Mira's POV
I shouldn't have gone to that school event today.
My head pounds like someone's hammering nails into my brain, but I force myself to smile as I clutch the pink bakery box. Inside are six red velvet cupcakes—Lily's favorite. She didn't win the science fair today, but she tried so hard. My baby deserves something special.
The house is quiet when I push open the front door. Too quiet.
Usually, I can hear Mrs. Torres, our housekeeper, vacuuming somewhere. But it's only two in the afternoon. She shouldn't have left yet. Maybe Dominic gave her the day off? He does that sometimes without telling me. Another thing my husband forgets to tell to his wife.
I kick off my shoes—the sensible flats that Victoria, my mother-in-law, got me because "a proper wife doesn't draw attention with loud heels." My thick glasses slip down my nose, and I push them back up. I don't even need glasses, but Dominic suggested them years ago. Said they made me look more serious. More like a mother should look.
I became everything he wanted. Everything they all wanted.
The steps creak under my feet as I climb to the second floor. I should take aspirin first, but I want to put the cupcakes in the kitchen, maybe lie down for twenty minutes before getting up Lily from school. Being the perfect wife is exhausting when your husband barely sees you exist.
That's when I hear it.
A laugh. Low and comfortable. Coming from my bedroom.
My heart does something strange in my chest—a painful squeeze that makes me stop on the landing. Dominic's home early? He never comes home early. He works sixteen-hour days, seven days a week. Building his business is more important than building a marriage.
But maybe today's different. Maybe he remembered that Lily had her science fair. Maybe he came home to ask me how it went.
Hope is a stupid thing.
I walk down the hallway, still holding the cupcake box. The door to our bedroom is open just a crack. I can see movement inside—shadows moving across the afternoon light streaming through our windows.
"You worry too much," a woman's voice says. "She won't be home for hours."
I freeze. That's not Mrs. Torres.
"Still," Dominic's voice replies. "We should be careful."
My hand reaches for the doorknob. Some part of my brain is yelling at me to stop, to turn around, to run. But my body moves on its own. I push the door open.
The cupcake box hits the floor.
Dominic is in our bed. OUR bed. The one I make every morning with hospital edges because that's how his mother taught me. The white sheets I washed yesterday are twisted around two bodies.
One of them is my husband.
The other is Elise.
My stepsister Elise, with her long blonde hair spread across MY pillow. Beautiful, perfect Elise who joined Kane Enterprises six months ago as marketing head. Elise who started coming to our house for dinner every week. Elise who told me last month, "You're so lucky, Mira. Dominic is such an amazing man. I wish I could find someone like him."
She found him, all right.
Time does something weird. Everything slows down but speeds up at the same time. I see Dominic's clothes on the floor—the grey suit I picked up from the dry cleaner this morning. I see Elise's red dress thrown over the chair where I sit every night, reading alone while my husband works late.
Or what I thought was working late.
Dominic sees me first. His face goes white, then red. He jumps up, grabbing for the sheet. "Mira—wait—this isn't—"
"Isn't what?" My voice sounds strange. Calm. Dead. "Isn't you sleeping with my sister in our bed?"
"Stepsister," Elise corrects, sitting up slowly. She doesn't look embarrassed. She doesn't even try to cover herself. Instead, she smiles. Actually SMILES. "Let's be accurate."
Something inside me breaks. Not loudly. Not dramatically. Just a quiet snap, like a rubber band stretched too far.
"How long?" I ask. The words come out flat.
Dominic opens his mouth, but Elise answers first. "Six months. Since I joined the company." She tilts her head, studying me like I'm a bug under glass. "Oh, don't look so shocked, Mira. Did you really think a man like Dominic would be happy with... well, with you?"
Each word is a knife. But I don't cry. I can't. The shock is too big. "Mira, let me explain—" Dominic starts, pulling on his pants.
"Explain what? That you've been lying to me for half a year? That every time you said you were working late, you were with her?"
"The marriage has been dead for years," he says, and his voice is cold now. Defensive. "You know that."
"I didn't know that."
"Well, everyone else did." Elise stands up, wrapping the sheet around herself—MY sheet, from MY bed. "You're like a ghost in this house, Mira. Boring. Plain. Do you even own a dress that isn't three sizes too big? Have you looked in a mirror lately?"
I have. Every day. And every day, I see exactly what they want me to see—a quiet, dumpy mother who knows her place.
"Get out." My voice shakes now. "Both of you. Get out of my bedroom."
"Actually," a new voice says from behind me, "this is still the Kane family bedroom."
I spin around. Victoria Kane stands in the hallway, perfectly dressed as always. My mother-in-law's face shows no surprise. No shock. Just cold pleasure.
She's holding papers in her groomed hands.
"What is that?" I whisper.
Victoria's smile is sharp as glass. "A custody claim for Lily. We're taking your daughter, Mira. We've been building quite a case. An anxious mother. Neglectful. Unfit to raise a Kane child."
The floor tilts under my feet.
"You can't—"
"We can. We already have." She holds up the papers. "Signed by three doctors, two teachers, and a judge who's been friends with our family for twenty years."
I grab the doorframe to stay standing. "Lily is MY daughter."
"Lily is a KANE," Victoria snaps. "And you are nothing but a mistake my son made years ago. This family will not be destroyed by a bitter split. You'll leave quietly, take the settlement we offer, and maybe—MAYBE—we'll allow supervised visits. If you behave."
Behind me, Elise laughs. Actually laughs.
I look at Dominic. My husband. The father of my child. The man I loved for five years.
"Say something," I beg.
He won't meet my eyes. "It's for the best, Mira. For everyone. Especially Lily."
That's when I understand. They planned this. All of it. The story. The parenting papers. Everything.
They're taking my girl.
And I'm too weak, too stupid, too USELESS to stop them.
Victoria holds out a pen. "Sign here. Today. Or we make this very, very ugly."
I stare at the papers with my daughter's name on them. At my husband who wronged me. At my stepsister who's still smiling. At my mother-in-law who always hated me.
Something changes in that moment. Something basic shifts inside my chest where my heart used to be.
But I don't let it show on my face. Instead, I reach for the pen.
Victoria smirks. "Good girl. I knew you'd—"
"I want to read it first," I say quietly.
"You'll sign it NOW," Victoria orders.
I look up at her. Really look at her. And for the first time in five years, I don't look away first.
"I'll read every word. Then I'll decide what to do."
"You have no power here!" Victoria's face goes red.
But something in my voice makes her pause. Something new. Something dangerous.
I take the papers from her hand and walk toward the stairs, my back straight.
Behind me, Elise calls out softly, "Oh, Mira? You dropped your cupcakes."
I don't look back.