Kate's pov
The air turned cold the moment the words left my lips.
Aiden recoiled like I had said something that physically moved him. He blinked. Straightened. "What are you talking about? She's going to be a surrogate, not my wife."
My gaze locked on his. Those brown eyes wide with something that looked almost like fear. "I know, Aiden. But I can't just absorb this. It's too much. We will never be the same after this. She kept you there for nine months. What makes you think she'll simply hand over the baby and disappear?"
He was quiet.
"And didn't you hear what your mother said? She'll use that child to make you do whatever she wants. Indefinitely."
He reached out and tilted my chin up with his index finger, his touch careful. "You don't have to worry about any of that." His voice had dropped to something softer. "I've got it figured out. She gives birth, she hands over the baby, and that's the end. Mother won't even know her name."
I steadied my breath as best I could. "That won't work, Aiden. No mother willingly leaves her child with someone she barely knows. And that child deserves both parents. Not some arrangement. Not a woman who signs papers and disappears." I paused. "I know what it's like to not have mine. I wouldn't wish that on any child."
Something shifted in his expression.
He squeezed my hands. "You're sitting here worrying about a child that isn't even yours." His voice was quiet, almost wondering. "That's the heart of a mother right there."
He cleared his throat. "Listen to me. This was never about children. It was never about heirs or names or any of what my mother said. It's about having someone with a heart like yours beside me." He leaned closer. "And remember what we promised each other four years ago."
I looked at him.
"Till death do us part," he said softly.
The tears came faster than I could manage and he pulled me into his chest before I could wipe them away, one hand pressing gently against the back of my head, muffling the sound of everything I couldn't say out loud.
"Do this for me," he whispered against my hair. "Do it for Lisa. Do it for us."
My chest tightened around the breath I was holding.
I nodded against him.
"I'll stay. I'll try. I'm sorry for even thinking about leaving."
"Shh." His arms tightened briefly. "It's fine. It's still your day, remember?" He pulled back just enough to look at me. "We have a picnic to get to."
The silence lasted exactly one second.
His phone rang.
His body went still against mine before he stepped back and looked at the screen.
"Aiden." A woman's voice came through before he could speak, high and urgent. "I'm in labor. We're at the hospital. Please come."
He looked at me.
I looked at him.
"Send me the address." His voice came out controlled. "I'm on my way." He ended the call and the room felt different than it had a moment before. Smaller somehow.
"I'm sorry, Kate. I have to go. I'll make it up to you. I promise."
He was already moving toward the door.
"It's okay." The words came out steadier than I felt. "He should be there. It's his child too." I swallowed. "He was with me when I was in labor."
The door clicked shut.
I stood there for a moment in the quiet he'd left behind.
Then I made my way to the bedroom, pulled back the sheets and climbed in, pulling them up over my face.
He left.
He left me for her.
A tear slipped past.
I bit my lower lip, fisting the sheets tight till my nails tore through them as the pain in my chest doubled.
A shaky breath slipped past.
I have to stay.
It's the only way I can pay him back for saving me from the shackles my stepfamily bound me with.
It was an arranged marriage.
Yes.
But his acceptance saved me that day.
I have to stay.
★★★
My heart thudded as I dialed Aiden's number for what must have been the hundredth time.
Still nothing.
A whole week since he left and not a single call returned, not a single message answered. Just silence, the particular kind that feels like a decision.
I set the phone down and stared at the ceiling.
My baby.
My happiness.
She would be six now. Probably giggling with her friends in class, probably still obsessed with cake, probably doing something that would make me laugh if I could see it.
I bit hard into my lower lip.
She isn't dead.
No matter what they found at the lake, as long as it wasn't her body, she isn't dead. She's somewhere. Waiting. And I'm coming for her.
Ethan might have been able to project a different narrative but I know he's with my child and I'm coming for her.
I wiped my eyes roughly and dragged myself to the bathroom. The reflection that met me looked back with red-rimmed eyes and flattened hair. I washed my face, straightened myself as best I could, then exhaled at the mirror.
"I should be happy. It's Aiden's child. Not a stranger's." I forced a smile at my reflection. "I'm happy for him. I'm staying for him. I can do this."
My phone beeped.
I crossed to it immediately and my shoulders sagged at what I read.
They're having a party.
I exhaled slowly.
I should be there.
I'm happy for him, aren't I?
One glance at my shorts and socked ankles confirmed I wasn't leaving the room like this. Thirty minutes later I was standing at the top of the stairs in a hoodie and joggers, practicing my breathing before I went down.
The living room was full. Drinks, our signature snacks, familiar faces in expensive clothes. Aiden's friends, his business partners, his mother's circle. But Aiden and the baby were nowhere I could see.
I moved through the room, managing the ache behind my eyes, acknowledging faces as I searched.
"Mrs. Beaumont."
I turned with a smile already forming.
"Sophia."
She pulled me into a hug before I could say anything else and I held on a second longer than I meant to.
When she stepped back she was wearing a soft cream gown that suited her completely and she was already reaching into her bag.
"I got you one too," she whispered.
The heat behind my eyes built immediately.
"I love you," I mouthed.
She hadn't changed. Not even slightly.
"It's okay," she said softly against my ear. "But you should know there are reporters here. Your look will make headlines."
I sniffed. "It's fine. I'm happy for him."
She studied me for a moment then looped her arm through mine. "Come on then. Let's go see the baby of the hour."
I chuckled despite everything.
Eyes rolled as we passed. Muffled sounds that weren't quite laughter. I kept my head up and my pace steady until we reached the door at the end of the hall.
Sophia stopped.
"You should go in first."
I nodded and pushed the door open.
My legs stopped working the moment it closed behind me.
Ginger red hair. Green eyes. Full red lips. An oval face I hadn't seen in years but recognized before my mind had fully caught up.
"Ellen?"
The name left my mouth on its own.
She looked up from where she was settling the baby, wrapped in a blanket, on the bed. A slow smile crossed her face as she straightened and stepped toward me.
"Hello, Kate." Her voice was warm in the way a blade is warm after it's been in the sun. "We meet again."
"What are you doing here?" My breath stuttered around the words.
She tilted her head. "What does it look like?" Her gaze moved briefly to the baby then back to me. "Fulfilling your marital duties. Since you've failed so completely at doing it yourself."
"That's not true. There's no way Aiden would know you and have anything to do with you. You're not the mother of that child."
She smirked. "You're right. He didn't recognize me. I've changed a lot and he was drunk." She shrugged, unbothered. "But it was already too late by the time any of that mattered."
My chest burned.
"You're lying."
She rolled her eyes. "You still think the world is arranged in your favor. That giving Theodore Beaumont your kidney meant his son would overlook the fact that you can't give him an heir." She stepped closer. "Wake up, Kate. The world doesn't revolve around you. It never did."
The door opened.
Aiden walked in.
My heart thudded so hard I felt it in my throat.
He'll explain. There's a mix-up somewhere. There has to be.
"Kate." His voice came out soft and careful and the pain shot straight through the back of my eyes.
That look.
I know that look.
"How could you do this to me?" The words rasped out of me as he blurred in front of my eyes.
"It's not what you think. I didn't know who she was. She's changed and I was drunk, I never meant—"
"Aiden." My voice came out steadier than I felt. My shoulders dropped inward. My throat tightened around everything I wanted to say and couldn't. "I can't. I can't live with this. I can't take any of it."
The tears came hot and fast and I wiped them off roughly.
"I'll get the divorce papers ready."