He Brought Home a Son, So I Divorced Him

Chapter 3

That was the first time I ever laid eyes on Lila.

Just like she'd appeared in Cole's social media posts, she was young, charming, and radiated that soft, warm maternal glow from head to toe.

And me…

I look like a total wreck.

I dazedly glanced at the mirror by the window. My eyes were red, puffy as two walnuts, and even the fine lines at my eye corners had popped out from all the crying.

A weird, tangled feeling I couldn't put into words welled up in my chest.

Lila was staring daggers at the spot where Cole had been warming my hands, her eyes swimming with unmistakable grief. Still, she forced herself to hold it together and nudged the little boy next to her forward to say hello.

One look at her upset face, and Cole didn't hesitate for a second. He pulled my hand out of his grasp, walked straight over to wrap an arm around her shoulders, and leaned down to press a soft kiss to her cheek.

That familiar, burning ache shot up behind my eyes again, and the tips of my fingers that had never fully warmed up went ice-cold all over again.

Lila touched her cheek bashfully, then flicked a smug, triumphant smile my way, like it was just a casual, unplanned gesture.

"Go on, Luke, say hi to Aunt Bianca."

I froze, stunned, and blurted out in disbelief, "What's his name?"

"Luke. Cole picked it. He says he hopes the boy grows up to be as bright and admirable as the star Luke up in the sky."

In an instant, my head was buzzing and ringing so loud I could barely hear straight.

Luke pressed his lips together and mumbled something to me, but I couldn't make out a single word.

I whipped my head toward Cole, shocked. He was staring at his shoes, too guilty to meet my eyes.

Luke. That was the exact name Cole and I had agreed on, the first time we'd ever talked about what we'd name our kid if we ever had one. Even the little hope tied to the name, Cole had lifted it word for word and slapped it right on Lila and her son. He'd chosen this exact way to rip my heart right open.

"Cole… how could you take the name we picked together and give it to the kid you had with another woman?"

The second the words left my mouth, Cole snapped at me in a sharp, low voice.

"Bianca, watch your mouth!"

I jolted back to my senses just in time to see Cole scramble over to explain things to Lila.

That was when I noticed my unthinking comment had drained all the color from Lila's face. My throat went tight, and I almost opened my mouth to clear things up.

But the sharp, warning look Cole shot me stopped me dead in my tracks.

Lila broke down completely, sobbing as she spoke, "If our kid is just some replacement for the baby you and Bianca never got to have, I wish I'd never had him at all! Cole, I love you. You can brush me off, ignore me, treat me like I don't matter, but Luke is innocent. I don't want him to be born just to make up for some regret you have with another woman." She wrung her hands, her shoulders shaking violently as she looked toward the door. "I know Bianca can't accept Luke and me. I saw this coming seven years ago, so I've always done exactly what you said. I stayed sweet and obedient, raised our boy in another city, and waited for you. Today, when you out of the blue said you could bring me here, I thought… I thought we'd finally get to be together forever. But seeing how Bianca reacted… Cole, just send Luke and me back, okay? I don't want to, I don't want to drag our kid around while people sneer at us."

She sobbed her heart out, and Cole was so flustered he would have agreed to anything she asked right then and there.

He reached out, wiping her tears away with his thumb while glaring coldly back in my direction. "Lila, look at me. Luke is our son, yours and mine. He's not some replacement for leftover regret from what I had with someone else. I love you, and I love our boy. I've never brushed you off, and I never will. I'll give you two the best of everything I have to offer," he said, before adding, "And don't you worry one bit about how she acts! This is my house, I paid for every inch of it. This is the Langford family home. No one gets to give you or Luke the cold shoulder in this house, not ever. There we go, stop overthinking it. The little one in your belly doesn't want to see their mom upset, either."

Every word out of Cole's mouth felt like a red-hot knife twisting in my chest.

But he is right, isn't he? Every last brick, every tile in this place belongs to him. What does any of it have to do with me?

I let out a bitter, hollow laugh.

After Lila and Luke left, I pulled out the divorce papers I'd already drawn up and slid them across the table to him.

"Sign it."