To save my husband, William Delgado, I ran into the blast site eight months pregnant.
A falling crystal chandelier struck my head, and my mind was frozen forever at six years old.
So when William placed our baby into the arms of a company intern, right there in front of me, I spent a full minute trying to work it out.
"Will, this… isn't this our baby? Why are you giving her a different mother…"
The man spoke without any change in his expression.
"If you hadn't offended Mr. Matthews, Astrid wouldn't have had to stay an intern this long."
"And besides, a girl can't be the Delgado heir. Sooner or later she'll be married off to be someone's wife. Better to give her to Astrid as compensation. It saves a lot of money too."
I didn't cry. I didn't make a scene. I still hadn't worked out what those words meant.
Compensation? Was he tossing our child aside like an object?
When William saw that I wasn't fighting back, his tone softened, and he ruffled my hair with that doting touch.
"Be good, Bella. A Delgado has to be clever, exceptional. In your condition now… you'd teach the child all the wrong things."
A choking pain twisted through my heart.
The man seemed to have forgotten that I'd only become less clever. I hadn't lost my memory.
And then it came clear to me. My husband was willing to push his own wife into the abyss to please another woman. There was a word for that. Cheating.
And this marriage, rotted through with betrayal, deserved to end.
…
The hospital room door banged open, and a snow-white kitten sprang straight into William's arms.
The man stroked the pet against his chest, his voice careless.
"Astrid pays attention to the little things, and she loves children. She's better suited to being that child's mother than you are."
I knew the woman he meant.
Astrid Pruitt had been my closest friend in college. I was the one who got her in at the Delgados as an intern.
The cat in William's arms wouldn't settle. It leapt onto my hospital bed.
It landed a solid kick right on my belly, where I'd just had surgery.
The sudden stab of pain made me gasp.
Before I could even react, the cat hair left on the blanket and sheets set off a string of sneezes.
My eyes filled at once.
William paused for a moment.
"Sorry, Bella. I forgot you're allergic to cat hair."
He quickly had someone carry the cat out.
"You know I've been swamped with work lately. It's normal to forget little things."
I didn't say anything. A choking bitterness flared up inside me.
Back when he first learned I had a severe allergy to cat hair, he gave his staff strict orders.
None of the household help cleaning the house were allowed to keep animals.
He even disinfected himself from head to toe before coming home every day, terrified that some stray cat's fur clinging to him would make me uncomfortable.
Back then I laughed at him for making such a fuss over nothing.
But William told me, serious and earnest, that he loved me, and that was why he didn't want me hurt in any way.
And now I sat quietly looking at the few strands of cat hair still left on the sheets, my heart torn to pieces.
If he let that cat appear here, didn't that mean he didn't love me anymore?
"Astrid's going to be raising the baby, so she won't have time for the cat. It's just a small allergy. I've already had the doctor prescribe you something for it…"
"She's helping you raise your child, after all. You should be grateful."
I tried to take in what he was saying.
I didn't understand why he thought letting Astrid Pruitt raise my child was a kindness.
Not only would my child call her mother, I was supposed to thank this woman for the gift of raising her.
"William, you're giving our child to your little mistress… does that count as cheating?"
William's face went rigid. A flicker of guilt, rare for him, came and went in his eyes.
"Bella, you don't understand at all. Astrid is just a subordinate I have high hopes for…"
I instinctively shrank away from the hand he reached toward me.
I had no idea that this one motion would push William over the edge.
"Isabella Butler, do you really think you're a six-year-old?"
"Let me tell you, all I want is a clever heir!"
"And you? Forget clever. You can't even give me a son!"
I was frightened of him. Great fat tears rolled down my face.
William's voice cut off abruptly. His throat worked once.
He suddenly reached out and ruffled my hair with that doting touch, a different man entirely from the one who'd just lost control.
"A girl can't be the Delgado heir. Sooner or later she'll be married off to be someone's wife. Give her to Astrid as compensation. You owe her that."
"Once your body recovers, we can have a son."
"I'll pour everything I have into raising him, give him all of the Delgado fortune."
William's voice was gentle, and yet he showed not the slightest concern for that newborn daughter.
He rubbed at his brow wearily and let out a sigh.
"Astrid is the new mother I handpicked for our daughter. She's nothing like those women who'll crawl into a bed for money or status."
"Be good, Bella. Stop being unreasonable. I really have thought of a lot for you and the child."
