Six months after our divorce, my ex-husband called to invite me to his wedding. I told him, “I just gave birth. I’m not going anywhere.” Thirty minutes later, he showed up in my hospital room wearing his wedding suit… and with a face white with terror.

Then at me.

“You planned this,” he whispered.

“No,” I replied calmly. “You did.”

And for the first time since I’d ever met him, I saw real fear in Adrian Carter’s eyes.

He had absolutely no idea what was coming next.

Vanessa recovered first.

She swept into the room like she was still making her grand walk down the aisle, lifting her gown slightly off the tile floor. Her expensive perfume swallowed the sterile hospital air, though I could see the tremble beneath her perfect smile.

“This is pathetic,” she snapped. “You really had a baby to ruin my wedding? Are you that desperate, Emma?”

The nurse adjusting my IV froze awkwardly beside the bed.

I looked at Vanessa’s sparkling tiara, her flawless makeup, the face of a woman slowly realizing she hadn’t truly won anything.

“Congratulations, Vanessa,” I said softly. “You finally got to keep the man you stole.”

Her expression hardened instantly.

“No one steals trash someone already threw away.”

“You’re right,” I replied. “I was only returning defective merchandise.”

Adrian slammed the hospital door shut.

“That’s enough. Is the baby mine or not?”