Jeremy, the man who’d mentored me, who claimed to love me, who’d comforted me after our breakup, who still held such an important place in my life, was on the screen. I stared at the video, replaying the scene over and over again, my mind screaming at me to make sense of what I was seeing.

“Why?” I whispered to the empty room, my voice shaking.

A sick feeling curled in my stomach as the truth began to sink in. Jeremy had been the one to destroy my hours. My recorded sessions. He’d sabotaged me.

Why would he do that?

But I knew why. I raked my hands through my hair, my breaths coming in short gasps as panic clawed its way up my throat.

He’d comforted me about what had happened. He’d even promised to help me fix it. And then he’d tried to kiss me. The whole time,he was the one who did it.

He didn’t know I was pregnant, but he must have known something was going on with me and Robert. That’s how he’d been able to show up at Corinne’s recital. He kneweverything,and he wanted revenge.

My vision blurred with tears.

How could he do this to me? Even if he had felt betrayed, how could he have justifiedthisto himself? He is a psychologist, a therapist for God’s sake.

Anger simmered beneath my panic, bubbling to the surface in sharp, hot waves. As a knock on my front door interrupted my thoughts, I slammed the laptop shut and pushed it away from me as if it might burn me.

As though it already had.

forty-two

Robert

I had already known what I’d see before I opened the attachment on the second email. It couldn’t have been clearer since I opened the video of Jeremy harassing that woman - he was involved in every part of our crumbling lives.

My lawyer was the best in the business, but he was methodical, slow in a way I hadn’t been able to stand when the stakes had felt so high.

For Delia, everything had been on the line. I hadn’t been able to shake the anger boiling inside me—someone had sabotaged her, and if I was right, it had been no coincidence.

The drive to Delia’s place felt longer than it was with her not answering my calls. Every red light seemed to mock me as her voicemail plummeted me deeper into despair.

“FUCK!” I screamed, at the slow-moving car in front of me, slamming my fist on the steering wheel.

Jeremy’s face burned into my mind. It had been so obvious. Of course it was him. I’d been so deep in thought about my own betrayal that I’d missed all of his betrayals along the way.

And now he’d committed the ultimate betrayal by hurting the mother of my future child. I thought about her struggling, thinking she’d lost those hours because of bad luck or some clerical error, never knowing it was sabotage. Never knowing it was Jeremy. He was right under our noses the whole time.

By the time I pulled up to Delia’s off-campus house, I was running on pure adrenaline. I didn’t even cut the engine before I was out of the car, striding up to her front door with purpose. One foot in front of the other.

The blinds were drawn, but a faint light glowed through the window. I knocked, hard and loud.

“Delia?” I called, trying to keep my voice calm even as my heart raced.

Nothing.

I knocked again, louder this time. “Delia, it’s me. Open up.”

Still nothing.

Something was wrong. I couldfeelit.

A chill ran down my spine, and I stepped back, scanning the front of the house. I heard something that only pricked my sixth sense further: a muffled shout.

“Delia?” My voice came out sharper now, panic lacing every word. I pounded on the door with my fist. “Delia!”

No response. Then another sound—something like a thud, followed by a faint, desperate yell.