Thanksgiving proved to be more awkward than I had imagined, hastily thrown together by Silas in an attempt to get my family on board with whatever it was we were doing.

He had returned to his apartment now that I was out of the danger zone, but we saw so much of each other it was like he was still there.

In some ways, I saw him more often than I had when he was staying with me, but at night I found myself missing him. Or at least I missed knowing that he was only a few feet away, like his solid frame had provided some primal comfort somehow.

Naturally, I didn’t tell him that.

I had been back in the restaurant on a semi-full-time basis, mostly catching up on paperwork and inventory.

Actually, that was a lie; Silas had kept everything in meticulous order. It was so well done, in fact, that I thought I had done it. There was little for me to do.

Even Evelyn had nothing foul to say about the way Silas had handled things.

“He’s not as big an asshole as he was before,” she reported and I knew that was a compliment or at least the closest thing she could muster when it came to my ex.

Every day, I found myself bending a little bit more, letting him in and accepting that perhaps he had finally let go of the habit which had stolen the high school football star from me and replaced him with an egocentric train wreck.

The mere fact he had managed to pull everyone to the restaurant that third Thursday in November proved that the man I had fallen in love with as a teenager was still there.

Regan was in a sour mood but my mom was over the moon for the invitation.

“You are glowing!” she squealed, pinching my cheeks. “I can’t believe my baby girl is having a baby!”

“Mom, I was your baby girl, too,” Regan reminded her. “And I have babies.”

I snorted, rolling my eyes as I set the table.

She’s always got something to say, doesn’t she?

A part of me wondered if Regan was feeling jealous of the fact I was pregnant. After all, being the family woman had always been her thing up until now.

Maybe her problem wasn’t really Silas at all; it was the pregnancy.

Settlement was officially closed but I had employed some of our staff to help out, knowing that things might get to be too much for me.

I didn’t want to leave Silas holding the bag after all.

His brother, Asher had come but he was barely paying attention to what was going on, his face glued to his iPhone as if he’d rather be anywhere else, despite Silas’ attempts to converse with him.

Maybe it was the hormones but I felt a stab of pity wash over me as I realized that no one else in the family wanted anything to do with him.

He really fucked things up everywhere, didn’t he?

“So,” Mom asked, ushering me into seat as I placed the last of the cutlery onto the crisp linen. “How is everything going?”

“Good,” I answered instinctively but as I said it, I realized that I meant it. Things were going really well.

The medication had done its job and our little peanut was developing normally. My blood pressure was under control and the restaurant was thriving.

Silas had made small changes to the menu, the marketing and the hours and even though I had given him a mild blast of shit for doing them without my explicit authorization, they had benefitted the place and I was grateful.

Once upon a time, we had made a killer team, a power couple to be reckoned with. Maybe there was still hope for us… I mean from a restaurant standpoint.

Yeah. Right. That’s what I meant.

“I was thinking that you could come to Long Island for Christmas,” mom said. “You haven’t been home in God knows how long now.”

I glanced up at Silas impulsively.

“I – sure,” I answered quickly, a slow blush creeping up my neck as I realized what I had done. “That sounds good.”

Why the fuck was I looking at my ex-husband? If I wanted to go to my mom’s for Christmas, I could go to my mom’s for Christmas.

But I knew what I had done it.

It wasn’t just me anymore.

This Thanksgiving had changed everything.

Going forward, it was going to be the three of us—me, Silas, and the baby.

Any fight I had been putting up, any denials I had glued to my psyche—they were nothing more than jokes at this point.

Silas was home and I was okay with that.

“You look happy, sweetheart,” mom said, brushing a strand of hair out of my eyes. “I don’t think I’ve seen you glowing like this in years.”

Silas looked up from the bar where he was pouring wine into a decanter and our eyes met. He smiled softly and I felt a long-forgotten but familiar flutter in my chest.

The doors to the kitchen swung open and I glanced up in surprise as Luke and Lexi walked in.

“Lexi!” I called, rising. “Luke! I didn’t know you guys were coming.”

They paused, glancing at Silas who waved his hand dismissively.

“What she means is, welcome! Happy Thanksgiving!” he chuckled and I flushed, laughing.

“Of course I’m happy to see you,” I said, struggling to make my way around the table to embrace them.

Lexi handed me a bottle of wine apologetically.

“Sorry,” she whispered, air kissing my cheek as to not ruin her perfect plum lipstick. “I know you can’t drink this.”

“I’ll live vicariously through everyone else,” I replied, accepting it and passing it off to Silas before reaching up to hug Luke.

“Wow, you look great, darlin’!” Luke whistled. “How do you manage to stay so beautiful?”

“It’s a pregnancy, not a disease,” Lexi snapped and Luke paled.

“I didn’t mean – “

“Let me introduce you to everyone,” I interjected smoothly, waving my hands around the table.

“Alexis Kincaid, Lucas Knox, this is my mom, Cathy O’Dowd, my sister Regan Sinclair and her husband Scott. Those rug rats are my nieces, Amy and Ariel. And that statue over there is Silas’ brother Asher but I’m not sure he can even hear us because he may have officially fried his brain watching too much Porn Hub.”

