65. Kate
Chapter Sixty-Five
Kate
The boxes were finally unpacked, the last of the flat-packs wrangled into place, and for the first time in months, I felt…settled. This was home. It was ours now; the half-finished nursery down the hall, the new sofa already well broken in from Jordan pulling me into his lap at every chance.
I let myself enjoy it. The quiet. The ordinary newness of waking in our own bed and not a hotel room. Padding into our kitchen for coffee, lying still and listening to him move around the house like it had been ours for years.
That morning, I’d stolen a lazy hour under the duvet after being woken through the night by a restless baby practicing his kicks. Jordan was in the bathroom, getting ready for another brutal conditioning session, humming some song over the sound of the shower. He sounded so content.
My phone buzzed on the nightstand. Then again in quick succession.
I reached for it, expecting a text from Gwen about dinner plans.
Instead:
Gwen:
Kate, don’t look at anything online until I speak to you. Promise me. Call me now.
Jordan’s phone was also buzzing on the counter where he’d left it before his shower. I glanced over. Matt, his PR guy. Then Chris. One after another. Something huge was wrong.
My heart thudded so hard I could feel the room vibrate. I should’ve waited. I should’ve called Gwen. But you couldn’t send me a text like that and expect me not to look.
Too late. The headline burned up at me like a slap:
Exclusive: JORDAN TAYLOR’S FIANCéE’S PAST UNEARTHED. FROM IVF TROUBLES TO TRAPPING THE TENNIS STAR WITH NEW BABY.
The words swam. Beneath it was a grainy pap shot of us in Melbourne, Jordan’s hand holding mine, mine over my bump, side by side with an old wedding photo of Andrew and me. My stomach flipped violently.
I forced myself to read on, though my pulse was hammering in my temples, vision tunnelling.
“Sources close to her ex-husband, Andrew Thomas, say his ex-wife wasted no time moving on…once IVF plans fell apart, she set her sights on the younger, wealthier tennis player Jordan Taylor…now expecting his first child.”
I pressed a shaking palm to my chest. It felt like it was caving in. My breath became shallow and useless. My skin prickled hot, then cold raced down my spine. The floor tilted.
A voice broke through the ringing in my ears. “Kate? Kate…what the hell’s wrong?”
I tried to answer, but the room was collapsing in on itself. The last thing I felt was the floor dropping out and his arms catching me before I hit it.