Chapter 5

From that day on, Julian seemed to stop caring altogether. He no longer hid his closeness with Hailey.

Scandalous rumors spread across the tabloids, but he never bothered to explain a single thing to me.

Our already sparse conversations dwindled into a cold, suffocating silence.

His repeated betrayals eroded the last shreds of hope I had for this marriage. The love I had carried for over a decade withered away with every boundary he crossed.

One morning, while scrolling through parenting forums on my phone, a breaking news alert popped up.

I tapped it.

There were photos of Julian and Hailey, captured at a high-profile gala, passionately embracing and kissing beneath the flashing cameras.

A public declaration of love.

Even though I thought my heart had gone completely numb, a vicious, stabbing pain tore through my chest.

I thought he would at least have the decency to hide it a little longer.

At least until our child was born.

When he stopped by the house to pick up some legal files later that afternoon, I couldn't stop myself. I blocked his path.

"Why go public now? Couldn't you have waited... just until..."

His eyes swept over my swollen, pregnant belly with an indifferent chill.

"There's no particular reason," he cut in flatly. "She wanted to go public, so I indulged her."

The words caught in my throat. I stood frozen, watching him turn and walk away without a backward glance.

Tears slipped down my face.

"Did you ever care about how I felt? Even for a second?"

A sudden kick inside my stomach jolted me back from the brink of despair.

I gently placed a trembling hand over my belly.

"It's okay, little one. It's just you and me now."

Yet even that final, fragile dream was ripped away from me.