### Chapter 4

My heart lurched.

The baby was only two days old. I couldn't bear to imagine what would happen to her in Maya's hands.

I dialed Austin's number, my voice shaking. "Why did you sneak our daughter over to Maya? She doesn't know the first thing about babies!"

He paused, his tone flat.

"Maya wanted to know what it feels like to look after a baby, so I lent her ours for a while. Relax, there's a professional nanny watching. Nothing will happen."

My scalp prickled. "So because she wants to play mommy, my daughter has to be her toy?!"

The call cut off, hard.

I bolted out the door and flagged down a car straight to the postpartum care center.

I made it to the building, and then Maya's new post froze me where I stood.

In the video she had grabbed my daughter's soft little legs and hauled her up out of the crib, holding her roughly while she forced the bottle in.

The baby choked, her whole face going red, and milk sprayed onto Maya's chest. Maya shrieked, and then she dropped my daughter onto the thick shag carpet.

A dull thud. My daughter's screaming didn't come until two seconds later, raw and tearing.

It shattered me.

I ran up to the top floor faster than I ever had in my life. From inside the luxury suite came Maya's sniffling. "Did I do something wrong? Now she's going to yell at me again..."

Austin's voice was impossibly gentle.

"Every new mother's like this. It's not your fault."

"Besides, a few little bumps are normal for a kid. She should learn to be more forgiving anyway."

When I burst through the door, he had his arm around Maya, murmuring to soothe her, without so much as a glance at the daughter in the nanny's arms.

The baby had cried herself hoarse, each sound cutting until my heart bled.

Fury and hatred twisted together in me, and I slapped Maya across the face, hard.

"Ah!"

She screamed and fell into Austin's arms, fat tears rolling down her wronged little face.

"I—I didn't mean to, she just wouldn't drink..."

Austin's face darkened. "Dorothy, what the hell has gotten into you?"

I snatched my daughter back from the nanny, looking at the tiny face gone blue from choking, my eyes burning red.

"She almost choked my daughter to death, then dropped her on the floor. The baby's screaming like this, and you're blind? Deaf?!"

Austin was silent for two seconds.

"But Maya meant well. Do you have to make a scene?"

I'd been done with him for so long. So why were the tears rising again now?

The little island I'd spent countless days and nights finalizing for our wedding, Maya took a liking to and wanted for her prom, and he said prom happens once in a lifetime, a wedding could be held anywhere.

After we married, Maya secretly swapped my prenatal supplements for vitamins, and he said she was just hurting inside, we could have kids a few years later.

I waited three whole years.

On my birthday, he smiled and said he'd give me a baby as a gift.

That night under the stars there was no Maya, and I leaned on his shoulder and asked whether he wanted a boy or a girl.

Austin ruffled my hair, doting.

"As long as you're the one who has it, it's my most precious treasure."

So the vow was a shooting star that night, plunging into the abyss in the blink of an eye.

I lifted my tear-filled eyes and watched him scoop the still-sobbing Maya up crosswise, cradling her like something fragile and priceless.

And my daughter was only the product of his passing whim, a thing he couldn't be bothered to look at twice.

Before he left he stared at me, his eyes cold as ice.

"Dorothy, do you think you know how you got that daughter?"

"Maya was the one who talked me into it. Even though you shoved her into the icy lake and cost her the chance to ever be a mother, she said you were pitiful too. Only then did I decide to give you this child."

I stared, my eyes going wide in disbelief.

I shook my head, wanting to deny it, but he couldn't be bothered to look at me again.

"Your family would rather humor Maya than go to the hospital to be with you while you gave birth. All because you're heartless."

In that moment the pain reached a place beyond anything.

But the tears stopped.

Watching his back as he carried Maya away, the memory of that deep winter five years ago overlapped with it.

That day I jumped into a lake at ten below zero and, on my last breath, pushed Maya back up onto the bank after she fell in.

I saw my fiancé's car parked at the edge of the water, so I waved my arms and begged for help with everything I had.

But he never looked at the water once. His whole gaze was on Maya.

He took off his warm coat and wrapped it around her, and all he left me was the back of a car speeding off.

When I opened my eyes in the hospital, my parents, my brother, and Austin were all there.

Except they were all crowded around Maya in the next bed, fussing over her.

