Chapter 4 - Seven Weeks
We drove directly to Rebecca’s office.
By noon, my wedding dress was still hanging in Derek’s mansion.
My wedding heels were soaked in grease.
My marriage had lasted less than one day.
And six financial transactions existed under my name that I had never authorized.
Rebecca placed them across the conference table.
Two loan guarantees.
One commercial lease.
One line-of-credit application.
One transfer authorization.
And one corporate filing.
The oldest was dated eleven weeks before the wedding.
I stared at it.
“Derek was doing this before he proposed?”
Rebecca nodded.
“He may have been preparing.”
The corporate filing bothered me most.
A new entity had been created.
Caldwell-Bennett Domestic Holdings LLC.
I supposedly owned fifty-one percent.
Derek owned forty-nine.
But the operating agreement gave him management authority.
“Why make me majority owner?”
Rebecca leaned back.
“To make your assets look available as collateral.”
My stomach twisted.
I suddenly stood.
Rebecca looked alarmed.
“Bathroom.”
I barely reached the sink.
I vomited.
When I returned, she was waiting with a glass of water.
“This isn’t just stress, is it?”
I looked at my hands.
Then at the closed conference-room door.
“I’m pregnant.”
Rebecca said nothing for several seconds.
“How far?”
“Seven weeks.”
“Does Derek know?”
“I don’t think so.”
I explained the test.
I explained how I had planned to place it inside a small gift box after brunch.
I explained that I had imagined Derek crying.
I had imagined him holding me.
I had imagined us calling our parents together.
Rebecca reached across the table.
“Do not tell him yet.”
“I wasn’t going to.”
“We need to think carefully.”
My phone began vibrating.
Derek.
Then Brenda.
Then Derek again.
Then an unknown number.
Voicemail after voicemail appeared.
The first sounded apologetic.
“Chloe, come home.”
The second sounded irritated.
“This is getting ridiculous.”
The third was a threat.
“If you embarrass my family publicly, don’t expect me to protect you.”
Then Brenda left one.
“Marriage is not something you throw away because your feelings got hurt.”
I deleted none of them.
Rebecca told me to save everything.
That afternoon, I visited an obstetrician.
The pregnancy was healthy.
For the first time all day, I cried.
Not because I wanted Derek back.
Because the tiny heartbeat on the monitor belonged to someone who depended entirely on me to make the next right decision.
When I left the clinic, another message was waiting.
This one came from a woman named Allison Reed.
I did not recognize the number.
Her message contained only twelve words.
You married Derek Caldwell yesterday.
Please call me before Brenda finds out.
I showed Rebecca.
She frowned.
“Who is Allison?”
“I have no idea.”
Then another message arrived.
A photograph.
Derek stood in it wearing a tuxedo.
Beside him was Allison.
She was wearing a white dress.
May you like
Underneath the photograph, she had written one sentence.
You are not his first bride.
