Chapter 1 - The Door to Suite 402
The door opened three inches before Ryan saw me.
His smile disappeared.
For one second, none of us moved.
He stood barefoot in black slacks and an unbuttoned white shirt.
Behind him, champagne rested in a silver bucket beside the bed.
Two dinner plates sat on a room-service cart.
And standing near the window in a black silk robe was Sabrina Cole.
Ryan’s ex-wife.
The woman whose photographs Margaret had removed from every album after their divorce six years earlier.
Sabrina stared at my stomach.
Then at my face.
“Claire?”
Ryan stepped into the hallway and tried to pull the door closed behind him.
“What are you doing here?”
I nearly laughed.
The audacity of the question steadied me.
“I thought you were in Washington.”
His face changed.
“The meeting was canceled.”
“So you came here?”
“It’s complicated.”
Sabrina appeared behind him.
“Ryan, stop.”
He turned sharply.
“Go inside.”
She folded her arms.
“No.”
I lifted my phone.
The recording light was already on.
Ryan noticed.
His eyes hardened.
“Claire, turn that off.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re upset.”
“I’m seven months pregnant, standing outside a hotel room where my husband is staying with his ex-wife.”
I looked past him.
“Which part am I misunderstanding?”
Sabrina’s expression shifted.
There was no shame in it.
Only annoyance.
“That we owe you an explanation tonight.”
Ryan closed his eyes.
“Sabrina.”
“No.”
She stepped closer.
“You told me she knew.”
The corridor went silent.
My heart struck my ribs.
“Knew what?”
Ryan stared at her.
She smiled bitterly.
“That you and I were figuring things out.”
My daughter moved beneath my hand.
I looked at Ryan.
“Figuring what out?”
“Claire, please.”
“What?”
His silence answered first.
Then Sabrina did.
“Us.”
I thought the pain would knock me down.
Instead, something inside me became very calm.
I looked at the champagne.
The robe.
Ryan’s shirt.
The reservation confirmation on my phone.
Then I smiled.
It frightened him more than screaming would have.
“Our baby shower starts at noon tomorrow.”
Ryan blinked.
“I know.”
“Be there.”
“Claire—”
“And Sabrina?”
She lifted her chin.
I looked directly at her.
“You should come too.”
Both of them stared at me.
Ryan stepped closer.
“What are you doing?”
I slipped my phone into my purse.
“Exactly what you asked me to do this morning.”
His eyes narrowed.
“What did I ask you to do?”
I placed one hand over our daughter.
“Trust you.”
Then I turned and walked toward the elevator.
Behind me, Ryan called my name twice.
I never looked back.
May you like
Because by the time I reached the lobby, I already knew what I was going to put into tomorrow’s family slideshow.
And Ryan had no idea his own cloud account had already given me everything I needed.
