“My billionaire ex-husband sat beside me on a flight just to shame me—then three little boys stepped out of a Bentley and ran toward me, calling, “Mom!”

“Why didn’t he come to our birthdays?”
Chloe sat with them. “When I found out I was pregnant, I tried to tell him. But people around him kept me away. He didn’t know.”

“Was he mean to you?” Leo asked.

Chloe chose her words carefully. “He hurt my feelings a long time ago.”

“Did you hurt his?”

She looked down. “Maybe.”

“Are we going to live with him?” Lucas asked.

“No. This is your home.”

Then her phone rang from a blocked number. Harrison.

“I need to see them,” he said.

“No.”

“They’re my children.”

“They are five-year-old boys who found out the truth in an airport because you couldn’t control yourself.”

“I know. I’m sorry.”

Once, that apology would have meant everything. Now it felt too small.