Chapter 2

Magpie stared at the message. Not a flicker crossed her face.

She didn't reply. Didn't feel the need to.

She just opened a delivery app, plugged in the address Damon had sent her, and ordered a box of condoms dispatched to his suite.

She knew he was baiting her. But she was done fighting back. It wasn't worth the effort anymore.

The next morning, Magpie was patiently braiding sleepy Wren's hair when the bedroom door opened.

Damon.

"Daddy!" Wren's eyes lit up. She threw out her tiny arms and flung herself at him.

Damon crouched, scooped his daughter up with practiced ease, and tossed her lightly in the air.

"Did my Wren miss Daddy in just one night?"

He rubbed his chin against her round cheek, drawing a shriek of giggles.

Magpie stood at the vanity, comb still in hand, watching the scene in silence.

Whatever else passed between them, in front of Wren, Damon was an unimpeachable father.

He might not be a good husband, but on the subject of protecting their daughter's innocent world, he and Magpie had an unspoken understanding.

None of that messy parade of women had ever touched Wren's life. Not once.

After teasing Wren for another moment, Damon finally looked up at Magpie.

His tone was ordinary, as if last night's mocking text had never existed.

"She's got her vaccine appointment today, right?"

"Nine o'clock." Magpie lowered her eyes and kept braiding the second side of Wren's hair. Her voice was even.

"I'll drive you."

In the car on the way to the clinic, Wren dozed off in her booster seat almost immediately. She'd been up early.

Damon drummed his fingers lightly on the steering wheel, then gave a low laugh.

He cut a glance at Magpie, something probing, a trace of amusement underneath.

"Last night I was expecting either paparazzi with long lenses or a vice squad."

"Turns out it was a delivery kid. That isn't really you."

Magpie watched the streetscape flash by outside the window, voice unchanged.

"Isn't that what you wanted? A gracious Mrs. Sterling who knows better than to make a scene?"

That shut him up for a second. Then he said, "Look, whatever else happens, you're my wife. Legally, publicly. The rest of them are just entertainment."

The words were a fine needle under her ribs. Not fatal. Just enough to ache.

Magpie pulled a faint smile and said nothing.

When he married her he'd sworn there would only ever be her, this lifetime. Now his "entertainment" came one after another, an endless rotation.

The car pulled up at the community clinic.

Magpie reached into her bag and handed him a document.

"Sign this. It's the paperwork Wren needs for preschool next year."

A thick stack. Buried somewhere in the middle was the divorce agreement.

Damon didn't even glance. He pulled a pen from his inner jacket pocket and signed every page, one after another.

"Whatever needs doing, you just handle it."

He passed it back, opened his door, and walked around to get Wren out.

At that moment, there was a commotion at the clinic entrance.

A pale woman was being shoved by someone at the front desk with open impatience.

"If you can't pay, move. There's a whole line waiting."

She stumbled and almost went down.

Damon looked over. Magpie's eyes followed.

She recognized the woman. One of the many Damon had supposedly cut off for her.

Magpie kept her tone light. "Aren't you going to help her out? You two go way back."

Damon smiled at the corner of his mouth and lifted his daughter out of the seat. "Nothing to do with me. I told you, today my daughter is the only one who matters."

Wren got her shot. When Magpie looked up afterward, Damon was gone.

Her phone buzzed. A text from him.

"Something urgent came up. Take Wren home. Her birthday's in a few days. I'll make it up to her."

Magpie swiped the screen dark without expression.

She didn't bother wondering what he was off to do. She took her daughter to the kids' café by herself.

Right on cue, the headline "Sterling Heir Plays Hero at Clinic" was already trending.

The photo was a candid, taken right at the clinic entrance.

Magpie watched Wren taking tiny bites of her ice cream. Her voice went soft.

"Wren. If one day Mommy and Daddy don't live in the same house anymore… would you want to stay with Mommy?"

Wren lifted her head and thought it over with the seriousness only a three-year-old could manage. Then she nodded. "I want to. Wherever Mommy is, that's where I go."

She paused, then added in a small voice, "Daddy's always busy anyway. I just need Mommy."

The world of a child was simple and direct.

Magpie's throat went tight. She leaned down and kissed her daughter's forehead.

"My good girl. But let's not tell Daddy about this just yet, okay?"

"Okay!"

After settling Wren at home with the nanny, Magpie's phone rang. Her assistant.

The voice on the other end was cautious, like bracing for an explosion.

"Ma'am. Damon had the keys to the Cloudwater handed over. It looks like he gave them to his new interest. Celine Vance. Some C-list actress."