Chapter 1
My husband threw our newborn onto the living-room rug because he couldn’t stop the crying. I slapped him before I even realized my hand had moved—but what our baby said next shattered me.
Our son, Noah, had been crying for nearly an hour in our Dallas home.
I was warming a bottle when I heard Ryan yell, “Just stop!”
I ran into the living room.
Ryan was pacing with Noah in his arms, his face twisted with frustration.
“Give him to me,” I said.
“I can handle my own son.”
Noah cried louder.
Ryan suddenly lost his temper.
He lowered his arms violently and let Noah fall onto the thick rug beneath him.
“Ryan!”
I rushed forward and scooped my baby into my arms.
Noah screamed, but I couldn’t see any obvious injury.
I turned around and slapped Ryan across the face.
“Don’t you ever touch my child like that again.”
Ryan stared at me in shock.
“I didn’t mean to—”
“You threw a newborn.”
His expression collapsed.
“I haven’t slept in three days.”
“Neither have I.”
I grabbed my phone.
Ryan immediately realized what I was doing.
“Emily, please.”
“I’m calling the pediatrician, and then you’re leaving.”
He stepped toward me.
I backed away.
“Come any closer and I’m calling the police too.”
Ryan stopped.
Then Noah suddenly became quiet against my chest.
His tiny eyes opened.
His lips moved.
“Pa… pa…”
Ryan’s entire face crumpled.
For one terrible second, hearing that little sound made my anger weaken.
Ryan covered his mouth.
“He called me Papa.”
I looked down at Noah, then back at the man I had loved for seven years.
“That doesn’t erase what you just did.”
A knock suddenly shook the front door.
Ryan went pale.
“I called my sister before you came downstairs,” he admitted.
But when I opened the door, it wasn’t his sister.
Two police officers were standing on our porch.
Ryan stared at them in disbelief.
Then one officer looked past me and said, “We’re actually here because someone reported another incident involving your husband and a baby three years ago.”
My blood went cold.
Ryan had told me Noah was his first child.
May you like
I slowly turned toward him.
And the terrified look on his face told me the officer wasn’t mistaken.
