“Eight months after divorcing me because I “couldn’t give him a family,”

“Why?”

“I didn’t know at first.”

“Stop lying.”

“I swear.”

I moved closer.

“What happened to my embryo?”

Sloane looked down.

I whispered, “Tell me.”

Her eyes lifted toward mine.

“Lauren is carrying it.”

The room disappeared.

I heard the words.

But my mind refused to place them together.

Lauren.

Carrying.

It.

My fingers loosened around the folder.

Naomi grabbed my arm.

“What did you say?” she asked.

Sloane started crying.

“The embryo transferred twelve weeks ago was created using Mia’s egg and Ryan’s sperm.”

I couldn’t breathe.

For months, I had imagined Lauren pregnant with Ryan’s child.

I thought the cruelty was that he had built the family he said I could never give him.

But this—

This was something else.

Something monstrous.

“My embryo?”

“Yes.”

“You implanted my embryo into my ex-husband’s mistress?”

Sloane covered her mouth.

“I was told consent had been obtained.”

“FROM WHOM?”

“Ryan.”

“That embryo belonged to both of us!”

“I know.”

“You needed my consent.”

“I know.”

“You forged it.”