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Chapter1
Amelia
Istood in front of my house, hands trembling, heart racing with excitement as I stared at the pregnancy test in my grasp—the two lines that would forever change my life… in the best possible way.
I was pregnant with my fiancé’s baby, which sent giddiness through my gut as I was trying to work out the best way to surprise him with the incredible news.
It wasn’t planned, but I’d always wanted children. We would make it work, and it’d strengthen our relationship because, lately, things hadn’t exactly been smooth between us. Jason had been distant, our arguments had escalated, and it got to the point where his aggression had me questioning our future.
That was about to change. We had to make it work… for our baby. I mean, I was twenty-three, and my work at the local plant nursery store had health insurance. Plus, Jason earned well, so I didn’t think we’d have problems with money.
Taking a deep breath, I rushed inside the house, eager to let him know we were about to become parents. Glancing around the living room and kitchen, he wasn’t there, but the fragrant smell of the beef casserole I’d asked Jason to put in the oven for dinner filled the air. Stepping into the hallway, I pivoted toward the study when a moan came from the spare room we kept for visitors, which I now intended to turn it into a nursery.
I suspected Jason had fallen asleep as he’d been working late nights at work. Setting my keys in the bowl on the side table in the hallway, I moved on hurriedly, my hand still shaking with the pregnancy test.
Exhaling and inhaling slowly, I tried to get my nerves under control. Excitement burst in my chest while the worry about how he’d take the news flared in my stomach. Glancing down at the stick for the hundredth time, I squealed on the inside that this was happening, that I was going to become a mom.
It was a miracle since the last time I had sex with Jason was four weeks ago, and before that it had been closet to three months. He’d been too busy, too tired, too aggravated at me for no reason. This was going to change everything. I pictured Jason going with me to the doctor and getting one of those black-and-white ultrasound pictures women posted on social media when they got pregnant.
Though I wasn’t going to achieve anything by staying out in the hallway, so I pushed open the door.
Instead of surprising him, I froze in shock.
Jason was naked on the bed with my very naked best friend, Lyric, wrapped over his waist and chest.
“Lyric, what are you doing?” Jason murmured before he turned onto his side, shoving her off him, revealing his back to me—a back marked by the bright red stripes of scratches.
“Jason!” I shrieked, as if from a distance, before my hearing came back. My arms quivered, fire clawing up my neck and over my face, piercing my chest.
He was cheating on me!
“Amelia? What are you doing at home so early?” Jason shouted. He jumped out of bed, his hand raised, before bringing it back down, knowing Lyric was there to see anything he might do. He never became physically abusive when there were witnesses. “What’s the meaning of this?” he growled.
“I could ask you the same, but it’s pretty clear. You’re fucking my friend.” I had taken a lot from this man over the years, abuse both verbal and physical, and utter humiliation, but this was too much.
“You should have called me to say you were on your way home. Why didn’t you call me?” he accused, as though it was somehow my fault he’d slept with my friend.
“Amelia, I’m so sorry you had to find out like this.” Lyric rushed off the bed, getting dressed, tears in her eyes and her cheeks glowing red.
Shaking furiously, I didn’t know where to look or what to think, except that I felt like I was going to be sick.
“I don’t care what either of you does or who with, anymore. This is the last straw, Jason. This is fucking over.”
He growled under his breath. His black, short, spiky hair was messy as his shoulders rolled forward.
“I can’t make Christmas dinner on my own, Amelia. We have company coming, my parents…” Jason sputtered.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” My pulse skyrocketed at what he deemed important. Fucking asshole. I wanted to grab something to throw, but there was nothing nearby. Only the pregnancy test was clutched in my hand, and the reality of me being pregnant left me dizzy. Bile hit the back of my throat, and I was going to faint if I didn’t leave.
My heart was squeezing, my eyes burning with tears. I shook, the full-body twitching kind. When I was eight, my parents divorced, and I went to live with my grandma because it got nasty between my parents. They fought for custody, but at the time, I thought that my life was over, that I’d be stuck living on the farm, abandoned by my parents. There had been a sickening dread that curled in the pit of my gut that they forgot me, that they no longer wanted me, which, of course, wasn’t true.
That same ache rippled over my stomach now, the sensation that I’d be all alone bringing up a child.
It made me shudder with dread.
Three freaking years I’d given him, dedicated to our relationship, and this was what I got?
A sob caught in my throat.
