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For a moment, we stand staring at each other. Then reality comes crashing back in, and I know I need to shut this down. I don’t care how kind or how good-looking he is. There’s no way I’d even consider going there with him.

I clear my throat and move around him, heading for the fridge to check if Mabel fed Jonah a bottle while I was gone. With all the drama I faced when I got here, I never asked.

During the day, I feed him every few hours, but over the last few weeks, he’s started sleeping for longer stretches at night. Sometimes six to eight hours, if I’m lucky.

I use the tips of my fingers to open the door and somehow manage to grip the bottle between my stupid, useless hands and place it on the countertop. Filling the kettle, however, is another story.

“Let me do that,” Nolan offers, appearing beside me and taking the kettle from my grasp. Keeping my distance from him in this tiny van is proving impossible. “What do you need me to do?”

“I need hot water to warm Jonah’s bottle.”

I step back, leaning against the counter as I watch him take over. He moves around my kitchen with an effortless confidence, as if he belongs here, even though his expensive clothes suggest otherwise.

“You bottle feed?” he asks.

His question makes me frown. “No, but I expressed some milk before I left for work.”

His gaze drops briefly to my chest before he clears his throat and looks away. “I’m going to tell the Uber driver to leave.”

“Why?” I ask.

“Because you’re going to need help feeding and changing your son, Dais.”

I want to argue and tell him I can handle this on my own, but the truth is, I can’t. And that thought has me fighting back tears again.

The tears I’d been holding back earlier now blur my vision as I sit beside Nolan and watch him feed my son. Jonah looks so small in his arms, and he handles him with a gentleness I never expected. He admitted it’s something he’s never done before, but he’s a natural.

Seeing a man I barely know show more care for my baby than his own father ever did breaks my heart.

Jason and I had always talked about starting a family after marriage, but life had other plans. When I found out I was unexpectedly pregnant, he struggled with the news, insisting it was too soon and that he wasn’t ready to become a father. But termination wasn’t an option for me.

Maybe that’s where things between us started to unravel. In some ways, he eventually accepted that we were having a child, but the resentment never fully disappeared. I spent months convincing myself things would get better once Jonah arrived, that becoming a father would change him. That our careers and parenthood could work hand in hand.

It didn’t.

When I went into labour, Jason was on a business trip, scouting a new location for what would become our sixth restaurant. He promised he’d be back in time, but he wasn’t. I went through it all on my own.

He showed up at the hospital late the following day and held our son for the first time, but it was also the last. For the next ten weeks, I tried to keep our family together. I tried to juggle being a first-time mother and working. I convinced myself the man I fell in love with was still there beneath the anger and distance.

But one day, by pure chance, I discovered the business trip had been a lie. He’d actually been with another woman he’d met on Tinder, and something inside me broke. The worst part is, she turned out to be one of many.

For months, he’d been cheating on me in what I can only surmise was payback for keeping our child.

When I confronted him, I expected guilt, or at the very least, an apology. Instead, he told me I was overreacting and accused me of trapping him, claiming I’d only kept our son because I wanted his money. The irony would have been laughable if it hadn’t hurt so much.

He wouldn’t even have that money if it weren’t for me.

Yes, he already had the first restaurant when we met, but despite his hard work and incredible vision, it wasn’t doing well. The location was terrible, and he had virtually no social media presence.

I threw myself into the business alongside him. I built our online following from the ground up, managed our marketing, organised promotions and local events, and made sure people knew who we were. Little by little, the restaurant began to thrive.

Once we could finally afford it, we opened a second restaurant in a much better location. It was an instant success, and over the next five years, that success snowballed. We opened one restaurant after another until we’d built a small chain together.

Together.

Every late night, every risk, and every sacrifice. I was there for all of it. I wasn’t just his partner at home; I was his partner in business. I built our brand, oversaw our social media, helped hire managers, developed systems, brainstormed new dishes, and knew every part of the business because I’d helped build it from the ground up.

I helped him become a multi-millionaire.