Chapter 1

I hid the pregnancy test -- two clear lines -- inside a cake, planning to surprise Ethan on his birthday.

Then he suddenly said, "I slept with Natalie."

He pointed at the hot soup I'd just made, his smile cruel: "Last week she fed me from this same bowl. Her tongue was so skilled, I couldn't hold back. So I fucked her."

Betrayed. Again.

I stood there frozen, too numb with pain to make a sound.

Ethan just smiled brighter: "I finally understand Lucas now. Natalie really does know how to please a man better than you."

Lucas was my ex-boyfriend. Natalie was my former stepsister.

Five years ago, those two drove me to attempt suicide with photos of them in bed together.

When I'd lost all hope, Ethan appeared and saved me.

But now, he'd betrayed me for the same person.

I'd been secretly making prenatal supplements for him, lying that it was just health tonic.

He never called me out on it. I thought he didn't know.

After a long silence, I finally found my voice, trembling: "Why?"

Why betray me and still let me make medicine for him every day?

Ethan looked at me and suddenly laughed loudly: "Claire, you lost."

He pulled out his phone and put it on speaker.

Natalie's voice poured out, sickeningly sweet: "Ethan, did it work?"

"It worked. You guessed right -- she only asked why."

Ethan leaned back on the sofa, the exact same posture Lucas used five years ago.

"Natalie and I made a bet about how you'd react. She bet you'd slap me. I bet you'd just cry."

He paused, smug and vicious: "I won."

Natalie laughed on the other end: "Five years later, and she still just asks 'why' when someone fucks her husband."

In a daze, I was back five years ago.

That year I came home early to surprise Lucas on his birthday.

I pushed open the door to find Natalie straddling Lucas. They didn't even bother to cover up.

Seeing me, Natalie panicked for just a moment.

Lucas leaned against the headboard and lit a cigarette: "Claire's home early. Your sister Natalie just turned eighteen, so I'm breaking her in for you."

I grabbed the vase from the table to throw it, but my wrist went limp like the bones had been pulled out. The vase slipped and shattered at my feet.

I only asked why.

Natalie shoved her phone in my face.

It was full of photos of her and Lucas -- the earliest one dated three months before Lucas and I got together.

"Claire, you're the one who stole someone else's boyfriend."

That night, Natalie sent the photos to all my classmates.

My phone rang all night with messages full of abuse.

I turned it off and stood on the rooftop until dawn.

The next day, Ethan grabbed my hand.

The day after that, he was drenched in sweat, like he'd run a long way.

He said, don't die for people who aren't worth it. Come with me.

So I went with him.

But five years later, today, the person who pulled me down from that rooftop had personally pushed me back up there.

"Alright Natalie, stop provoking her. See you tonight." Ethan hung up.

He grabbed his car keys and headed for the door.

As he passed the coffee table, his steps slowed for half a beat.

But only half a beat.

"I'm picking up Natalie. Move your stuff to the guest room. You don't have a place here anymore."

The door closed.

In the living room, the cake read "Happy 30th Birthday" in frosting I'd spent two hours piping.

Next to it, a blue gift box held the photo of the pregnancy test.

Two lines.

I'd planned to wait until after he blew out the candles to tell him we were having a baby.

That baby was four weeks old.