Page 113 of Three Months Yesterday

My phone buzzes in my hand and I nearly drop it. Aiden’s name flashes across the screen and my heart stops. It’s not the person I thought would be calling. For a split second, I can’t move, can’t breathe. But then I remember he’s calling with news and I press the phone to my ear.

“Aiden.” His name comes out broken, barely a whisper. It’s raw and desperate, terrified of what he’s going to tell me.

“We have her. She’s on her way to the hospital.” Aiden’s voice is steady, calm, exactly as I’ve come to depend on with him.

The relief hits me so hard I slump forward, my body collapsing in half.

“She’s gone into labor,” he continues, but the words don’t register, not right away.

“It’s too early,” I whisper.

“It’s going to be fine,” Aiden assures. “Thirty-seven weeks is early, but the risks are low. He’s going to be fine.”

I close my eyes, trying to slow my racing heart. The plane engines hum around me, indifferent to the fact that my entire world is shifting.

In the silence, Aiden asks me something I’m not sure I even contemplated, but know I need to hear.

“You want the details now or you want to wait?”

I sit up, taking a breath. “Tell me.” My voice is steadier than it’s been since the first call, and while I wish more than anything I was by Madison’s side now, knowing who’s responsible for this is something I can deal with now.

“Do you remember Holly, the new housekeeper Madison hired?”

“Yeah.” I frown, trying to understand how she has anything to do with this. “She came to clean the cottage one morning while I was still sleeping.”

“But you don’t remember her from anywhere else?”

“Should I?”

“She says you met at a coffee shop in New York early last year.”

I shake my head even though he can’t see me. “I meet tons of people in coffee shops. I don’t remember her.”

“I didn’t think you would.” He exhales and I can practically see him rubbing a hand over his beard, the same way I’ve seen him do whenever he’s annoyed about something. “She was working with Aaron.”

The name hits like a physical blow and I swear the wind is knocked out of me. “What?”

“Aaron was afraid of losing you,” Aiden says, his voice carefully neutral. “So he came up with the stalker scheme, hoping it would remind me of how important he is.”

I can’t speak, can’t process what he’s saying.

Aaron, the man who signed me when I was eighteen and had no idea what I was doing. The man who stood with me through the loss of my parents, who supported me through rehab and kept my career alive when all I did was screw it up.

And now this.

“He says he never meant for it to go this far,” Aiden continues. “When he called you back to New York he was trying to put Pandora back in the box, but he couldn’t do it.”

I know Aiden continues talking, but all I can think about is the day Aaron showed up with the contract. I was eighteen, naive and excited, looking forward to finally giving back to my parents. Aaron saw something in me, saw a future I couldn’t fathom.

“How do you…” I trail off, unable to finish the question.

“Holly must have told him what she was planning. He turned himself in just a few minutes after Ian called me.”

The betrayal tastes bitter in my mouth. All those conversations about loyalty and trust and having my back—it’s all been lies.

“Beckett?” Aiden’s voice pulls me back.

“Yeah.” The word is hollow coming out of my mouth, but I don’t have anything else in me right now.