His usually warm gaze was wide and filled with fear.

Her mouth dried. “Oh God. All of this is somehow connected to your panic attack, isn’t it?”

Nick stared straight ahead.

Say no. Say, “Don’t be ridiculous, Libs.” Say something!

Nick dropped his face into his hands and his guttural moan chilled her down to her marrow. Something held her back from comforting him.

He finally raised his head, his face twisted in agony. “I’m sorry. So sorry.”

Her blood thundered in her ears. Her tongue sat thick and ungainly in her mouth. “Sorry? Sorry for what?”

He swallowed, his Adam’s apple bouncing erratically. “For everything.”

“That’s not an answer!” She was yelling now. “Tell me what’s going on!”

He reached for her but she threw off his hands knowing whatever was coming, it was something so terrible it would pierce her clean through. Instinct told her he was having an affair with her best friend. Or worse than an affair—that he loved Jess.

“Tell me!” she screamed.

He licked his lips, opened them and then his breath shuddered out. “Leo is mine.”

She heard the words but she didn’t understand. “What?”

“Leo is my son.”

If he’d stabbed her in the heart, it would have hurt less. “Leo?” Her voice sounded foreign and unfamiliar. “Jess’s Leo is your son?”

He nodded slowly, tears spilling down his cheeks. “Libby, I’m so sorry. I never wanted to h—”

“Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!” Her hands flew to her ears as if they were barriers enough to stop the words from seeping into her heart and soul. But it was too late. Their terrible truth spread like indelible black ink, staining her. Nick was Leo’s father. Nick had a son. Her best friend and her husband had a child.

“No. No. No, no, no!” Her gut cramped so swiftly she doubled over and then she felt the familiar thick dampness of blood oozing between her legs. Everything that defined her world and her place in it crumpled, crashing down around her like a building leveled in an earthquake.

“Libs?” Nick tried to hug her.

“Don’t touch me!” Sudden repulsion for the only man she’d ever loved made her grip the solid red gum table. Normally, she struggled to move it an inch but she heard herself roar and then it was moving across the kitchen as if it weighed nothing. It sat between them, a blessed wall blocking him from touching her. “I don’t want you anywhere near me!”

“But I want—”

“I don’t care what you want! This isn’t about you.” Shaking, she grabbed her car keys.

“Please don’t leave.” His voice quavered like Indi’s when she was about to burst into tears.

Libby ignored him and opened the door.

“Where are you going?”

She threw him a withering look. “Where do you think?”