Kate's pov.
The door opened and I forced my eyes shut as Aiden's footsteps echoed closer, my heart thudding in sync with each one. He tapped me softly.
"We need to talk."
His voice came out tight.
He knows I'm awake.
With a heavy sigh I dragged myself upright and froze halfway as my gaze landed on the figures in the doorway.
My eyes moved from him to her. "You said she was leaving."
Aiden stepped closer, shoulders sagged, exhaustion etched into every line of his face. "Something happened. She can't spend the night alone, so—"
Can't spend the night alone.
The bitter sound almost made it out before Sophia's words cut across it.
"Always remember that he hates this as much as you do but has no choice. Don't make it worse. Just help him in any way you can."
My jaw tightened. I forced a smile. "It's okay. She can come in."
The flicker of disbelief in his eyes was brief but unmistakable.
She walked in. The scent of her perfume arrived before she did — too sweet, too familiar, filling the space between us. My fists tightened under the sheets. I kept the smile where it was.
The baby was placed beside me.
"He's handsome."
The words left my mouth before I'd decided to say them.
I looked at him properly then. The tiny hands. The smallness of his face. The way he curled into himself the way they all do when they're new to the world.
Lisa's hair had been blonde too.
Her hands had been exactly this small.
Her face had been—
Ellen reached over and wiped something from his cheek and my eyes burned before I could stop them.
"I'm sorry." I pressed the back of my hand to my face. "He reminds me of my daughter. She was just this small too."
I forced a smile. I didn't miss the disgust that moved across Ellen's face before she smoothed it over.
Aiden stepped closer and pulled me gently into him. "It's okay. I'm sure this is her way of coming back to us." His hand moved in slow circles against my back.
I wished I could hold it together. At least not fall apart in front of her.
Ellen cleared her throat.
Aiden pulled away.
"I doubt this bed is large enough for all of us." Her voice was soft, almost apologetic, like she was simply pointing out the obvious. I watched Aiden nod slowly before he leaned down and pressed a gentle kiss to the baby's forehead.
"That's why I'm leaving."
Both of us stared at him.
"Are you serious?"
He nodded, turning to me. "There's no way I'm asking you to leave. This is your rightful place. By tomorrow everything will be sorted." He looked at me for a moment longer than necessary, then walked out. The door clicked shut behind him.
Ellen's smirk arrived the moment the latch caught.
"Want to see if he meant it?"
I ignored her and adjusted the sheets.
A sharp sound split the air.
Before I understood what had happened the baby was wailing, his cheeks flushed red and hot.
My stomach dropped.
"Why would you do that?" Ellen scooped him up immediately, pressing him to her chest, tears already streaming. "He's just a baby."
My lips moved and nothing came out.
The door burst open.
Aiden crossed the room in three strides and took the baby from her, patting him with the focused urgency of someone trying to undo something. The wailing didn't stop.
"What happened?"
"I was drifting off." Ellen's voice trembled. "I heard the sound. She hit him. She was bitter so she hit him."
Aiden turned to me.
The look on his face was something I hadn't seen before.
"How dare you."
Not a question. Not even really words. Just something that came out of somewhere low in him.
"I can't stay here." Ellen moved toward the door and he reached back and caught her arm without looking away from me.
"You could have just refused her entry." His voice climbed. "How could you raise your hand on a child? On a baby?"
"No." The word came out steady even though nothing else felt steady. "No. I didn't touch him. I was about to sleep when it happened. I swear."
"Then who did?" He glared down at the baby still wailing in his arms. "His face, Kate. Your imprint is on his face."
A muscle in his jaw worked.
"You know what — just leave. We'll discuss this in the morning." He turned to Ellen. "Call an ambulance."
Past his shoulder, past the wailing and the dim light and everything else — I saw her face.
The smirk was sitting there. Bold and unbothered.
Something cold and clear moved through me.
I crossed the room before I'd decided to. My palm connected with her face before she could step away.
The sound echoed.
Her expression collapsed into horror and then she folded to the ground, cupping her cheek, tears arriving on cue.
"What is wrong with you?" Aiden barked.
I looked at her on the floor, performing devastation with the same ease she'd performed everything else.
"If you were that desperate," I said, "you should have used yourself. Not an infant."
I shrugged Aiden's grip from my arm and walked out without looking back.
★★★
Two weeks.
Fourteen days of moving through that house like a ghost — invisible when it suited them, visible only when I was needed as an explanation for something that had gone wrong.
Sophia had seen it coming. She'd prepared me for the shame and the silence and the small daily cruelties. She'd walked me through every version of what living there would look like once Ellen had what she wanted.
She had prepared me for all of it.
Except this.
"What is this, Aiden?"
My throat tightened as I stared at the document on the table in front of me. The words Petition for Divorce sat at the top of the page, clean and formal and completely unmovable.
He sighed, hands tucked into the pockets of his grey suit. "I know we've come a long way for it to end like this. But you've left me no option. You were right — we can't go back to what we were."
I swallowed. My fist tightened around the hem of my gown. "What do you mean? You want a divorce?"
"Let's not make this harder than it needs to be." His voice was tired. "You wanted this before I did. I've thought it through and it's the only way forward for both of us."
"You said it wasn't." My chest was tightening in a way that made it difficult to speak evenly. "You said till death do us part. You said—" My voice broke around it. "Why are you doing this now?"
He sat beside me. The leather creaked under his weight.
"I made those promises and I meant them. Every one of them. But you pushed me here, Kate. I was ready to fight for this — against everything — but after what happened that night I can't trust you anymore. And without that, there's nothing left to protect."
I wiped my face with the back of my hand. "We've talked about this. I told you I didn't do anything. She did it herself — to get me out of that room, to prove she could. I didn't touch him. I promise you."
He looked at me for a long moment.
"I've thought of you as many things, Kate. A liar was never one of them." He exhaled slowly. "Sign the papers. I can't have a threat to my child living under my roof."
My lips trembled. "A threat." I looked at him. "You told me he was our child."
"That was before you raised your hand on him." His jaw tightened. "I should have known. If you could abandon your own daughter, there's no limit to what you're capable of." He pushed the papers slightly toward me. "Sign them. Alex will handle the compensation