Six months after the divorce, I never expected to hear my ex-husband’s voice again. Yet that morning, as I lay in a hospital bed with my newborn daughter sleeping peacefully beside me, my phone vibrated. The name on the screen made my breath hitch: Ethan Walker—my ex.

A bitter laugh escaped me. “Why would I tell you anything? You said the baby wasn’t yours.”

“That’s not what I meant,” he said quickly. “I thought… I thought you lost the baby. My fiancée told me you weren’t pregnant anymore.”

My chest tightened. “Your fiancée lied to you. Congratulations.”

He raked a hand through his hair, struggling to breathe evenly. “I invited you to the wedding because she insisted. She wanted proof you were completely out of my life. But when I told her you’d just given birth…” His voice broke.

The atmosphere in the room shifted.

“She screamed,” he continued. “Said the baby couldn’t exist. Then she fainted.”

Slowly, I pushed myself upright, my heart pounding. “Ethan… what did you do?”

He swallowed hard. “I ran. Straight here.”

That was when his fiancée stormed in behind him, rage contorting her face. She pointed at my child and screamed something that made every nurse freeze.

“THAT BABY IS RUINING MY LIFE!” Madeline Brooks shouted, her flawless hair undone, mascara streaked with tears.

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