Two months had passed since that devastating conversation in Rebecca's office, two months of morning sickness that felt like my body's cruel reminder of everything I'd lost. The charity gala invitation had arrived three weeks ago—the annual Porter Foundation fundraiser that Luca and I were supposed to attend together, where he was supposed to announce our engagement to his business associates.

Now I stood in the gilded ballroom of the Ritz-Carlton, my black evening dress carefully chosen to hide the slight curve of my belly, watching the man I'd planned to marry smile at another woman.

Luca looked devastatingly handsome in his tailored tuxedo, his dark hair perfectly styled, that familiar confident posture that had always made my heart skip. But the arm wrapped around the blonde woman beside him might as well have been a dagger through my chest.

"Ladies and gentlemen," Luca's voice carried across the room as he clinked his champagne glass, drawing the attention of the gathered crowd. "I'd like you all to meet someone very special to me—Maria Stevens."

The woman beside him beamed with practiced perfection, her red dress stunning against her porcelain skin. She looked like everything I wasn't—polished, untouchable, unmarked by the messy complications of real love and loss.

"Maria's been instrumental in helping me through my recovery," Luca continued, his hand resting possessively on her lower back. "She's reminded me that sometimes the best thing we can do is embrace new beginnings."

New beginnings. The words felt like acid in my throat.

I should have left then. Should have slipped out the back exit and preserved what little dignity I had left. Instead, I found myself frozen as Luca's eyes swept the crowd and landed on me. For one heart-stopping moment, I thought I saw a flicker of something—recognition, maybe even pain—cross his features.

But then his expression smoothed into polite indifference, and he was walking toward me with Maria's hand tucked into the crook of his arm.

"Thea," he said when they reached me, his voice carrying that same clinical distance I'd grown to hate. "I'm glad you could make it tonight."

The casual way he said my name, like I was just another acquaintance, made my hands tremble around my untouched wine glass.

"Maria," Luca continued, turning to the woman beside him, "I'd like you to meet Thea Vasquez. She's my former fiancée."

Former fiancée. The words hung in the air like a slap, and I watched as several nearby guests turned to stare, their expressions ranging from shock to pity to barely concealed curiosity. Mrs. Henderson from the hospital board looked like she might choke on her canapé.

Maria's perfectly glossed smile never wavered, but I caught the way her grip tightened slightly on Luca's arm. "Oh! How... nice to meet you, Thea. Luca's mentioned you."

Mentioned me. Like I was a footnote in his history rather than the woman who'd spent five years building a life with him.

"Has he?" I managed, my voice sounding foreign to my own ears. "All good things, I hope."

Luca's jaw tightened almost imperceptibly. "Thea was very supportive during my recovery. We're... grateful for that chapter of our lives."

Chapter. Past tense. Closed book.

The baby in my belly—his baby, though he'd never know it now—seemed to flutter as if sensing my distress. I pressed my free hand against my stomach, the gesture hidden by the drape of my dress.

"Well," I said, forcing my lips into what I hoped resembled a smile, "I should let you get back to your guests. Congratulations on your recovery, Luca. And Maria, it was... enlightening to meet you."

I turned to leave, but Maria's voice stopped me.

"Actually, Thea, I hope you don't mind me saying, but Luca mentioned you work in marketing? I'm trying to transition from acting to more corporate consulting work. Maybe we could grab coffee sometime? I'd love to pick your brain about career strategy."

The request was so innocently delivered, so genuinely enthusiastic, that it took me a moment to process the full cruelty of it. She wanted career advice from the woman she'd replaced. She wanted to use my professional expertise while wearing my life like a costume.

Luca said nothing, just watched our exchange with those unreadable brown eyes.

"Of course," I heard myself say, the words coming from some automated part of my brain that still functioned on politeness and social conditioning. "I'm sure we can arrange something."

"Wonderful! I'll find you on social media and we can set something up."

I nodded and walked away on unsteady legs, the sound of their laughter following me across the ballroom like the echo of everything I'd lost.

