After Leaving You, My World Has No More Storms

The doctor had told me plainly: the chance of Burton ever getting a woman pregnant the natural way was zero.

The thought pulled a short, ugly laugh out of me.

Hope took it for me putting on a brave face.

She caught my hand and soothed me in a gentle voice.

"Becca, I know this is hard to swallow right now. But for Burton's sake, just bear it a little longer. Once he has the shares and he's the Gilbert heir, you can deal with Lorraine Galloway however you like."

"You know how much I hate a mistress. But circumstances change, and a time like this is different..."

She and Burton were mother and son, all right.

Once, Burton had told me the man he despised most in this world was a man who cheated.

He had sworn to me he would never become the kind of man his father was.

And now?

Now he wanted to do exactly what his father had done — let the mistress have the baby first.

And Hope, who had suffered and been tormented by that very thing, was telling me to bear it.

She could play the patient saint if she wanted. I couldn't stand another second of it.

The moment she left, I called my lawyer.

"Redraw the agreement. I want him walking away with nothing."

Burton came home with Lorraine trailing behind him.

She was wearing his suit jacket, her face flushed and healthy, nothing like a woman who'd been caught in the rain.

Burton led her over to stand in front of me, his tone all apology.

"Becca, Mom says you're happy Lorraine and I are having a baby, that you're even feeling better. If I'd known, I never would have kept it from you!"

But there wasn't a trace of guilt on his face for the affair.

It turned my stomach until I nearly gagged.

He looked worried at once.

"Becca, if you're not feeling well, don't push yourself..."

I handed him the divorce agreement.

"Sign this, and I'll really be cured."

He glanced at it, and shock filled his eyes.

"Divorce?"

"I won't agree to it..."

Before he could finish, Lorraine sneezed.

His brows drew together in an instant, and every trace of patience left his voice when he spoke to me.

"Lorraine got soaked at the golf club today because of you. She nearly lost the baby."

"If you have any conscience left, don't make trouble at a time like this."

When I fell and miscarried, when the blood soaked my white dress all the way through, he had shielded Lorraine and called it an accident and told me to be gracious about it.

Now Lorraine sneezes, and I'm the one who's committed some unforgivable crime.

Love and the lack of it had never been so clear.

But something in me refused to let it go, and I looked him in the eyes and asked a question I knew would only humiliate me.

"Burton, our baby is gone. Do you really feel nothing at all?"

He paused for a second, his tone thick with irritation.

"I already told you it was an accident. Why do you keep dragging it up?"

"There's going to be another baby soon anyway, isn't there? And you don't even have to carry it yourself!"

Lorraine cradled her stomach and chimed in with a smile.

"Ma'am, the doctor said it was because your body was too weak. One little fall and you lost it."

"Once my baby's born, I'll hand it over for you to raise. Consider it my way of making it up to you."

Burton didn't argue. He passed me a document.

"You'll go stay in Canada with Lorraine for a few months. We'll tell everyone you're pregnant again and gone abroad to rest through it."

"You'll take care of Lorraine, she has the baby, and then we register it under our names."

"That way, even if Randolph ends up with twins, Dad won't be a problem."

He actually expected me to wait on Lorraine through her entire pregnancy.

And then nurse her through the recovery afterward.

I looked at the man in front of me, cold all the way through.

I couldn't understand how he could say any of it and think it was his due.

But I didn't ask any of that.

I only spoke, calm and even.

"Are you sure Lorraine's baby is even yours?"