Something shifted behind his eyes. “No,” he said. “You’re the mother of my child.”

It was the first time he’d said it that way. Not surrogate. Not arrangement. Mother. The word settled somewhere dangerous inside her.

Chapter 3 — I Turned On the Light

An hour later, Leo took her to Aurelia, a discreet restaurant on the Upper East Side where the menus had no prices and the staff knew better than to stare.

Chloe wore a black wrap dress Leo had sent to her hotel. It fit her changing body perfectly, but she felt like an impostor among crystal glasses and white tablecloths.

Leo sat across from her. “Eat.”

“Ordering people around isn’t a personality.”