Chapter 2: The Name I Already Knew
Derek called forty-one times before sunrise.
I know because Rachel counted.
She sat in the chair beside my hospital bed, watching my phone light up on the nightstand while I nursed Emily for the first time.
"You should turn it back on eventually," she said quietly.
"I know."
"But not tonight."
"No.
Not tonight."
Emily made a small sound against my chest.
I pulled her closer.
At 7 a.m., a text came through from a number I didn't recognize.
*This is Karen.
Derek's colleague.
He's been trying to reach you all night.
He's very worried.*
I stared at the name.
Karen.
Rachel leaned over and read it.
Her expression didn't change, but her jaw tightened.
"You know who Karen is," she said.
It wasn't a question.
I did.
I had known for four months.
I just hadn't said it out loud yet.
I set the phone face-down on the blanket and looked at my daughter instead.
Emily was perfect.
Ten fingers.
Ten toes.
Dark hair still damp from the world she'd just entered without her father.
Whatever Derek was doing two hundred miles away — whoever he was with — it no longer had any power over this room.
But then Rachel's phone rang.
She looked at the screen and went very still.
"It's Mom," she said slowly.
"She says Derek just showed up at her house."
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What did Derek say to their mother — and what secret is he desperately trying to hide before she finds out the truth?
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