Chapter 2Reborn At Thirty-Five

Divorced. But life had to go on.

My entire adult life had been dedicated to being the perfect Mrs. Knight. I'd mastered the arts of social grace and catering to a man's every need. Now, suddenly flush with cash and stripped of my husband, I had no idea what to do with myself.

Out of habit, I went to the grocery store and filled a cart with all of William's favorite foods. It was only at the checkout that I remembered we were divorced.

I went home and numbly made a pot of soup, then poured it all down the drain.

Then I sat by the window and stared into space.

What were William and Jessica doing now? With a baby on the way, they were probably reading to her belly, playing classical music for the child.

William would be a good father. He deserved to be.

When I first met him, he was just a sophomore in college. He wasn't old, but he carried himself with an incredible intensity. We were on competing teams in a business plan competition. He annihilated my team. It was brutal.

And it was that day I fell for the brilliant, driven young man with the gold-rimmed glasses who always came in first.

Our first year together was a blur of youthful passion. One night, we were careless. We had our first child.

But he had nothing back then, and my parents would never let me marry a man with no prospects. After a night spent crying in each other's arms, we made the heartbreaking decision to terminate the pregnancy.

After that, my body changed. I became prone to miscarriages. Every pregnancy ended in loss.

William poured immense effort into fixing it. He took me to traditional healers and top specialists, all in an attempt to heal my body. We tried for fifteen years. In the end, we were left with nothing.

Staring at the gloomy sky outside, I couldn't help but wonder if this was my punishment. A curse from our first child, because I didn't fight hard enough to keep him. Was that why I was no longer worthy of being a mother?

An unbearable sorrow washed over me. I pressed my forehead against the cold glass, and the tears finally came.