Back then I didn't understand the way they looked at me, complicated, cold, even disgusted.

Now I finally do.

### Chapter 5

In their eyes, I was never the girl who saved Maya's life.

I was the one who pushed their darling daughter, their sweet little sister, their gentle childhood sweetheart, into that icy lake.

I'd once refused my adoptive parents' and my brother's pleas to stay, telling myself that going back to my blood family was coming home to my roots.

I was wrong.

In the ride-share on the way to the hospital with my daughter, I took out my phone.

My finger hovered over one number for a long time.

Then, all at once, that number lit up on its own.

I answered without hesitation, and my brother Carl Farley's voice came through.

"Hey, sis. Your due date's around now, isn't it? Do you want us to come be with you?"

Something tightened in my throat.

He paused, and his voice went even gentler.

"Mom and Dad stopped being angry a long time ago. Ever since they heard the baby was coming, they've been too worried to sleep at night."

The next second he switched on the camera, and the familiar Farley estate garden filled the screen.

Claudia Farley rose from the gazebo chair, tense, her eyes rimmed red. "Sweetheart, are you okay? Being pregnant is so hard, isn't it?"

"Your father said some harsh things back then, but he never meant a word of it."

Otis Farley stood beside her, watching the screen with an ache in his eyes.

"It was only because that Yates boy chased all the way to the airport and shed a few tears that my girl went soft. I was angry because I wanted so much better for you, so I…"

Claudia cried harder, wiping at tears that wouldn't stop no matter how she tried.

"Your mom and dad don't ask for anything. We only want Austin Yates and the Fox family to treat you well. Then we can rest easy."

Off-screen, Carl said softly:

"If you don't want to see us, I'll have the gifts for my niece flown over instead. And Mom and Dad have already lined up the best obstetrics and care team. We won't let you or the baby suffer even a little."

Five years without seeing them, and the two people who used to be so strong now had new lines carved across their foreheads.

Looking at their worried faces, there was no question who my real family was.

Every bit of hurt I'd swallowed broke loose in that moment.

Crying, I turned on my own camera and lifted my daughter up to it.

"Mom, Dad, Carl. The baby and I miss you so much."

My adoptive parents and my brother burst out laughing, delighted.

In that instant, the pull to fly back to the people who loved me hit its peak.

"We're leaving right now. We'll be there tonight!"

The doctor told me the baby was only frightened, that she'd be fine with good care.

The weight lifted off my chest, and I held my daughter close, kissing her again and again.

Sweet girl, tonight Mommy is taking you away.

Back home, I packed my bags at top speed.

Footsteps sounded downstairs, and I quickly hid the suitcase out on the balcony.

Austin walked straight to the closet, dug out a clean set of clothes, and spoke while he changed.

"Maya says she doesn't blame you. After all, she made a small mistake today too."

"Didn't you want to throw a one-month celebration for the baby? Pick a plan and send it to me."

He tapped a few times on his phone, then turned to leave.

In his rush, he didn't even notice how much emptier the closet was.

I caught his arm. "I want to buy the baby an insurance policy. It needs your signature and payment."

I flipped the divorce papers to the signature page, and when I held them out, my palms were a little damp.

But Austin never looked at the content. In a few quick strokes he signed his name.

His back disappeared fast.

I skimmed through his few bare-bones party plans, then opened Maya's latest Instagram post. He'd spent a million on her, throwing a lavish luxury-cruise children's party.

In the photos Maya sat at the center of it all, my family circled around her, smiling sweetly.

A cold little smile pulled at my mouth.

That afternoon, a message from Austin popped up:

"Did you pick a plan yet?"

Night fell. I fed the baby, rocked her to sleep, picked up my suitcase, and headed out.

Only once I was at the curb with my daughter, waiting for the car, did I type back.

"Whatever you decide is fine."

After a long wait, Austin finally got my reply.

The strange unease that had gnawed at his heart all day finally settled.

He couldn't help smiling as he typed: "You worked hard bringing her into the world. Dot, once I get through this busy stretch, the three of us will live the way a family should."

I calmly blocked the number.

Then I got into the ride-share.

"To the airport."

Sixteen to twenty-six.

Ten years of giving, ten years of waiting, all of it came to an end in this moment.