Ethan leaned back in his chair.
“Damn.”
“What?”
“The Singapore summit.”
She laughed awkwardly.
“You can always skip one conference.”
He looked genuinely surprised.
“You know I can’t.”
That was the first crack. A tiny one, almost invisible.
But once glass begins to crack, it never returns to what it was before. The pregnancy became something Claire experienced largely by herself.
Doctor appointments, ultrasounds, parenting classes. She attended nearly all of them alone.
Ethan always had another meeting, another investor, another emergency. Whenever he did manage to appear, he stayed exactly long enough to take photographs.
The pictures always reached social media.
“Family first.”
“Blessed beyond words.”
“Can’t wait to meet our son.”
Thousands of people clicked the heart button. Only Claire knew those captions had been written by Caldwell Capital’s public relations team.
Adrian noticed everything. Executive assistants always do.
One evening, while organizing Ethan’s travel schedule, he hesitated.
“Sir?”
“What?”