The fluorescent lights in my office buzzed like trapped insects, their harsh glare making everything look sickly and unreal. Three days had passed since the gala—three days of replaying Luca's casual dismissal over and over in my mind like a broken record. *Former fiancée.* The words still felt like glass shards in my throat.

I stared at the marketing reports spread across my desk, the numbers blurring together into meaningless patterns. My hands trembled as I reached for my coffee mug, the ceramic cold against my palms. The morning sickness had been particularly brutal today, leaving me hollow and shaky.

A soft knock interrupted my spiraling thoughts. Knox's familiar silhouette appeared in my doorway, his concerned expression immediately sharpening when he saw my face.

"Thea?" He stepped inside, closing the door behind him with deliberate care. "I've been calling you since Tuesday. You missed our lunch yesterday."

I tried to arrange my features into something resembling composure, but the effort felt monumental. "Sorry, I've been... busy."

"Bullshit." Knox moved closer, his voice gentle but firm. "You look like you haven't slept in days. What happened?"

The kindness in his voice was my undoing. The tears I'd been holding back for seventy-two hours finally spilled over, hot and unstoppable. My shoulders shook as I buried my face in my hands, the professional mask I'd been wearing finally cracking completely.

"Oh, Thea." Knox was beside me in an instant, his warm hand settling on my shoulder. "Hey, it's okay. Whatever it is, we'll figure it out."

"No, we won't." The words came out broken, barely audible. "Knox, I'm pregnant."

His hand stilled on my shoulder, and I felt the shift in his breathing. When I finally looked up at him through my tears, his face had gone pale, but his eyes remained steady on mine.

"Luca's?" he asked quietly.

I nodded, fresh tears streaming down my cheeks. "He doesn't know. He can't know. Not after..." I couldn't finish the sentence, couldn't voice the humiliation of that night.

Knox's jaw tightened, and I saw something dangerous flash in his usually gentle eyes. "What did he do?"

"He introduced me as his former fiancée. At the Porter Foundation gala. In front of everyone." The words tumbled out in a rush, each one scraping against my throat. "He was there with her—Maria. Beautiful, perfect Maria who's helping him embrace new beginnings."

Knox's hand moved to cup my face, his thumb brushing away my tears with infinite tenderness. "Thea, I'm so sorry."

"And now she wants to meet for coffee. For career advice." A bitter laugh escaped me. "She wants tips on corporate consulting from the woman she replaced."

"You don't have to do anything you don't want to do," Knox said firmly. "Not for him, not for her, not for anyone."

I leaned into his touch, drawing strength from his unwavering presence. "I don't know how to do this, Knox. I don't know how to be pregnant and alone and... God, what if I'm terrible at it? What if I can't—"

"Stop." His voice was soft but commanding. "You're not alone. You hear me? You're not doing this alone."

The certainty in his voice made something tight in my chest loosen slightly. Knox had been my anchor since high school, the one constant in a world that kept shifting beneath my feet. Even when I'd chosen Luca, even when I'd built a life that didn't include him the way he deserved, he'd never wavered in his friendship.

"Knox, I can't ask you to—"

"You're not asking. I'm telling you." He pulled his chair closer, his hands covering mine. "Whatever you need—doctor's appointments, midnight ice cream runs, someone to hold your hair back when morning sickness hits—I'm here."

The simple declaration broke something open inside me. For the first time since Luca's accident, I felt like maybe I could breathe again. Maybe I could survive this.

"What about your job? Your life? You can't just—"

"My life is fine. And my job has flexible hours for a reason." Knox squeezed my hands gently. "Besides, Willa would never forgive me if I let you go through this alone. She's probably already planning to cook you nutritious meals and lecture you about prenatal vitamins."

Despite everything, I felt my lips curve into the first genuine smile I'd managed in days. "She would, wouldn't she?"

"Absolutely. You know how she gets." Knox's own smile was warm, familiar, home. "So what do you say? Ready to let the Mitchell siblings take care of you for a while?"

I nodded, unable to speak past the gratitude clogging my throat. For the first time since my world had shattered, I felt like maybe—just maybe—I wasn't completely broken after all.