Chapter 3

Before I can answer, a scream slices across the courtyard.

“You’re LYING! Nate is MY daddy!”

I whip around. Bella has both hands on Sophie’s chest. Sophie hits the pavement hard, wailing.

“Mommy, she said her daddy’s name is Nate, but Nate is MY daddy…”

I run over and scoop her up.

Tiffany rushes over too, grabbing Bella by the arm.

“Bella! Why did you push her?!”

Bella folds her little arms, looking completely sure of herself.

“She’s a liar! Her dress is fake, and her daddy is fake too!”

Tiffany looks mortified.

“God, Chloe, I’m so sorry. Kids say the wildest things. She probably misheard something.”

She sighs and smooths Bella’s hair.

“My husband spoils her rotten. Honestly, it’s his fault she’s like this.”

“He was there through the whole pregnancy. The birth too.”

“Since she was born, he’s done bedtime stories, doctor’s appointments, parent-teacher conferences, all of it. So now she gets territorial about her daddy.”

Listening to her, something inside me goes hollow.

When I was pregnant, I threw up until I coughed blood. Nate said the company was slammed. He came home maybe two days a month.

The day I gave birth, I hemorrhaged. They pumped me full of donor blood. I almost died on the table.

The nurse called him from my phone all night. He didn’t pick up once.

After Sophie was born, he was still gone all the time.

Her first time rolling over. Her first steps. The first time she said “Daddy.” He missed every single one.

He was absent so long that Sophie started asking me if her daddy was dead.

“Mommy, is my dress really fake? Is my daddy… fake too?”

Sophie looks up at me, eyes still swimming.

My chest feels raw. I stand up and take her hand.

“Tiffany, it’s getting late. My friend isn’t coming. We should go.”

Tiffany blocks my path.

“Chloe, don’t be mad, please. Let me apologize for Bella.”

“Come on, it’s kind of crazy that we ran into each other.Here, add me on Instagram. The girls can play again sometime.”

She pulls out her phone, thumb already hovering over the Instagram icon.

I am about to refuse.

Then my eyes catch her home screen. I freeze.

Her wallpaper is a wedding photo of her and Nate

“You two… had a wedding?” My voice shakes.

Tiffany smiles, a little sheepish.

“Last year. In the Maldives. Cost close to a hundred and fifty grand!”

Her tone shifts, wry.

“We’re not legally married yet, though.”

“There’s some dead weight back in his hometown. His family forced him into some marriage years ago, and she won’t sign the papers. Total leech.”

For a second, I can’t even breathe.

Back when Nate was broke and dreaming of starting his company, I gave him every cent my parents had left me when the drunk driver killed them.

Two hundred thousand dollars.

We couldn’t afford a wedding. He cried into my shoulder and swore that when he made it, he’d throw me the biggest wedding this town had ever seen.

Turns out, he really did throw a big wedding. A hundred and fifty grand of a wedding.

Meanwhile, six years of marriage gets me nothing but his parents ordering me around like hired help and eight hundred dollars a month to survive on.

And to him, I’ve become “dead weight.”

“That’s nice,” I say. I pull out my phone and follow her.

Tiffany follows me back right away, delighted.

“Oh — Chloe, is your husband really also named Nate?”