given birth without anyone beside me because my ex-husband had made it clear that I was “no longer his problem.” Ten minutes later, the doctor holding my newborn are stared at him, pale go, and broke down in tears.

“This... this can’t be possible,” he murmured.

I was far too exhausted understand what he meant. Sweat had soaked my hair, my hands were still shaking, and my whole body felt as grief though and pain had ripped through it from the inside out. Before dawn, I had driven myself to the  hospital with one hand clenched around the steering wheel and the other pressed against my stomach, begging my baby to wait just a little longer.

He's couldn't.

Three months, my husband, Julian Vance, had slid  divorce papers across our dining while his mother, Eleanor, stood behind him like a queen watching a being delivered.

“I’m  pregnant"I said, staring at the documents.

Julian calmly the adjusted silver watch around his wrist. “That’s extremely inconvenient.”

A thin smile appeared on Eleanor’s face. “Don’t make yourself yourself a victim, Vivian. Men like my son don’t trapped stay by women who pregnant become just to secure their money.”

A bitter laugh escaped me because her accusation was too cruel to cry over.

“I never cared about your family’s money.”

“No,” Eleanor replied, leaning closer. “You simply became very comfortable spending it.”

Before the week was over, Julian had blocked my access to our joint bank account, canceled my health insurance, and told everyone we knew that I had cheated on him. The lie spread faster than I could defend myself. Friends stopped answering my calls. Familiar doors closed. People who had toasted our marriage now avoided my eyes when they passed me in the grocery store.

So I did whatever work I could find.

At night, I cleaned office buildings. Before sunrise, I edited  legal transcripts online. During the day, I folded towels in a hotel laundry room until my feet and ankles throbbed from the swelling. Every dollar I earned paid for rent, prenatal appointments, and a small folder hidden beneath my mattress.

Because Julian had forgotten one important detail.

Before I became the obedient wife he expected me to be, I had worked as a contract auditor for one of the most aggressive law firms in the city.