r bags just inside the door of their large, sterile ho

some dinner later," he said, already backing toward the door.

ut, leaving Ava alone with the baby carrier in the sil

h. He wasn' t running toward success; he was running away from her. His coldness toward Leo wasn' t because he was a new, nervous father. It was because Leo was her son, a physical remi

f her body' s recent trauma. She winced, leaning agai

cribed?" he asked, his voice devoid of any real

" sh

The nanny can' t hel

d slowly made her way to the nursery. She looked down at Leo, sleeping peacefully in his bassinet. He was just a baby. He wasn't the boy who would reject her yet. B

s raw nerves. She picked him up, her movements stiff and unsur

of a screaming infant. He walked into th

top?" he snapped. "I

Ava said, her

iam said, before turning and walking o

with this man. The next morning, when the nanny arrived, Ava felt a w

ick him up every time he cries. You' ll spoil him." In her first life, Ava had argued, defending her own materna

inly. "You' re right, Brenda

Ava had learned. Some battles weren' t worth fighting. Letting B

terson standing on her doorstep, a bright, calculating smile on her

"He was worried you weren't eating well. I was just in the neighborhood,

miliar, painful thud. She remembered this moment. This was how it had started l

r voice carefully neutral. She took the soup. "

work," Chloe said, but she was alr

k toward the living room, intending to sit with them, to make her presence known

" Chloe asked, her tone laced

She' s been like this since the hospital. M

, her sympathy sounding utterly fake. "It must be hard fo

confessional, the words striking Ava with the force of

.. practical. She was stable, she admired me. I thought it would be

ply. She had heard enough. The last illusion of her marriage, the faint hope that maybe, just maybe, he had loved her,