Chapter 3

• Hank stood in the doorway. The moment he saw Emma sitting on the floor, his face went dark.
• He strode over, carefully hauled Emma up, checked her head to toe, wound tight with nerves.
• “Emma! You okay? Did you hurt anything? Does it hurt?”
• He brushed a hand over Emma’s swollen cheek, then swung his glare to me. His eyes were blazing.
• “Margot! She’s your good friend. Emma came to see you out of kindness, and you hit her? Are you out of your mind?”
• His voice shook with rage. He jabbed a finger right in my face and cursed me.
• “Don’t think you can do whatever the hell you want just because you’re carrying my kid? I’m telling you, you apologize to Emma today!”
• I opened my mouth to explain.
• “Enough!”
• Hank cut me off, voice like a whip. His eyes were cold as knives.
• “I don’t want to hear your excuses! I thought you were just immature. Didn’t know you were this vicious, this jealous!”
• He paused, his jaw set. “If you don’t apologize today, I don’t want this baby!”
• He knew damn well how hard I fought to get pregnant, and he still thought he could use the baby to threaten me.
• I pulled the miscarriage report from under my pillow and handed it to him, calm and unbothered.
• “Don’t bother. The baby’s gone.”
• Hank took the report, froze for a beat, then went beet-red. He crumpled the paper and hurled it at my face.
• “Margot! Still lying to me! I bet you were never even pregnant—you just made up a miscarriage to trick me, didn’t you?”
• He could think whatever he wanted. I didn’t care anymore.
• I took out the divorce papers my lawyer had already prepared and held them out to him.
• “Sign it. Let’s split clean.”
• The moment he saw it in black and white, his face changed.
• Hank snatched the agreement, flipped a couple pages, and his eyes narrowed to pinpoints.
• “When did you dig all this up?”
• The agreement laid it out, clear as day: the assets he’d shifted these past two years, the house and car he bought for Emma, even the account activity for the shell company he opened on the sly.
• Hank always figured I was just a stay-at-home wife who knew nothing, an idiot he could play.
• He didn’t know his seed money came from me selling the house my mom left me.
• Everything he had now was because of me.
• “Margot!”
• He tore the agreement to shreds, his voice twisted with fury.
• “How dare you play me! All these years acting so meek—I really underestimated you!”
• He raked through his hair. “You want a divorce? Think you’re getting a cut of my money? Not a chance! Without me, you can’t even afford to eat!”
• I watched him lose it and suddenly laughed, going at it till my eyes watered.
• “Staying with you is what would really finish me," I said.
• From when I fell and fractured a bone and he told me to call the ambulance myself.
• From when my mom was gravely ill and he wouldn’t go with me to pick her up.
• From when I passed out at the hospital while he was busy rubbing another woman’s ankle.
• I’d already died once.
• He turned and walked out. Not long after, he came back with a new agreement and slammed it onto my bed.
• “You want a divorce? Fine. Sign this, do it my way, and maybe I’ll think about it.”