The Ravenel family requires a male heir.” His voice held no more feeling than a man reading a memo.

“So the child you’re delivering will be excluded from the Trust.”

The room seemed to lose its air.

It was not the words that did the worst damage — it was his eyes, which held nothing at all when they looked at me, no cruelty even, just the cool vacancy of a man managing a line item.

He was not looking at his wife in labor.

He was terminating a redundant position.