Chapter 1

Ethan Shaw’s marriage certificate slipped from the cabinet in Natalie’s kitchen.

His name was printed beside hers.

Not mine.

The filing date was last October. It was the same week he’d told me the board was making his life impossible and begged me to postpone our wedding one more time.

I bent to pick it up. The edge of the paper sliced my fingertip, and a bright drop of blood landed beside Natalie Sullivan’s name.

I carried the certificate into the living room and slapped it onto the coffee table.

“Tell me this isn’t real.”

Ethan looked down at it. Then, to my disbelief, he gave a quiet laugh and pulled me against his chest.

“Natalie grew up without a family,” he said. “She wanted a child who was truly hers, but she couldn’t stand the idea of using an anonymous donor. I’m the only family she’s ever trusted.”

I shoved him away.

He exhaled as though I were the one being unreasonable. “My grandmother wouldn’t accept a Shaw child born outside a legal marriage. So Natalie and I signed the papers. Once the baby is born, we’ll divorce. Our wedding tomorrow changes nothing.”

Nothing.

Today was our fifth anniversary. Ethan had suggested we spend it at Natalie’s Napa estate.

I had thought he was finally ready to set boundaries with the woman he called his oldest friend.

Instead, I discovered that I had been the outsider all along.

That night, I accepted a position more than five thousand miles away.

“What exactly do you think I am to you?”

I stepped out of Ethan’s reach. “Don’t touch me. If you want a wedding, have one with your wife. I won’t be at ours.”

He staggered back half a step, irritation tightening his face.

“Anna, I did this for you.”

“For me?”

“Being a Shaw comes with obligations: galas, charity boards, press and people watching everything you do. You’ve always said you wanted your freedom. I didn’t want to trap you in all that.”

Natalie rested a hand on her still-flat stomach.

“Mrs. Shaw says this is the first child of Ethan’s generation,” she murmured. “The family heir. She said the baby has to be born a Shaw.”

Then she turned wide, wounded eyes on me.

“I don’t have feelings for Ethan, Anna. After the baby comes, I’ll sign the divorce papers. I can raise the child alone if that’s what you want.”

Ethan’s expression hardened.

“I never said you’d raise my child alone. How are you supposed to manage with no family and a newborn?” He glanced at me. “It’s a piece of paper. Anna understands that.”

My finger was still bleeding because I had been too stunned to bandage it. The sight of it, combined with my anemia and the fact that I had barely eaten, made the room tilt.

My stomach rolled.

But the pain in my chest was worse.

Years ago, I had been the one to ask Ethan when we were getting married.

He had studied me for a long moment before answering.

“Not yet. I just became CEO of Shaw Holdings. My brothers are waiting for me to fail, and I won’t give them a way to hurt you. Give me a little more time. I swear I’ll marry you.”

I had lived on that promise for years.

Now I understood. The timing had never been wrong.

I had simply never been his first choice.

Ethan noticed the sweat beading along my hairline and frowned.

“Are you seriously doing this again?”

“Doing what?”

“Pretending you’re sick so I’ll give in. Natalie’s pregnant and she hasn’t complained half as much as you do.”

So that was what he thought of every dizzy spell, every iron infusion, every morning I had forced myself upright when my body wanted to collapse.

Something inside me went still.

“We’re done, Ethan.”

For one brief second, panic flashed across his face. Then it vanished.

“You’re upset.”

“I’m leaving you.”

“Stop being dramatic. Natalie and I have never slept together. If I had anything to hide, would I have let you find out before the wedding?”

I stared at him.

He truly believed that made it better.

I turned and walked out.

Ethan started after me, but Natalie suddenly grabbed her stomach.

“Ethan, the baby. I think it moved.”

He stopped.

He didn’t follow me again.

By the time I reached the end of the drive, two messages lit up my phone.

Anna, I’m not letting you break up with me.

Natalie says the baby needs me. I’ll calm her down, then I’ll come find you.

She was barely eight weeks pregnant. There was no baby kicking yet.

My cut throbbed with every beat of my heart. I wrapped it in a tissue and kept walking.

Ethan had never believed I needed him.

That was all right.

I didn’t anymore.