Chapter 1
“Take the bus. Don’t make a scene.”
Dominic shoved a few crumpled bills into Audrey’s hand like she was a stranger asking for spare change.
Then he turned away.
Audrey stood outside the hospital entrance in thin slippers and a pale hospital robe, holding their five-day-old son against her chest.
Her C-section incision burned so badly she could barely stand straight.
The nurse beside her froze.
The baby’s discharge bag was gone.
Dominic had snatched it from the nurse’s hand and thrown it into the trunk of his black SUV like it annoyed him.
Inside the vehicle, his mother sat in the back seat with the window half-lowered.
She looked Audrey up and down, then smiled.
Not kindly.
Triumphantly.
Audrey’s fingers trembled around the money.
“Dominic,” she whispered. “I just had surgery.”
He stopped with one hand on the SUV door.
For one second, she thought maybe the word surgery would remind him she was human.
His answer came cold.
“Then sit carefully.”
The nurse gasped under her breath.
Audrey did not cry.
Not because it didn’t hurt.
Because she was too exhausted for tears.
Dominic leaned closer, lowering his voice so the nurse would not hear every word.
“You wanted to act helpless. Now figure it out.”
His mother spoke from the car.
“Don’t let her manipulate you. She knew what she married into.”
Audrey looked at the black SUV.
Leather seats.
Tinted windows.
A car Dominic loved more than any crib, bottle, or doctor’s appointment.
Then she looked down at the folded bills in her palm.
Enough for a bus ride.
Maybe.
Not enough for dignity.
Not enough for safety.
May you like
Not enough for a woman who had just been cut open five days ago and told to carry a newborn across the city alone.
👉 But when Audrey pressed one contact on her phone, Dominic realized he may have abandoned the wrong woman.
