Chapter 1
I’d been Micah Carter’s secretary for three years when he got engaged.
His fiancée wanted all his female assistants gone.
I was on the list.
As compensation, he suggested I meet his older brother.
“Richer than me, good in bed, just has a kid.”
“If you don’t mind, want to meet him?”
I didn’t mind.
After all, that kid was mine.
I’d had a thing with Ethan Carter once.
Micah had no clue.
Otherwise, he wouldn’t have ordered me around like some damn assistant at his beck and call.
I was twenty–two when I first met Ethan–fresh out of school, clumsy, wide–eyed.
Fresh out of school, clumsy, and naive.
I’d mistaken him–the heir sent to inspect a construction site–for just another jobless applicant like me.
He looked rough that day. Wearing a sharp suit, but covered in dust and slumped on a curb, eating from a takeout box.
Next to him was a thick stack of documents.
He looked… defeated.
I’d just been rejected for yet another job. Angry and disappointed, I bought two rice boxes with extra pork belly, gave him one.
“Here. That one’s too light on protein. Won’t fill you up.”
It w
was mostly veggies and dry meat.
I sat three feet away, sulking, imagining how miserable I’d be if I never found work handouts from strangers.
I was so lost in my own pity party, I never noticed his startled, curious stare.
We ate, exchanged names, shared a little about our situations,
That was the mistake.
Maybe I’d end up on the street, too–eating
I assumed he came from a background like mine–ordinary, struggling. And Ethan was perfectly content to keep up the act.
After that, we started running into each other often Too often to be coincidence.
Even when he eatifessed his feelings, I still thought it was fate.
Until one day, just like a scene straight out of a soap opera, the truth slapped me in the face.
I was at an upscale mall, picking out holiday gifts for a VIP client.
That’s when I saw him–half–hunched, one hand in his pocket, toe tapping, exuding rich–boy Impatience–helping a girl choose a designer handbag.
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He didn’t leave until she picked the one she wanted. Then he told the clerk to put it on his tab.
Just the night before, he’d been curled up in my dingy little apartment, head in my lap, murmuring about his tyrant of a boss and the crushing workload.
I thought for a long time.
Should I keep pretending?
Or confront him and ask for some kind of compensation?
In the end, I chose neither.
I pulled back the curtain–but demanded nothing
He wasn’t surprised.
He admitted everything cleanly. Said he’d take me to his house.
His real house.
The estate alone was worth more than I could earn in ten lifetimes.
In his study, I saw stacks of paperwork. He was the heir, but he didn’t take it lightly.
Turned out, when I first met him, he’d been on–site at the company’s flagship port project. Something had gone wrong.
It was peak summer. He’d shown up in person with engineers and blueprints, doing inspections under the sun, making real–time decisions, coordinating on the fly.
No one expected him to visit the site, so no meals were prepared.
So he sat
ona
a curb with meeting minutes in hand, eating cold takeout, waiting for results from his team.
That’s when I showed up
Later, I laughed at myself
angry, aimless, rice boxes in hand.
I hadn’t even noticed the watch on his wrist or the way his suit hugged his shoulders.
He asked me if I really wanted to end things.
Said love was whatever you just had to weigh the pros and cons,
I was twenty–four. Still believed love had no room for lies.
“It’s not the same,” I told him.
“We’re not the same.”
I didn’t cry, didn’t beg.
1
in the car and left–like being fired from a job I hated.
But reality hit harder than I expected.
A month later, I realized I was late
was pregnant
Around the same time the
time, the company did a massive layoff–pregnant women included.
The boss made it clear full severance, sure, but don’t expect to stay it you planned on maternity leave.
He even said they’d stop hiring women of childbearing age.
Chapter 1
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Before I started showing, I rushed to pledge loyalty.
Promised the pregnancy wouldn’t affect my work.
Then requested three days off–for an abortion.
The boss was thrilled. Made me a model employee.
I stared at myself in the mirror, wondering if I was even human anymore.
My coworkers whispered behind my back, but I stayed quiet.
1.made the appointment.
Never made it there.
One of Ethan’s bodyguards stopped the cab I
was in
Ethan flew back from overseas the same night. Six–hour red–eye.
He asked me to keep the baby.
The offer was generous
I said yes.
To avoid forming any emotional attachment, I didn’t even look at the baby when she was born.
Ethan named her Chloe.
It means precious.
I figured, if he loved her, I didn’t have to.
I left Eldenridge and moved south.
