Kate's pov
No one warned me that making my husband the newly appointed CEO of Beaumont Luxury Interiors would mean spending most nights alone.
If they had, I would have kicked against it.
Really kicked against it.
Nine months since Aiden left to oversee the opening of their newest office in California. Nine months since his arms have been around me, since we've shared more than brief, distracted phone calls that always ended with him saying he had to go.
My breath hitched.
Was he avoiding me?
No. He said we were putting everything behind us. Starting over. It would be ridiculous for him to do that.
Ding.
My breath caught.
The doorbell.
He's home.
I rushed to the door, my heart hammering against my ribs. The moment I twisted the knob and saw him, brown eyes, broad shoulders, that cedarwood scent I'd spent nine months missing, the tears came. Hot and uncontrollable.
I flung my arms around him and pressed my face into his chest.
"I missed you so much." My voice was muffled against his shirt.
He exhaled. Slow. Heavy.
Not the sound of a man who had missed me too.
I pulled back and searched his face. "Aiden? Is everything okay?"
He stepped past me without answering and set his briefcase down in the foyer. His shoulders carried the particular weight of someone who had been deciding something for a long time and had finally decided.
My stomach tightened.
"Aiden."
He turned. When his eyes met mine my chest tightened in a way I recognized and had hoped never to feel again. The warmth that used to live there, the desire, the quiet affection he'd never been good at hiding, was gone. Not dimmed. Gone.
"I didn't forget," he said, voice flat. "Alex will take you. I need to rest."
I stared at him. "Take me where?"
"The picnic." He was already moving toward the stairs. "Your birthday thing."
My birthday.
He remembered. But he wasn't coming.
"Aiden, wait—" I grabbed his arm, stopping him mid-step. "You promised. You said when you got back, we'd go together. It's been three years since we've done anything like this. I don't want to go with your secretary. I want to go with you."
He sighed, like I was a child asking for something unreasonable. "It's not a big deal, Kate. Today was stressful. It's just a picnic, right? We'll do it another time."
He pried my fingers off his arm.
Gently. Carefully.
Like I was something fragile he didn't want to break but also didn't want to hold.
"It's been three years, Aiden."
He stopped at the bottom stair.
"Three years," I repeated, my voice trembling. "Haven't you punished me enough? She was my daughter too. Don't you think I carry it worse than anyone? We agreed to move forward. We agreed to try again. But you're not even here."
He turned back slowly. When he reached me he lifted his hand and brushed the dried tears from my face, his thumb moving carefully across my cheek.
"This has nothing to do with Lisa," he said quietly.
I searched his face. "Then what is it?"
"Something happened in California."
My chest tightened. "What happened? The reports said the expansion was a success. You were signing new partners. So what..." I paused. "Did Ethan interfere again?"
His jaw ticked at the name. He exhaled slowly, his hand still resting at the side of my face. "I'm sorry," he whispered.
I stepped back. "Sorry for what? What did he make you do?"
The front door opened.
Mr Anderson walked in.
My breath caught.
If he's here then she's here.
The Matriarch herself is here.
What on earth has Ethan done?
Ms.Celine followed, her sleek red gown moving with her like it had been made for exactly this entrance. She crossed the room without acknowledging either of us and settled into the grey couch like she owned it, crossing one leg over the other. Her gaze moved to Aiden and he straightened.
His hand found mine before I could move and he guided me to sit across from her.
Things had not always been like this between us.
Three years ago, when I was still CEO of Beaumont Yummies, we had worked side by side. We created recipes together, ones that made headlines. She used to sneak samples to Lisa, watching my baby's face light up with every bite, laughing in that private way she reserved for moments she didn't want anyone else to see.
But after Lisa's third birthday, after the day I was busy making everything perfect and my baby vanished and every search and every lead and every prayer led nowhere, something in her closed toward me. Quietly. Permanently.
She straightened now and the room rearranged itself around her attention.
I squeezed Aiden's hand tighter.
"It's been a while," she said. "I'd assume you both know why."
I bit my lower lip.
"Kate." Her voice was firm and I met her eyes. "Do you remember what the doctors said after Lisa was conceived?"
My grip on Aiden's hand tightened.
Hysterectomy.
Severe hemorrhage. Emergency procedure. The words the doctor had delivered with the particular careful stillness of someone who understood they were changing a life while they spoke.
I lifted my chin. "Yes, ma'am."
"Good." She nodded once. "And you understand that as the eldest son, I need a grandchild from him."
The heat behind my eyes built slowly. I pressed my teeth into my lower lip and held still.
She leaned forward slightly, her voice softening just enough to feel like kindness. "No need to cry. There's an alternative. I've decided it's best he use a surrogate."
I blinked. "A surrogate? As in, someone who carries the baby and then..."
She nodded, a small smile finding her lips. "Sounds reasonable, doesn't it?"
It didn't.
I'd heard enough about arrangements like this to know they rarely ended the way anyone planned. The surrogate changes her mind. She wants the child. She wants the father. Something always shifts.
"Dr. Vivian advised us to adopt," I said carefully. "It would be simpler. Surrogacy can get complicated and Aiden wouldn't agree to it."
She scoffed. "I've made my decision. And if Aiden had a problem with it, he wouldn't have gotten her pregnant in the first place."
The room went very still.
Gotten her pregnant.
Someone is pregnant for Aiden.
I turned to him slowly. The air in my chest had stopped moving properly. "You got another woman pregnant?"
"It was a mistake." His voice was steady in the way voices get steady when someone has rehearsed the words enough times. "I was drunk. I never meant for it to happen."
I looked at Ms. Celine. Months ago she had warned, clearly and without room for misunderstanding, that Ethan's position as Patriarch would be secured the moment Aiden stepped out of this marriage. Yet she sat here now, perfectly still, saying nothing about any of that.
"Stop being pathetic, Kate."
Her voice pulled me back.
I straightened.
"We have been more than generous," she continued. "We accepted a daughter from you when we needed a son. Then you lost her."
"She was kidnapped," I said quietly.
She continued like I hadn't spoken. "And now you expect us to wait indefinitely while you grieve? Aiden needs an heir. If you cannot accept that, you are welcome to leave. But if you stay, I suggest you find a way to make peace with it." She smoothed her dress and stood. "The baby is due in a week. You are still in this house only because this family owes you something. Push me and I will reconsider that."
A week.
The baby is due in a week.
Nine months. He was gone for nine months.
He was with her the entire time.
Aiden's hand moved to my chin, tilting my face gently toward his. "I'm sorry. I never wanted to hurt you. She threatened to expose everything if I didn't stay. I had planned to end the pregnancy but then I thought of your condition and I couldn't. I thought it was the only way forward."
I looked at him for a long moment.
The meetings. The seminars. The expansion that demanded so much of his time. All of it.
"It was all a lie," I said. You were lying to me, the whole time."
Guilt moved across his face, plain and impossible to look away from.
"Kate, I'm sorry. I—"
"No." I shook my head slowly. "No, this is my fault. You should have your own child. My condition shouldn't be the thing that holds you back." I pulled my chin from his hand. "Let's get a divorce."