After three years of infertility and another year of IVF, I finally became pregnant—and six months later, standing barefoot behind a half-closed library door, I learned the four babies inside me had never been mine.
Chapter 4
Sterling Industries survived exactly twelve weeks after the gala.
The scandal triggered audits, shareholder lawsuits, frozen financing, and a board revolt. The Montgomery deal disappeared overnight. Two lenders called major loans, and several directors resigned before removing Carter from every executive position.
Jonathan Vance surrendered his medical license while cooperating with investigators.
Tyler and several others who had participated in the betting scheme gave prosecutors their messages and records.
Selene lost her position and became a defendant in multiple civil lawsuits.
Sienna vanished from the society pages.
I didn’t celebrate any of it.
Recovery took too much energy.
My body had spent months preparing to deliver four children. Hormones did not disappear because truth had arrived. Some mornings I woke with my hands automatically moving toward a belly that was no longer there.
Those mornings were the hardest.
I began therapy.
I returned slowly to consulting work.
I rented a small house overlooking the water in Rhode Island, far from the Sterling estate and every room where I had learned to make myself smaller.
Sometimes I wondered whether I had missed signs.
Margaret always stopped me when I began doing that.
“Trusting your husband was not a crime,” she said. “What he did with that trust was his responsibility.”
It took months before I believed her.
My divorce became final in November.
By then, Carter was being held pending trial after financial investigators uncovered additional evidence related to the company. His lawyers requested meetings with me several times.
I refused.
Then one rainy Tuesday, I changed my mind.
Not because I missed him.
Because I wanted to see whether his face still had power over me.
The detention center smelled of disinfectant and old concrete.
I sat behind thick glass.
When Carter entered, I barely recognized him.
The tailored suits were gone. His hair was longer and unkempt. His cheeks had hollowed.
The moment he saw me, he rushed to the divider.
“Scarlett.”
I picked up the phone.
He grabbed his receiver.
“God, you came.”
I said nothing.
“You look beautiful.”
Still nothing.
His eyes filled with tears.
“Please listen to me. I was under pressure. The company was collapsing. Delilah was dying and begged me to preserve something of us. Sienna had loved me forever. Clara was necessary for the merger. Selene—”
“Stop.”
He went silent.
I held up the divorce decree.
“It’s finished.”
His breathing became shallow.
“Scarlett, please.”
“The court entered the final order this morning.”
“We can appeal.”
“I’m not appealing.”
“I can change.”
I almost felt sorry for him.
Almost.
He pressed a hand to the glass.
“We had four years together.”
“No. I had four years with the man you pretended to be.”
His mouth tightened.
“I loved you.”
“You put other women’s embryos into my body without my consent.”
His eyes flickered away.
“I thought once they were born—”
“You thought I would stay.”
“Yes.”
The honesty surprised me.
He leaned closer.
“You wanted children more than anything.”
“I wanted my children.”
“They would have been yours once you raised them.”
“That decision was never yours to make for me.”
He began crying.
“Scarlett, when I get out, I can rebuild. We can go somewhere else. Start over. We can try again. Just us this time.”
A cold stillness settled through me.
“You still don’t understand.”
“I understand everything.”
“No, Carter. You understand that you lost.”
He stared at me.
“You don’t understand what you did.”
His fingers curled around the receiver.
“I was stupid.”
“You were deliberate.”
“I was desperate.”
“You were cruel.”
“People make mistakes.”
“A mistake is forgetting an anniversary. What you did required doctors, contracts, lies, appointments, lab records, money, and months of planning.”
He closed his eyes.
I continued.
“You listened to me vomiting. You watched me inject hormones into my stomach. You held my hand while doctors warned I could die carrying four babies. And every day, you knew.”
“Scarlett—”
“You knew.”
He began shaking his head.
“I never wanted you to die.”
“But you were willing to risk it.”
Silence.
That was the final answer.
I remembered the library.
His friends laughing.
His voice saying I was thick-skinned.
The woman who would always endure.
The wife who could never leave.
“You told them I was like a stray dog,” I said.
His face changed.
“You said all you had to do was wiggle your finger and I’d come back.”
“That was locker-room garbage.”
“It was what you believed.”
“I was showing off.”
“You were telling the truth.”
He pressed closer to the glass.
“I didn’t mean it.”
I looked at him for a long moment.
Then I smiled faintly.
“You were wrong about one thing.”
“What?”
“You thought I didn’t feel pain because I didn’t cry.”
His eyes searched mine.
“I felt every needle, Carter. Every cramp. Every insult. Every lie.”
My voice remained calm.
“I simply survived them.”
I put the phone down.
He began pounding the glass.
I couldn’t hear his words anymore.
I did not need to.
