“Look, I’m pretty sure pictures of Monique kissing me are about to hit a lot of sites, and that’s going to hurt Ella and Jeremiah more. Can you help me out? Who can I call to work on this? Asher, Ella’s pregnant. You weren’t around for the last one.” I swallowed down the panic building in my throat. “She was so sick. She’s going to need me. Now. I have to figure out what went wrong and do damage control so I don’t lose my wife.”

I dropped my head in my hands and heaved a breath.

“I love her. Shit. Fuck. I adore Ella. She can’t think I did this. She can’t . . .”

“I’ll see what I can do with the PR personnel. But you better get to the source of the problem,” Asher said.

“Besides the constant touring? Jeremiah didn’t want to leave his friends and Ella didn’t want to quit her job. She loves her students and Jeremiah’s a social kid. There’s no way I could ask them to join my entourage at the expense of their happiness.”

“Did you ever ask? Did you ever give Ella that choice?”

I blew out a shocked breath. “Of course I asked! They’re the most important people in my life.”

Asher grunted. “Lia heard all this. She’s making puppy dog eyes on your behalf. I’ll make some calls. But you better get your shit together, man.”

3

Ella

Flying to Heathrow this go-round proved the worst trip ever—partly because Atlanta’s airport overflowed with travelers, creating bottlenecks and sheer difficulty to navigate.

Jeremiah’s sullen silence worsened my mood. And all those inconveniences compounded with recurring nausea. Up until tonight, I experienced no symptoms with this pregnancy. I’d been so excited about this child—a girl, I’d found out the day before Simon dropped his bombshell of divorce on my cluttered oak desk.

I snorted, pulling the blanket to my chin as I thought back to how I’d planned my surprise—one of the benefits of having to take the prenatal test called CVS last week was that I managed to find out my baby’s gender—not much earlier than I would have with the second regular sonogram I’d had this week so that I’d have a picture to give to Simon. The tangible proof of what our love together produced.