PROLOGUE

MAYA

In stunned disbelief, I stared at the woman in the CNO's office. The disbelief was echoed on her face. Her gaze wandered to my children, Jackson and Emy, both who were too young to understand what was happening. Jackson was two, nearly three, and Emy wasn't even a month old.

Not so the two children she had with her, both girls, one that looked to be around ten and another about eight. And there was no denying that they were my husband's or the man I'd thought was my husband's children. They looked exactly like my two, from their dark curly hair to their bright blue eyes. Their mother looked nothing like me. She was tall, slim, blonde, and gorgeous with deep dark brown eyes.

Very different from my average five foot six, long dark hair, blue eyes, and size sixteen body with bum and boobs for days. It was like he'd found the complete opposite of her in me. The only thing we seemed to have in common was our age.

Shutting my eyes, I took a deep breath, wondering if this nightmare was ever going to end.

I was still reeling from the news that the man I'd thought of as my husband, having exchanged vows and everything, was, in fact, a bigamist. It seems he was already married and had been for a good ten years.

It made me wonder if the army hadn't been updating their records from paper to electronic, if both of us would have continued to be blissfully unaware. Eventually, I guess one of us would have figured it out, but with him being based out of the country, it was easier for him to get away with it.

I'd never felt so foolish or ashamed in my life. Although why I was feeling ashamed was anyone's guess. Maybe ashamed wasn't the correct term. I didn't know what to think, my head was spinning from everything I'd found out. The Casualty Notifying Officer who was handling our case looked just as uncomfortable as I felt.

Knowing that there was nothing that I could say to make anything better, I stood up, hitching Emy higher in my arms, taking Jackson by the hand.

"I'm sorry," I say to the woman. It wasn't her fault, and she was as shocked as me. With a nod at the CNO, I walk out the door with my children, wondering what the hell I was going to do now.

I'd been a stay-at-home mother and had relied on living off my husband's earnings. At least now I knew why our bank account always seemed so much lighter than those around us.

I felt like a fool. Why had I never questioned it? I'd manage. I always did. I was a survivor. I'd survived living in foster care from the day I was born until I aged out. I'd survive this too.

Gripping Jackson's hand a little tighter and hitching Emy a little higher in my arm, regretting my decision not to bring the pushchair. But it was a pain to get on and off the bus. I held my head high as I walked towards the bus stop to wait for the next one to arrive and to take us home. Well, what was home for now. I imagined that the military would want their house back pretty sharpish.

First thing tomorrow I'd go and see about some advice and take it from there.

Little did I know how hard the next year would be and the number of times I'd want to give up. My children were what kept me going, and then, just when I thought everything was settling down, I'd had to move our little family miles away from where I'd grown up to a strange place into one of the scariest council estates I'd ever seen as it was the only way we could get into a property that wasn't a bed-and-breakfast.

It had been a tough couple of years, but then an angel in the form of a teenage boy found us and changed our lives. I'd be forever grateful to Ben Crow. I'd not known that the boy who often delivered food parcels to those that needed a little extra help was the adopted son of one of the men who'd served with my ex.

They'd been shocked and horrified when I'd told them what had happened, and then they'd rallied around and now my little family and I lived safe and secure in a small two-bedroom cottage on their family property. The Crow MC had also found me a job with an Irish family in the town next to them.

By the summer of 2004, things were looking much better for me and my littles. Emy and Jackson were settled into the nursery that the Crows had built on the property next door.

What I'd learned in the last year was that it was okay to accept help when it was offered and that I'd do anything to keep my children safe, well fed, and happy.