CHAPTERONE
“Sign the papers, Jamie.”At seven months pregnant, Kosamina looked as beautiful as the day Jamie Snow had met her—right here—in the emergency department on the first day of their residency at Mass Gen.
“Ko—”
“It’s over. We both know it. Let’s not make this any harder than it already is.” She crossed her arms over her scrubs and leaned a hip against the operating table between them.
“But the baby—”
“Isn’t yours.”
No shit. Didn’t take a medical genius to figure out his soon-to-be ex-wife had found someone else to plow her driveway while he’d been on mission with the Joint Task Team. He couldn’t blame her. Not really. Five years was a long time to be apart. Yes, there’d been the occasional furlough, and they’d fucked like bunnies when he’d been home, but apparently, it hadn’t been enough.
Hehadn’t been enough.
Not for her.
While he’d fallen fast and hard, his proposal coming after a couple of months of dating, for Ko, their marriage had always been one of convenience. A friends with benefits situation and the perfect arrangement in her opinion.
They shared an apartment, a bed, and their experience as surgical interns. She hadn’t wanted more. But he had. He’d wanted a real marriage. A wife. Kids. The chaos of a full house. A chance to create the kind of family he hadn’t had growing up. And he’d been young and stupid enough to believe a ring on her finger would change her mind.
Yeah, whoever had coined the term love is blind had it right, except in his case, it was deaf too. She’d warned him. Told him she wouldn’t hesitate to prioritize her career over everyone and everything.
Hell, he’d learned that lesson the first year of their marriage. She’d wanted him to join the army. Encouraged him to focus on his military service. Insisted he accept the opportunity with the JTT.
But despite her indifference toward him, he never truly believed she’d put medicine ahead of her own flesh and blood. Until now. “Who’s the father?”
“Does it matter?” She frowned and shook her head. “He doesn’t want the baby, and I have no intention of keeping her.”
Her.Jamie’s chest squeezed tight. A little girl. A daughter. Kosamina’s child. A piece of herself she’d let go of without so much as discussing the options with him. “What if I come home? We can raise her together. The two of us.”
His hands balling into fists at his sides, his wedding ring dug into his finger. So what if the baby wasn’t his? Didn’t matter. One way or another, his last name would follow her first on the birth certificate. And fuck him if that didn’t make him feel responsible for her well-being.
Did he still love his wife? No. Not anymore. Not the way a husband should. Did she love him? No. She never really had. Did this mean the time had come to dissolve their marriage? Yes. To be fair, they’d discussed the option more than once.
The decision to go their separate ways hadn’t come as a surprise, but the itty-bitty plus one tagging along for the ride? A drop your ass to the floor shock to the system. And now that he knew?
Well, he was fucking here, wasn’t he? Standing in front of a woman who didn’t want him, begging her to let him be her baby’s daddy, all for the sake of a little girl who wasn’t his…but could be.
“Are you kidding me right now?” Ko pushed off the table and threw her hands in the air. “You show up here out of the blue and lay that shit on me?” She rubbed a palm over her swollen abdomen. “This doesn’t change anything. I don’t love you, and I don’t want children. I’m sorry if that hurts you. I truly am. But you need to sign the divorce papers and go back to the JTT because there’s nothing for you here.”
“Can’t we at least talk about this? Go to the caf? Grab a drink?”
“No.”
“Ko, please…” Jamie was clutching at air. He knew it. Still, he couldn’t help himself. He’d been thinking about the baby for weeks, coming to grips with her existence, and trying to figure out how to do the right thing.
He wasn’t sure staying in a loveless marriage was the way to go. But talking things over face-to-face had felt like something he needed to do. For himself. For Ko. For the baby.
Despite the risk.
He was—after all—still a marked man with a target the size of a hubcap on his back. An obstacle to his daddy proposal for sure, but he hadn’t known the offer was coming until it sprang from his lips.
And now that he’d put it out there? He wanted this. More than ever. He wanted a family. A wife. A daughter. His to cherish. His to protect. Even if it meant he had to step away from the JTT. His best friend Jay, his team, his brothers, they’d have his back. No matter what.
“This is for the best.” She smoothed her fingers over the hard padding of the operating table as she came around. “We both know it.” She stopped when her protruding belly touched his belt buckle, and he had to lock down his vibrating muscles to keep from laying his hands on her baby bump.
Reaching around him, she freed the folded papers he’d jammed into the back pocket of his khakis. “I’m sorry, but I don’t want to be a wife.” She spread the legal documents out on the gray vinyl. “I don’t want to be a mother.” She pulled a pen out of her breast pocket and clicked it open. “And I don’t want to discuss this any longer.” She hovered the black Bic in front of his aching chest. “Sign.”
