Chapter 23

I woke with the sharp taste of metal on my tongue and Garrison's voice echoing in my head: A child was never part of our arrangement.

Sitting up too quickly sent a blinding spike of pain through my skull, leaving me frozen beneath the blankets as I tried to untangle a dream from a memory.

Morning light filtered weakly through the curtains, and the house was perfectly quiet, with Liam still asleep down the hall. Everything felt normal, except for me.

Hoping to clear my head, I brought my laptop to the kitchen table to work on my novel. My heroine was supposed to be addressing a council chamber to negotiate a treaty. Instead, my fingers moved on their own, typing two stark words across the screen: DIVORCE SETTLEMENT.

I stared at the glaring black letters until they blurred, my chest tightening. "What the hell?"

I took a piece of paper from my table. When my fingers tightened around the pen, the sleek black plastic felt icy against m