Brook I woke to sunlight streaming through the guest room window and the immediate, crushing weight of reality settling back onto my chest. For one blissful second, I'd forgotten. Then it all came rushing back—Celeste's smug face, that fake DNA test, Tyson walking out the door. My hand went to my belly, where Sofia was already awake and moving. "Morning, baby girl," I whispered, my voice hoarse from crying. "It's just us now." The smell of coffee drifted up from downstairs. Lake. Thank God
for Lake. I hauled myself out of bed, my body protesting every movement. At seven months pregnant, nothing was easy, but today everything felt ten times harder. My eyes were swollen, my head pounded, and my heart felt like someone had taken a sledgehammer to it. But underneath the pain, something else had crystallized overnight. Anger. Pure, white-hot fury. How dare he. How dare Tyson look at me—his wife, the mother of his children, the woman who'd loved him since she was eighteen years old—and believe for even one second that I could betray him like that. Five years of marriage. Five years of building a life together. And he'd thrown it all away on his sister's word and a piece of paper. I pulled on one of Tyson's old t-shirts—then immediately yanked it off and threw it in the corner. I found one of my own shirts, one that actually fit over my belly, and headed downstairs. Lake was at the stove, making pancakes. Fisher sat at the kitchen table with Preston, who was pushing his toy trucks around with less enthusiasm than usual. "Mama!" Preston's face lit up when he saw me, and he scrambled down from his chair to hug my legs. "Where Daddy?" The question was a knife to the gut. I bent down as much as I could and smoothed his dark curls—so much like Tyson's it hurt to look at them. "Daddy had to go stay at Grandma and Grandpa's house for a little bit, baby." "Why?" Because your daddy is an idiot who believes lies. Because your aunt is a manipulative little bitch. Because our family is falling apart. "He just needed to help them with something," I said instead, kissing his forehead. "You want pancakes?" "With choco chips?" Preston smirked. "I already added them," Lake said, sliding a Mickey Mouse-shaped pancake onto a plate. She met my eyes over Preston's head, and I saw the same anger I felt reflected back at me. My sister was ready to go to war. After Preston was settled with breakfast and cartoons, I joined Lake and Fisher at the table. Lake pushed a cup of coffee toward me— decaf, because even in crisis she remembered—and I wrapped my hands around it like a lifeline. "I need to find a DNA testing place," I said. "A real one. Today." Lake already had her phone out. "I've been researching since five this morning. There's a place about thirty minutes from here— Accu Test Labs. They have excellent reviews, they're accredited, and they can do a paternity test with results in two to three days. I can call them when they open at nine." "Thank you." My voice cracked. "I don't know what I'd do without you." "You're never going to have to find out," Fisher said firmly. He was a quiet man, my brother-in-law, but when he spoke, it mattered. "This is bullshit, Brook. Complete bullshit. Tyson should be ashamed of himself." The anger flared hotter. "He should be. He absolutely should be." By the time Lake got off the phone with the lab, I had an appointment for three o'clock that afternoon. They'd need Tyson there too, obviously, which meant I'd have to contact him. The thought made my stomach turn, but I'd do it. I'd look him in the eye and make him take that test, and when it came back proving Preston was his son, I'd make sure he understood exactly what he'd destroyed. Preston asked for Daddy twice more before lunch, each time breaking my heart a little more. I was trying to figure out what to tell him, how to explain something I didn't understand myself, when the doorbell rang. Lake went to answer it, and I heard Caleb's voice in the foyer. "Is she here? Is Brook okay?" A
moment later, Tyson's brother appeared in the kitchen doorway with his wife Mayken right behind him. Caleb's face was stormy, his jaw tight with anger. Mayken's eyes were red like she'd been crying. "Brook." Mayken crossed the room and pulled me into a careful hug, mindful of my belly. "Oh my God, Brook. We just heard. This is insane." "Tyson's lost his damn mind," Caleb said. He looked like he wanted to punch something—probably his brother. "I'm so sorry, Brook. I'm so fucking sorry." The sympathy threatened to crack my armor, but I held on to the anger. It was the only thing ke eping me upright. "Did you talk to him?" I asked. "Tried to. He's at Mom and Dad's, and they're all..." Caleb shook his head in disgust. "They're believing Celeste. Mom's going on about how 'we have to support family' and Dad's talking about how the test doesn't lie. I told them they were being idiots, that you would never cheat, but they're not listening." "Of course they're not." The bitterness in my voice surprised even me. "Celeste is their precious baby girl. She can do no wrong." Mayken sat down next to me, taking my hand. "Brook, we know you didn't cheat. We know Preston is Tyson's son. Anyone with eyes can see it—he looks exactly like Tyson did at that age." "Celeste has always had it out for you," Caleb said, starting to pace. "Always. Remember when you guys got engaged and she threw that fit about not being a bridesmaid?" I did remember. Tyson had wanted his sister in the wedding party, but Celeste had said she wouldn't be "just another bridesmaid"—she should be maid of honor or nothing. I'd tried to compromise, offered to make her a special attendant, but she'd refused to participate at all and pouted through the entire wedding. "Or when you were pregnant with Preston," Mayken added, "and she k ept making comments about how you'd 'let yourself go' and asking if Tyson was still attracted to you?" I'd forgotten about that. Or maybe I'd tried to forget. I'd been so desperate for Celeste to like me, to acc ept me as part of the family, that I'd brushed off so many little cruelties. "She 'accidentally' spilled red wine on Brook's white dress at Mom's birthday party two years ago," Caleb said. "She's excluded you from girls' days and shopping trips. She makes snide comments about your job, your parenting, your house. Brook, she's been awful to you for years, and we've all seen it." "Why didn't anyone say anything?" The question came out sharper than I intended. Caleb and Mayken exchanged a look. "We thought you knew," Mayken said softly. "We thought you were just being the bigger person, not letting it get to you. And honestly, we figured Tyson would handle it, would tell his sister to back off." But he hadn't. He'd made excuses for her, told me she was just young, just adjusting, just protective of him. And I'd let him because I loved him and I wanted peace. Look where that had gotten me. "I have a DNA test appointment at three," I said. "At Accu Test Labs. I'm going to text Tyson and tell him to meet me there. And then on Monday, I'm calling a lawyer." Mayken's eyes widened. "A lawyer?" "A divorce lawyer." Saying it out loud made it real, and something twisted painfully in my chest. But I pushed through it. "He walked out on me, on our son, on our pregnant wife, because his sister showed him a fake piece of paper. He didn't even question it. Didn't ask me, didn't give me a chance to defend myself. He just...
believed the worst of me." "Brook—" Caleb started. "No." I stood up, one hand on my belly, the other braced on the table. "I'm done begging. I'm done trying to prove myself to people who should already know who I am. Tyson made his choice last night. Now I'm making mine." Caleb looked at me for a long moment, then nodded slowly. "I'm going to go talk to him. I'm going to make him see sense." "You can try," I said. "But Caleb? Even if he comes crawling back after that test proves Preston is his, even if he gets down on his knees and begs... I don't know if I can forgive this, and– I don't know if I want to." “Because the man I'd married, the man I'd loved, would never have doubted me like this.” That man was gone. And I wasn't sure I'd ever get him back.