Five minutes after our divorce became final, my husband looked me in the eyes and said, “Take the girls, Lena. I have a son coming now.” He thought he was leaving behind an ordinary wife and two daughters he no longer needed—but by that afternoon, he would discover I was a U.S. Army colonel, and the “heir” his entire family was celebrating might not even be his. – usnews

Sophie’s eyes filled immediately.

“My room?”

Madeline shot me a terrified look.

She hadn’t meant to say that part.

Sophie whispered again.

“He was going to give the baby my room?”

I sat beside her.

“You have a home with me.”

“But my stars.”

The glow-in-the-dark stars on her ceiling.

Preston and I had put them up when she was four.

She used to count them when she couldn’t sleep.

“Your stars are still there.”

“For his baby?”

“No one is taking anything from you today.”

Madeline closed her book.

“I don’t want to see him.”

Sophie wiped her nose.

“Me neither.”

I nodded.

“Okay.”

I returned to the call.

“They don’t want to come out.”

“What did you tell them?”

“Nothing except that you were here.”

“That’s impossible.”

“Madeline heard you discussing the nursery.”

He went silent.

Then I heard Vivian in the background.