After the divorce, I had no one left to lean on. Because of the child growing inside me, I swallowed my pride and did every j0b I could find. On the day I went into lab0r, I drove myself to the hospital, trembling through every red light.

Eleanor gave me a thin smile.

“Don’t make this dramatic, Vivian. Men like Julian shouldn’t be trapped because a woman suddenly gets pregnant.”

For a second, I actually laughed.

Not because anything was funny.

Because the accusation was too ugly to process.

“I never asked for your money.”

“No,” Eleanor replied. “You simply enjoyed the benefits.”

By the end of that week, Julian had frozen our joint finances.

My insurance coverage disappeared.

And mutual friends suddenly began hearing that I had been unfaithful.