That afternoon I pretended to sleep because I needed to know how far their betrayal would go. Jared stayed by my bed, patiently stroking my hair while Courtney sat across from us, crossing her legs with a discreet smile. She seemed like a polite visitor and a grateful employee to anyone passing by.
But the mirror on the closet door showed me a completely different scene.
Under the bed, Courtney brushed her foot against Jared’s leg, first slowly and then brazenly. He looked at my face to check that I was still motionless, and then he gripped her knee firmly. He did not push her away, but rather warned her to wait.
When they finally went out into the hallway, I got up as best I could and followed them slowly. I found them standing near a utility room down the corridor. Jared took her arm roughly.
“I told you not to do that in front of Shelby,” Jared snapped.
Courtney let out a sharp giggle.
“So what did you expect?” Courtney asked mockingly. “You have been playing the perfect husband for two days now, but your son and I need attention too.”
“Don’t talk nonsense,” Jared whispered angrily.
“Nonsense?” Courtney challenged him. “Announce our engagement tomorrow or I will tell everyone the truth.”
Jared remained completely silent, and that silence hurt me more than any physical blow could.
I shuffled back to my room, but I fell to the floor before I could reach the safety of the bed. A nurse rushed inside to help me up.
“Don’t cry, ma’am,” the nurse said gently. “If Mr. Harlan sees you like this, he is going to break down completely.”
I wanted to laugh or scream, but I just let the tears flow.
As night fell, Courtney appeared in my room completely alone. She was no longer wearing her sweet mask as she closed the door and stood in front of me.
“You know, right?” Courtney asked bluntly.
I did not give her an answer.
“Jared loves me, and I am pregnant with his child,” Courtney stated triumphnantly. “You are no longer of any use to him.”
“Since when?” I managed to whisper.
Courtney held up three fingers proudly.
“Three years,” Courtney revealed. “It started at a business dinner in Miami, and the day you lost the baby, he was actually with me in my apartment in Orlando.”
I remembered my terrible hemorrhage and the unanswered calls while Jared arrived the next day on his knees, swearing that he would never forgive himself for not being there.
“You will sign the divorce papers tomorrow,” Courtney continued coldly. “He is going to marry me in the church, and when my son is born, everything the Harlan family owns will be ours.”
“That is what you think,” I whispered back.
Courtney leaned closer to my face.
“Don’t be mistaken, Shelby,” Courtney sneered. “You are only alive because he still feels guilty, but a woman without children, without a family, and without a womb is no match for me.”
When she left, I pulled out the documents my lawyer had prepared months ago based on a bad intuition I never wanted to believe. I signed them with a trembling hand and left them out on the bed.
At dawn, Jared found the papers, and his face fell instantly.
“Divorce?” Jared asked in shock. “What does this mean, Shelby?”
I looked him dead in the eyes.
“Before we got married, I told you that if you ever loved someone else, you only had to tell me and I would leave,” I said calmly. “But I also told you that if you betrayed me, I would disappear forever.”
“Shelby, you are confused and heavily medicated,” Jared lied.
“No, for the first time in my life, I am completely awake,” I replied.
At that moment, my lawyer, Gavin Dillard, entered the room accompanied by a notary and two state police officers. Jared turned pale.
“What did you do?” Jared demanded.
Gavin placed a heavy folder on the bedside table.
“Mrs. Harlan requested a complete copy of her medical record,” Gavin announced. “There is something very curious because the cancer diagnosis was signed by a doctor who was not even in the country that day.”
But Gavin was not finished yet.
“We also found a preliminary genetic test for Miss Courtney,” Gavin added. “Her baby does not match the Harlan genetic line at all.”
Courtney entered the room smiling but froze completely when she heard the words.
Just as Jared opened his mouth to demand an explanation, my phone vibrated with an anonymous message. It contained a photograph of my mother and a terrifying sentence: “If you want to know why they took your son from you, find the old house in Portland before they burn it down.”
That was when I realized that my lost baby might not be the only buried secret.
