Chapter 2

I went home to pack — and found Victoria already there.

She was standing in my living room, directing movers to carry out my furniture. She wore Ethan's robe, the one I had bought him for our first anniversary, and she was drinking coffee from the mug Lily had painted for me on Mother's Day.

"Oh, you're here." She smiled like she'd been expecting me. "I told Ethan I'd handle the transition. You don't mind, do you? I want to redecorate before I move in."

I stared at the movers hauling out Lily's high chair.

"That's my daughter's."

"Ethan said everything in the house stays. It's in the agreement." She tilted her head, feigning innocence. "Unless you didn't read it before you signed?"

I had signed it with a bleeding hand. She knew exactly why I hadn't read every clause.

Before I could respond, Lily toddled out from the hallway, her small arms reaching for me. "Mama!"

I scooped her up and held her close. She smelled like baby shampoo and the strawberry cereal she loved. My heart cracked.

Victoria's smile vanished the moment she saw Lily. She looked at my daughter the way someone looks at a stain on an expensive dress.

"You should take her and go," she said coldly. "Ethan doesn't want her here when he comes home tonight. It would be... awkward."

Awkward. His own daughter — awkward.

"Mama, where's Daddy?" Lily asked, tugging at my collar. "Daddy said he'd read me a story."

Victoria let out a short laugh. "Daddy's busy, sweetheart. He's got a new family now."

The cruelty was so casual it stole my breath.

I grabbed the diaper bag, Lily's stuffed rabbit, and nothing else. I didn't look at the furniture. I didn't look at the house I had turned into a home.

I walked out with my daughter on my hip and my bleeding hand pressed against her back so she wouldn't see it.

My driver, James — the one person who knew who I truly was — was waiting outside. He took one look at my face and opened the car door without a word.

As we pulled away, Lily pressed her face to the window and waved at the house.

"Bye-bye, home," she whispered.

I broke.

Not in front of her. Never in front of her. I turned my face to the window and let the tears fall silently while she hummed a song Ethan had taught her — a song he'd probably already forgotten.

My phone rang. It was my grandmother.

Eleanor Langford. Eighty-two years old. Sharper than a razor. The woman who had single-handedly built the Langford empire from nothing and ruled it for sixty years.

"Is it done?" she asked.

"It's done."

A long pause. "Come home, Mia."

Home. The Langford estate. The place I'd left three years ago when I fell in love with a man who saw me as nothing.

"Grandma, I need two more days."

"Why?"

I wiped my face and looked at Lily, who had fallen asleep clutching her rabbit.

"Because tomorrow is Lily's birthday. Ethan promised her a party. I want her to have that — one last good memory — before we disappear from his life forever."

My grandmother was silent for a moment. Then, softly: "You're a better mother than I ever was. Two days. But not a minute more."

"I promise."

I hung up and pressed my lips to Lily's forehead.

One more day, baby. Just let him keep one promise. Just one.

But Ethan Cole had never been good at keeping promises — especially not to us.