After those viral videos of boyfriends treating their girlfriends like babies took over the internet, I decided to test the waters.
I sent a photo of a cat to my boyfriend, who had just proposed to me the week before.
"This will be our first baby. A fur baby still counts."
Herman Barnes rubbed the top of my head, his smile casual and unhurried.
"No. That'd be the second."
I stared at him, this man who had never once said anything remotely romantic.
I was sure he meant that I was the first—fragile, sensitive me.
I didn't press him on it. After all, he really did take good care of me.
I burrowed into his arms, giddy, already dreaming of our future together.
Then came the parent-teacher conference at the kindergarten.
I watched my fiancé walk through the school gates holding the hand of a child he'd told me belonged to a friend who had passed away.
I was about to go over and ask what was going on when the little boy's voice stopped me cold.
"I don't want to be a kid without a dad anymore. When are you going to tell Ms. Gill that you're my real father?"
Herman gently pinched the boy's cheek.
"Once Ms. Gill and I are married, I'll convince her to adopt you. But until then, you can't let her find out about you or your mother."
The boy nodded obediently.
The ground dropped out from under me.
The first baby he'd been talking about wasn't me.
It was his illegitimate son.
……
"When are you going to let Herbert Hayward call you 'Dad' for real? If this keeps up, it's going to mess with his head."
An unfamiliar voice. A woman's.
I hadn't even recovered from the shock of my fiancé having a child when I saw a face I didn't recognize and yet somehow did.
My heart seized.
I knew her.
Janet Hayward. Herman's ex-girlfriend.
I'd seen that face years ago, young and fresh in an old college group photo.
Now, looking more carefully, Herbert really did share their features. The resemblance was unmistakable—sixty percent theirs.
Two years. Two full years, and I hadn't noticed a thing.
So all those times his friends had teased him about his "epic love story" with his ex, it had been real.
Back then, Herman had looked me straight in the eye like an earnest schoolboy and sworn up and down they were just joking.
Promise after promise. Oath after oath.
And I, like a fool, had laughed it off and teased him for being more sensitive than I was.
Those hadn't been precautions. They'd been previews.
My nails dug into my palms. The pain barely registered.
I couldn't look away. I forced myself to watch.
Herman frowned.
"Don't use our son as an excuse to come to me asking for a title. I told you—Daniela Gill is the only woman I will ever marry. Whatever I felt for you is long gone."
Janet's downcast eyes reddened almost instantly.
"That's not what I meant. You know I'm terminally ill. I just want to make sure my son has somewhere to go before I die. I don't want him to lose his mother and then be rejected by his father too."
The moment the words left her mouth, Herman's expression softened.
"Focus on your treatment. No matter what happens, he's my son. I'll take care of him."
Janet shifted closer, pressing her forehead against his shoulder, her body trembling.
"But you're about to get married. I'm so afraid he'll be..."
Herman—who always kept his distance from other women—didn't push her away.
He looked resigned.
"I understand your concerns. But don't worry. I've already been slipping Daniela medication to make her infertile. When the time comes, I'll produce a premarital medical exam showing she can't conceive."
"Once I suggest adopting a child, she'll feel guilty enough to agree. And she'll take good care of Herbert."
A bomb went off inside my skull.
One deafening blast, and then nothing. I couldn't hear anything at all.
Never—not once—had I imagined that this man, who had made me so many precious promises, would turn his cruelest schemes on me.
I bit down on my lower lip until it nearly split, the only thing keeping the sob locked inside my throat.
