The day he discovered she was expecting a girl, he had driven her away like a stranger. Yet, a few weeks later, he had spent a fortune to have his mistress give birth to a boy in a private clinic

Victor, however, didn’t even look up. Since the beginning of the pregnancy, the gentle man she had married had disappeared, replaced by a cold, irritable shadow. Everything exasperated him: her breathing, her restless nights, her slow movements.

One evening, as Nora was putting away tiny onesies, he said:

— “Next month, you’ll give birth at your parents’ in Montbrun. It’ll cost me three times less there.”

She paled.
— “Victor… I’m full term. The trip is long. And if I…”
— “You’ll manage.”

Two days later, eyes burning but head held high, Nora boarded a train to Montbrun. Her mother, Madame Delmas, was waiting on the platform and enveloped her in a protective embrace.