Chapter 1

In the fifth year of my marriage, I discovered the truth: My husband—my childhood sweetheart—cheated on me with my younger half sister, the daughter my father had with his mistress.

I made an ugly scene. I forced that bitch to terminate her pregnancy, and he drove my mother to throw herself off a rooftop.

There was one funeral, and three lives were lost. The baby I was carrying didn’t survive either.

After three years of ugly, scorched-earth warfare, I had nothing left. Finally, with no fight left in me and covered in scars, I married my longtime rival, the man who had been waiting for me all along.

After we married, he made me the center of his world and put his entire multibillion-dollar fortune in my name. During a car accident, he threw himself over me to protect me and the baby I was carrying, only to end up in the ICU himself.

I believed Nolan Blackwood was the man I could finally build a life with.

Then I walked into his company one day and found my ex-husband there.

“Uncle Nolan, you’ve put up with being married to that lunatic Audrey all these years, all for Lila’s sake.”

“You won her trust with a sham courthouse marriage and fabricated trust documents, all so she’d stop going after Lila.”

“Audrey doesn’t even know that when you protected her during that crash, you weren’t protecting her at all. You were protecting Lila’s baby inside her.”

“She ruined Lila’s chances of ever having children. Now she’s using her own body to give Lila one. That’s only fair.”

Nolan’s lips curled without warmth.

“Enough. None of that matters as long as Lila remembers what I did for her.”

“She saved my life back then. I owed her.”

The prenatal report in my hand said my body was rejecting the fetus. It slipped from my fingers and hit the floor as I laughed through my tears.

Three years ago, I had died once already.

Now I was dying a second time.

…

The pain swallowed me inch by inch.

My eight-month belly was stretched painfully taut, the strain fraying my nerves and tearing at what remained of my sanity.

I didn’t know how long it had been before the door creaked open.

Nolan stepped out, then froze the second he saw me.

“Audrey? What are you doing here?”

I looked up at the man I had once believed was my salvation. Tears burned behind my eyes.

I wanted to scream until my throat gave out, but when I finally spoke, all that came out was hurt.

“Nolan Blackwood, if I hadn’t been here, how long were you planning to keep this from me?”

Nolan drew a slow breath, crouched in front of me, and slipped off his suit jacket. He wrapped it around my waist.

“Audrey, please don’t do this here. Come home with me. I’ll explain everything.”

Only then did I notice that cold air from the vent was blowing directly at my stomach.

He had always noticed things like that.

I used to think that kind of care meant he loved me beyond measure. Now I didn’t dare believe in any of it, afraid that all my trust had been misplaced.

Trembling, I pushed his hand away.

“We don’t need to go home. You can explain everything right here.”

“Tell me what the sham courthouse marriage, the fabricated trust documents, and the fact that I’m carrying Lila’s baby are supposed to mean.”

I wasn’t speaking loudly, but people still turned to stare. Their attention made the humiliation unbearable, yet I didn’t move.

Even knowing it had all been a lie, I needed to hear him admit it himself.

Instead, the first thing I heard was a scoff.

“Audrey, when did you get this pathetic? The truth is right in front of you, and you still won’t face it?”

My ex-husband, Bryce Harrington, stepped out.

“Uncle Nolan had a vasectomy the same night he staged that sham courthouse marriage with you. After spending years going through countless rounds of IVF, don’t you feel ridiculous?”

God, I did.

For three years, Nolan had taken such good care of me that I had nearly lost every sharp edge I once had. Even now, I kept lying to myself and clinging to the last shred of hope.

Then those last scraps of delusion shattered.

“I’m ending this pregnancy.”

I closed my eyes and forced the words out one by one, holding on to the last of my dignity.

Before I could turn away, Nolan’s expression changed. He lunged forward and grabbed my wrist.

“Audrey, are you out of your mind? You’re eight months pregnant. Trying to end the pregnancy now could kill you!”

He sounded every bit like the devoted second husband who had spent years taking care of me.

A laugh escaped me through my tears.

“Nolan Blackwood, are you worried about me, or Lila’s baby inside me?”

“Of course I’m worried about you!”

The answer came without hesitation.

“It’s just a mass of tissue. How could it ever compare to you? Audrey, you need to understand. You’re the only person in this world I treasure.”

When everyone else in the world had betrayed me, Nolan had been the only one standing behind me.

I felt myself wavering.

Then a bright, playful voice rang out behind us.

“Sorry, Uncle Nolan. I overslept and I’m just a tiny bit late. I didn’t mess up your schedule, did I?”

I knew that voice.

I spun around and found myself staring at the woman I hated more than anyone alive.