Those words were enough to get Asher to look up and scowl at me. I offered him a frigid smile before turning back to Lexi and Luke.

“Have a seat anywhere, right Silas?”

“Yeah,” he agreed, wandering out around the other side of the bar, the decanter resting on the bar.

“Thanks for inviting us,” Lexi said graciously, taking a seat beside me. “The kitchen is making my mouth water. There is nothing like the smell of turkey to get the old flavor glands working.”

I didn’t want to ruin her festive mood by telling her the smell of poultry made me want to vomit.

“I know!” I agreed enthusiastically.

“Silas, where’s the TV?” Luke demanded suddenly looking about. “I have ten grand on the Cowboys.”

Everyone at the table looked up in unison, narrowing their eyes at Luke’s gaffe but he didn’t seem to notice.

“After the loss we took on Zenocore, we gotta do something to recoup our money, right man?” he chuckled.

“What’s Zenocore?” mom asked and I felt a familiar prickle on the back of my neck as the hairs began to rise.

“It’s a scam,” Asher volunteered without raising his eyes from his handheld, a slight smirk on his face. “Fraudulent Chinese corporation that cleared five hundred million from investors before disappearing completely.”

I looked up at Silas but suddenly he couldn’t look me in the eye and I felt sick to my stomach.

This time, it had nothing to do with the aroma of the turkey wafting up my nostrils.

“And you got defrauded by them?” I breathed, my face growing hot. I directed my question at Luke my eyes were still fixated on Silas.

No, he couldn’t have done something so stupid. Even if he wanted to. He doesn’t have any money.

The thought was supposed to make me breathe easier but I couldn’t quite catch air in regular intervals.

I knew Silas, knew the way he was acting. Somehow, he had been affected by the loss; I could see it.

“We all did,” Luke snickered, glancing at Silas. Lexi was staring daggers at him, trying to get him to stop talking and only then did Luke realize there seemed to be a problem.

“Hey, it wasn’t our fault!” he protested, glancing at me with confused eyes. “Our lawyers did their due diligence. These guys were professionals. They scammed some of the most influential people around. You can’t be angry over a hundred grand.”

My mind was spinning and my knees buckled slightly.

“A hundred thousand dollars?”

“Luke, why don’t you come and help me in the kitchen,” Lexi snapped, jumping up abruptly, grabbing her fiancé by the arm and steering him out of the dining room before he could give me one more shred of information.

“Where did you get a hundred grand, Silas?” I asked, my voice low and menacing.

“Mags, you have to believe me, this was a – “

“Where the fuck did you get the money?”

I could barely hear myself. My tone was almost a strangled whisper and I stared at him, still not understanding how he could do something so insurmountably idiotic.

Even if what Luke said was true, the only reason I could envision Silas “investing” in anything was because it was the next best thing to gambling.

And like gambling, he lost it.

But I was still dying to know where he got the money.

If he had a hundred thousand dollars floating around, he wasn’t nearly as hard up as he had pretended to be and that infuriated me.

Again with the lies. Maybe small lies, and he wasn’t gambling exactly, but we were on the same path.

“Some things never change,” Regan chirped.

“Shut up!” I snarled at my sister but I maintained my stare on my ex, waiting for whatever bullshit story he was trying to concoct in his mind.

“Maggie, please listen. Viktor – “

“Where the fuck did you get the money?”

And then it hit me in a stunning blow and I gasped aloud, my eyes nearly popping from my head.

“Oh my God…”

Of course he didn’t have a hundred-grand floating around.

But our baby did.

“Maggie – “

“You pissed away our daughter’s college fund?” I choked, not even caring that I had just revealed the gender of our child in front of everyone.

“Silas?” my mom asked, her face as pale as mine. “Say that isn’t true.”

He didn’t need to say anything.

I could read the humiliation on his face.

I had seen it a million times.

It wasn’t shame because he felt bad. It was embarrassment that he had been caught.

“Maggie, can we talk alone?” he begged me, his grey eyes wide. “Please, just hear me out.”

“Get out of my restaurant.”

“Maggie, you don’t – “

“I will have someone contact you when the baby’s born.”

My voice was flat, dead, as if any emotion I had ever felt had evaporated with this final slap to the face.

I didn’t feel anything at all except empty.

“Maggie, you don’t mean that,” he pleaded but I turned my head away and gestured at his brother.

“You can take him the hell out of here,” I told Asher. “Since you have no interest in being here either.”

Asher rose, clearing his throat uncomfortably.

“Come on, Silas,” he muttered to his brother. “She doesn’t want you here.”

“Good riddance – again,” Regan muttered, flopping back in her chair and folding her arms.

I stared at her for a long moment, swallowing the bile in my throat.

Then I spun and left the restaurant through the commercial hallway, hurrying to escape the illusion of whatever family I thought I had.

I should have called the restaurant “Settling.” Because that’s what I keep doing, I thought bitterly.

I didn’t need a cuff to know that my blood pressure was rising.