Chapter 2
A year earlier, Audrey had not known what it meant to marry into a family like the Hales.
She only knew Dominic.
Not the billionaire.
Not the magazine-cover heir.
Just Dominic.
The man who came into the small community clinic where she worked after cutting his hand on a construction site he secretly visited without cameras or assistants.
He had sat on the exam table in a white dress shirt with blood on his sleeve, looking embarrassed for once in his life.
Audrey cleaned the wound.
He asked her name.
She told him.
He came back two days later with flowers and a terrible excuse about needing his bandage checked.
She should have known then.
Men like Dominic did not need excuses.
They simply took what they wanted.
But with Audrey, he seemed different.
He listened.
He laughed softly.
He walked her home in the rain.
He bought coffee from the cheap diner near her apartment instead of sending someone to get it.
For six months, they built a life no one else knew about.
No press.
No family.
No security detail.
Just late dinners, quiet mornings, and a courthouse wedding with two strangers as witnesses.
Dominic said he wanted to tell his family after the board vote.
“My father controls everything right now,” he told her. “Just give me time.”
Audrey loved him enough to believe time was harmless.
Then she got pregnant.
She told Dominic on a Sunday morning in her tiny kitchen.
He stared at the test.
Then he cried.
Real tears.
He dropped to his knees and pressed his face to her stomach like the baby could already hear him.
“I’ll fix everything,” he whispered. “No more hiding.”
For three weeks, Audrey believed him.
Then Dominic disappeared.
At first, she thought it was business.
Then his phone stopped accepting her calls.
Then the apartment key he gave her no longer worked at his private building.
Then a lawyer arrived at the clinic with an envelope.
Inside was a separation agreement.
A check so large Audrey thought it had to be a mistake.
And one paragraph that destroyed her.
Dominic Hale denies paternity of any alleged pregnancy and requests no further contact.
Audrey read it six times.
The lawyer said nothing.
He only slid a pen toward her.
May you like
She did not sign.
👉 Audrey thought Dominic had erased her — but the truth was even colder than abandonment.
