Chapter 1 - The Glowing Screen
The rain hit the windshield so hard I could barely see the road ahead of me.
I was six months pregnant and my lower back ached with a dull, constant throb.
Daniel was supposed to be at the downtown office for a late strategy meeting.
I just wanted a hot shower and a quiet evening in my own bed.
But when I pulled into our driveway, I noticed a faint blue light spilling from his home office window.
I unlocked the front door quietly, not wanting to disturb him if he had come home early to rest.
I slipped off my wet shoes and walked slowly down the hardwood hallway.
The office door was cracked open just a few inches.
Daniel was not in the room.
His laptop was sitting on the mahogany desk, the screen fully awake and glowing brightly.
I had never been the kind of jealous wife who checked her husband's personal devices.
I always believed that trust was the absolute foundation of our marriage.
But as I walked past the desk to turn off the monitor, a name on the screen caught my eye.
It was a private Messenger conversation that he had carelessly forgotten to minimize.
The name at the top of the chat window was Chloe.
She was his college girlfriend, his supposed first love who had broken his heart years ago.
I stared at the screen, feeling my pulse suddenly hammering in my throat.
The newest message was a long paragraph from her.
She was thanking him profusely for taking the day off to go to her ultrasound appointment.
She wrote that the baby was perfectly healthy and growing fast.
She said she had felt the baby kick in the car on the way home.
My own unborn daughter fluttered inside my womb at that exact second.
I did not scream.
I did not cry out.
I reached out with a trembling hand and placed my fingers on the mouse.
I scrolled up through the chat history.
The messages went back for over five months.
Chloe had gone through a messy divorce and discovered she was pregnant shortly after.
Daniel had eagerly stepped in as her knight in shining armor.
He was paying her monthly rent.
He was covering her hospital bills and buying her expensive maternity clothes.
Then I found the line that hurt infinitely more than the financial betrayal.
Chloe had asked him what he was going to do about his pregnant wife.
Daniel's reply was cold and calculated.
He wrote, "You don't need to worry about Jennifer, because I have a plan to handle that side of things."
That side of things.
I was his devoted wife, carrying his first child.
And to the man I loved, I had become nothing more than a temporary problem to manage.
A sudden chime from the computer speakers made me jump.
A brand new message from Chloe popped up at the bottom of the screen.
It was a photo attachment of a legal document.
May you like
I clicked on the image to enlarge it.
It was a lease agreement for a luxury townhouse in my name, with my forged signature resting clearly on the bottom line.
