Chapter 4One Paintbrush Ended Our Marriage

After I left the hospital, Ethan really did settle down.

For two months, he stayed home with me.

I stopped worrying about all the other women who used to orbit him.

I knew I might never have another child.

But every time I looked at Lily, I told myself the three of us were still a family.

Then came Lily's christening.

The Cole family treated it like a major occasion.

That was the day I saw Summer Bell again.

She wore a white dress, elegant and composed.

Her arm was linked through Ethan's as she handed me a carefully wrapped gift.

"Congratulations on your daughter.

"Ethan sent me pictures of her.

"I used them as reference and added a little imagination.

"I hope you like it."

I looked down.

The framed portrait was beautifully painted.

But the baby in it didn't look like me.

She looked like a child Ethan and Summer might have had together.

Summer had even added the same tiny beauty mark near the baby's brow that she had herself.

For the first time, Ethan picked Lily up in front of her.

He was awkward.

Lily squirmed and nearly cried.

"Lily.

"Say thank you to Miss Bell."

He held Lily's hand and looked at Summer gently.

"You put a lot of thought into this.

"I'll hang it in her nursery.

"One day I'll tell her Miss Bell painted it for her."

Then he took Summer upstairs, into Lily's nursery.

The moment Summer entered, her eyes widened.

"Ethan...

"Is this the nursery I designed?

"I thought I lost those plans.

"You kept them?

"I thought you hated me.

"I thought you'd destroy them if you ever found them."

Regret flickered in his eyes too.

"How could I?

"You designed it beautifully.

"Even if we never used it together, I couldn't throw it away."

I stood in the doorway.

Before our wedding, Ethan had suggested setting aside a nursery.

He had even produced the design plans himself.

I thought he had wanted a child with me.

Now I understood.

Lily and I had simply been living inside his memories of Summer.

Something broke.

I rushed forward, grabbed the framed portrait from Ethan's hands, and smashed it.

Glass scattered across the floor.

I tore the painting apart.

A shard cut deep into my hand.

Blood ran down my fingers.

Ethan stared, not at the wound but at the destroyed portrait.

"Jenna, are you insane?

"Summer spent more than two weeks painting that."

He didn't care that I was bleeding.

He cared that I had destroyed her work.

"Apologize."

His voice was hard.

My hand was covered in blood.

My eyes were full of tears.

It didn't soften him.

"Why should I apologize?

"She came here to provoke me."

I was shouting now.

Ethan looked at me like I was unstable.

"Jenna, you really are crazy.

"Agreeing to marry you because my mother wanted it was the stupidest thing I've ever done."

Then he said, "Let's get divorced."