Chapter 2Kneeling for a Child He Already Had

On the way down the mountain, I fell three times.

The last time, my knee slammed into a rock, and blood soaked through my pant leg in an instant.

The rescue team wanted to carry me down on a stretcher, but I kept a death grip on my phone.

The cloud album was linked to the tablet at home. Gideon was so caught up in the joy of becoming a father for the first time that he never noticed every file was syncing over.

I kept scrolling.

In one video, Mom sat at the dining table, filling a pill bottle labeled folic acid with small white tablets.

Dad asked beside her, "Hazel's periods have been getting more and more irregular lately. What if a doctor figures it out?"

Mom rolled her eyes at him. "Dr. Pike's already been taken care of. He'll just tell her it's a hormonal imbalance. Mandy hasn't given the Tarrants their first grandson yet. How could we let Hazel get pregnant first?"

Amanda's voice came from off camera. "Mrs. Dunbar, maybe we should just stop. Hazel's been through so much trying to get pregnant."

Mom comforted her right away. "You're just too kind. Gideon promised you his first child would be yours. If she actually got pregnant, where would that leave you?"

Gideon cut in with a flat voice, "Keep giving them to her. Hazel trusts you. She won't suspect a thing."

The video ended abruptly. I stared at the screen, my ears ringing.

The so-called folic acid was something Mom brought over herself every month. She said it was an imported supplement she had gotten through a friend, and that missing even a single day would hurt my chances of conceiving.

The doctor treating me, Dr. Samuel Pike, had been her recommendation as well. He said I had a hormonal imbalance and a thin uterine lining. He said I could not stop the medication, and I certainly could not switch doctors, or all my previous treatment would go to waste.

I believed him.

Over those three years, I had taken hundreds of doses of herbal remedies and gone through three rounds of ovulation stimulation. The worst of it was when fluid built up in my abdomen and I had to be hospitalized, my belly so swollen that I looked five months pregnant.

Gideon had only stayed for ten minutes. He had said something came up at work. Yet that same day, Amanda posted a photo of two movie tickets. At the edge of the picture was a man's wrist, and on it was the watch I had given Gideon.

I kept scrolling and found a pharmacy order.

The medication was not folic acid. It was birth control pills, 36 boxes in a single order. It was being shipped to Mom, and Gideon was paying for it.

At the very bottom was a voice message.

Amanda asked, "What if Hazel never gets pregnant and completely falls apart?"

Jordan sounded like he could not care less. "Then we send her overseas for IVF and drag it out for a year or so. Once you and the baby are part of the Tarrant family, we'll tell her the truth."

Dad sighed. "She's still our daughter."

Mom sneered, "So what if she is? Mandy's been with Gideon all these years without a ring or anything to show for it. Isn't it only fair that Hazel suffers a little?"

It turned out I had never been unable to get pregnant. The husband and family I trusted most had been working together to make sure I never would.

They had watched me fail pregnancy test after pregnancy test. They had watched me cry in secret, but not one of them had softened.

When I reached the foot of the mountain, Gideon video called me. There was a white wall behind him.

"Hazel, are you done kneeling?"

The camera shook slightly, and I caught sight of a maternity ward sign on the wall and the pink tumbler on Amanda's bedside table. I had given it to her.

"I'm done," I said softly.

"That's my girl. Now fast for three days, and when the time's up, I'll send the driver to pick you up."

The moment he finished speaking, the baby started crying.

Gideon's expression stiffened, and he quickly covered the microphone.

"What was that?" I asked, knowing full well.

"A coworker's kid. He's giving everyone a headache."

Off camera, Amanda's voice came through, sweet and coaxing. "Hurry and hold him. He only wants you."

The call ended in a rush.

A few seconds later, he sent an explanation. [My coworker's wife just had a baby. It's total chaos here.]

I did not reply.

While a nurse cut away the pant leg that had dried to my wound, I called my lawyer, Joanna Prentiss.

"Joanna, it's about the trust my great-aunt left me. I've decided to accept it."

She sounded a little surprised. "I thought you didn't want to?"

I looked out the window at the snowstorm. "I didn't want it before. I do now."