Nathan remained at the door until the doctor asked:

—Are you the father?

I answered first.

—No. He’s my ex-husband.

Nathan’s jaw tightened.

But he didn’t contradict me.

After the examination, I collected my things and walked out.

He followed.

—Emma, we need to talk.

—We already did. Two months ago. In a lawyer’s office.

—Is the baby mine?

I stopped.

—Why does it suddenly matter?

His voice dropped.

—Because the dates match.

I laughed bitterly.

—Congratulations. You can count.

Then the specialized office door opened.

A woman stepped out.

Claire.

The name Nathan had once murmured in our bed.

She looked at me.

Then at my belly.

Her face went white.

—Emma is pregnant?

I finally understood why Nathan was at the hospital.

Claire.

Again.

I turned to leave.

But Claire suddenly said:

—Nathan, you have to tell her.

He looked furious.

—Not here.

My steps stopped.

—Tell me what?

Claire opened her bag and pulled out an envelope.

Nathan tried to stop her.

Too late.

She handed it to me.

Inside was a medical report dated almost three months earlier.

Before our divorce.

My name appeared on it.

So did Nathan’s.

I looked up.

—Why is my name on this?

Nathan said nothing.

Claire answered.

—Because Nathan knew there was a possibility you were pregnant before he asked for the divorce.

My fingers tightened around the paper.

—What?

Nathan finally spoke.

—It wasn’t confirmed.

—You knew?

—Emma—

—You looked me in the eyes and said, “Let’s finish here,” while knowing I might be carrying your child?

His face tightened.

—I thought leaving was protecting you.

I almost laughed.

—From what?

Claire suddenly looked uncomfortable.

Nathan closed his eyes.

—From my family.

That answer made no sense.

Until Lucas arrived carrying the files I’d seen earlier.

One slipped from his hands.

A photograph fell onto the floor.

I bent down before he could retrieve it.

It showed Nathan’s grandfather beside another man.

I recognized the second man immediately.

My father.

Nathan took the photograph from me.

—Where did you get that?

Lucas looked terrified.

—It was in Miss Claire’s transferred records.

Claire whispered:

—That’s why I’m here.

Then she told me the truth.

She wasn’t Nathan’s lover.

She had been helping him investigate an old agreement between the Shaw and Carter families.

Years earlier, both families had invested together in a medical technology company.

When my father died, his shares were supposed to pass to me.

They never did.

Nathan’s family had controlled them instead.

—What does that have to do with my baby?

Nathan’s expression changed.

—Everything.

Under the Shaw family trust, if our marriage ended without children, the disputed Carter shares remained under Shaw control until the ownership case was resolved.

But if we had a child before the divorce became final…

He stopped.

Claire finished for him.

—The inheritance rights would immediately pass into a protected trust connected to Emma and her child.

I stared at Nathan.

—So you divorced me to protect me?

He shook his head.

—That’s what I believed.

—Believed?

Lucas slowly placed another document on the table.

—Mr. Shaw discovered something this morning.

It was the divorce filing.

I recognized my signature.

Nathan’s signature.

The date.

But attached behind it was a document I had never seen.

A declaration stating that both parties confirmed there was no pregnancy at the time of separation.

My supposed signature appeared underneath.

I had never signed it.

Nathan’s face became frighteningly calm.

—Someone needed our divorce completed before anyone discovered you were pregnant.

Claire added quietly:

—And someone has been checking Emma’s medical records since before she left the Shaw mansion.

My hand instinctively moved toward my belly.

—Who?

Nobody answered.

Then Lucas’s phone rang.

He checked the screen and went pale.

—Mr. Shaw…

—What?

Lucas turned the phone toward us.

Security footage from the hospital entrance showed an older woman stepping out of a black car.

Nathan’s mother.

She wasn’t supposed to know I was there.

She wasn’t supposed to know I was pregnant.

Yet she was walking directly toward the maternity department carrying the original copy of our divorce agreement.

Nathan looked at me.

And for the first time since I’d known him, the coldness disappeared completely.

—Emma, don’t sign anything my mother gives you.

I stared at him.

—Why?

His answer made Claire close the office door.

—Because if I’m right, my mother didn’t arrange our divorce to get you out of my life.

He looked at my belly.

—She arranged it to keep your child out of the Shaw inheritance.