Chapter 2

Three months later, dragging a leg that still wasn't quite right, I opened the door to our home.

Chloe Davis stepped out of the master bedroom, wearing a silk slip. Seeing me, the smile on her face froze for a second.

Then, it melted into an expression of pity: "Aurora? Why didn't you say you were coming back?"

"What are you doing here? Where's Blake Harrison?" I cut her off, my voice hoarse from disuse.

"Oh, Blake went to get me some fruit."

Chloe caressed her slightly swollen belly, her eyes deliberately sweeping over my flat stomach. "I haven't been feeling well lately. The doctor said the pregnancy isn't stable."

"He was worried about me being alone, so he had me move in. It's easier for him to take care of me."

That's when I noticed her belly. By the looks of it, she was only two or three months along.

That perfectly aligned with the time I'd spent recovering abroad.

Could it be…

"Whose child is that?!" I demanded immediately.

The moment my words left my lips, Chloe immediately dropped to her knees.

"Aurora, please don't be angry. Blake and I are just friends, don't misunderstand."

"Blake only took me in out of kindness after I was abused and had nowhere to go. If you don't like it, I'll leave right now…"

She spoke, her eyes reddening, as if she'd suffered the greatest injustice.

Blake happened to walk in with a bag of fruit. Seeing the scene, he didn't hesitate, rushing forward to shove me aside.

"Chloe! You're pregnant, how can you be kneeling?!"

He turned his head, looking at me as if I were a hardened criminal.

"Can't you see Chloe's pregnant?! How could you make her kneel? You're absolutely vicious!"

I hadn't done anything. She'd knelt on her own. But in Blake's eyes, it was all my fault.

He didn't even ask where I'd been for three months or how I was doing.

"Blake, Aurora… she seems to have misunderstood us." Chloe buried her head in his chest, her shoulders subtly shaking.

Blake's face instantly darkened. "Misunderstand? What's there to misunderstand?"

"Aurora Hayes, let me tell you, Chloe is pregnant with my child. If you dare to bully her, I swear I won't let you off easy!"

I laughed. How could a man be so self-righteous about his affair?

"Blake Harrison, this is adultery. She's the other woman—"

"You have the nerve to say that!" he roared, cutting me off.

"If you hadn't been playing around abroad for three months, how would I have ever touched Chloe? She wouldn't be pregnant with my child!"

I couldn't believe he could utter such disgusting words.

He was actually pinning the blame for his infidelity on me.

I'd been drugged and left for dead at a Paris client dinner, enduring hellish torment, all for his career.

And he, meanwhile, had been sleeping with another woman in our home, getting her pregnant.

In that moment, my disappointment in him reached its absolute peak.