Chapter 1

In five years of marriage, Harrison Blackwood cheated on me fifty-two times.

I never said a word.

Until I was nine months pregnant, and my husband’s secretary messed things up with a client.

To save the deal, he told me I had to go to a dinner party in her place and apologize.

I couldn’t believe it.

“I’m about to give birth,” I pleaded. “You want me to go drink with them? What if something happens…”

He cut me off, annoyed.

“It’s just a few drinks, Chloe. It’s not going to kill you.”

He thought I was making a fuss and had someone force the glass into my hand.

The hard liquor sent me into early labor.

That day, while I was fighting for my life in the hospital, he was shacked up with his secretary at his country villa all night.

When I woke up after the delivery, I looked at his mother.

“You promised me,” I said. “You promised that if I had this baby, you’d let us get a divorce. Can I go now?”

……

When I asked, I saw a flicker of conflict and pain in his mother's eyes.

“Chloe, are you sure you don’t want to give him one more chance? He…”

Before she could finish, Harrison’s face flashed across the hospital room TV.

Another scandal.

In the photo, Harrison was helping a woman, draped in his own suit jacket, out of a car.

The woman was nestled against his chest, a dazed look on her face, an unnatural flush on her cheeks.

Even though she was covered up, someone’s camera had caught the tell-tale, bruise-like marks high up on her pale thighs.

You didn’t need a caption to know what they had been doing in that car.

“Harrison Holdings CEO spotted in an intimate moment with a mystery woman. Could wedding bells be next…?”

Seeing the news, his mother’s chest heaved with rage.

Her breathing grew ragged, her entire body tense with fury.

But when her eyes met mine, they filled with guilt and heartache.

Her own words of protest died in her throat.

After a long moment, she choked out, “Okay, Chloe. I promise. I’ll handle the divorce.”

Seeing her wipe away tears made my own chest feel tight, a dull ache spreading through me.

But I didn't back down.

“Thank you, Mom.”

After the baby was born, I didn’t look at him once.

All I knew was that he was a boy, six pounds, two ounces, fair-skinned, and looked a lot like me.

A nurse came in again, gently trying to persuade me.

She said the baby was out of the incubator.

They had checked him over, and he was perfectly healthy.

She wanted me to go see him, to see the precious child I had fought so hard to bring into the world.

But I just shook my head.

“No. It’s enough that he’s healthy.”

If I never see him, I can’t miss him.

I knew that if I looked at him just once, I would never be able to leave.

But I couldn’t stay in the Blackwood family any longer.

Compared to a life on the run with me, with no place to call home, staying here was his best chance.

He would be a Blackwood.

I lay in the hospital bed, staring out the window at the city skyline.

I wondered where I could possibly go.

I was abandoned at birth, raised in an orphanage.

I have no family, no blood ties.

No friends I could truly depend on.

I was like a lone sailboat, drifting on the ocean, with no harbor in sight.

His mother, heartbroken for me and furious with Harrison, kept trying to call him, wanting him to come see us.

But after several calls, all she got was his cold, automated voicemail.

Finally, on her last try, someone picked up.

But it was a woman’s voice.

“Mrs. Blackwood, Harrison is in a meeting. Could you call back later…?”

Before she could finish, a soft, broken moan echoed through the phone.

His mother had been around the block. She knew exactly what kind of “meeting” that was.

Her face turned ashen with rage.

“You tell Harrison Blackwood that if he still considers me his mother, he will get to this hospital right now,” she yelled. “Otherwise, he can consider himself an orphan!”

After hanging up, fresh tears streamed down her face.

She took my hand, her voice trembling.

“I’m so sorry, Chloe. This is all my fault. I never should have forced you to stay with him. I’m so sorry for all the pain I’ve caused you…”