Elena’s POV

"All I had to do was slip in some drugs to her meal to induce early labour," Adrian said, almost amused. "Then I would tell her that there were complications. She would cry, I would comfort her, and life would go on."

My mind flashed back to each miscarriage. The pain. The blood. The hospital rooms.

After each loss, Celeste would show up at the hospital with homemade chicken soup. “I made this especially for you,” she would say, her eyes full of fake tears. “I know how much you’re hurting. I’m here for you, sis.”

She would stay the night, sleeping in the chair beside my bed, holding my hand whenever I woke up crying.

Adrian would be there too, stroking my hair, whispering, “We’ll try again. We’ll have our baby. I promise.”

I had believed them both.

My hands shook violently. I bit down harder on my palm to keep from screaming.

They had poisoned me four times.

"Are you really going to divorce her when my womb is cured?" Celeste asked, her voice dripping with false concern.

"Of course," Adrian said casually. "Once the doctor confirms the treatments worked, I don't need to keep her around anymore."

He paused, and I heard the smirk in his tone. "Then you and I can finally be together publicly."

Celeste's voice was breathy. "What about my family? What will they say?"

Adrian laughed coldly. "The family that favours you over their own daughter? Please. They'll side with us. Her mother already told me she thinks Elena is an embarrassment."

The words cut through me like knives, because it was the truth.

"She already signed her five percent company shares over to me years ago without realizing it," Adrian continued. "She'll walk away with nothing. She has no friends, no support system. After the divorce, she'll have nothing and no one. She'll probably end up back in some countryside hovel where she belongs."

Celeste furrowed her eyebrows. “How do you plan on doing that?”

Adrian chuckled coldly. "Next week, we'll throw a huge party to announce your pregnancy to everyone important, my business partners, your family, and so much more.”

He continued. "Then I'll have something slipped into her champagne. Then halfway through the party, Marcus will find her in one of the upstairs rooms in a compromising position with some strange men."

Celeste gasped. "You're going to frame her?"

"She'll be too drugged to know what's happening. Marcus will make sure there are photos. By the end of the party, everyone will believe Elena Moretti cheated on her devoted husband at a party celebrating her sister's pregnancy."

"That's brilliant," Celeste breathed. "Everyone will think she's the villain."

"Exactly. The divorce will be clean, and she'll get nothing." Adrian's voice dripped with satisfaction.

My heart pounded so hard I thought it would burst through my chest.

He was going to drug me, frame me, and take everything.

Their moans filled the silence again. I backed away from the car slowly, careful not to make a sound. My hand was bleeding where I had bitten it, but I didn't feel it.

All I could feel was devastation, rage and heartbreak.

When I was far enough away, I ran.

I climbed into my car, and my body shook so violently I could barely hold the wheel. I sat there in the darkness, tears streaming down my face, my palm pressed protectively over my stomach.

Four babies murdered. Used as experiments to cure my sister's infertility so she could carry my husband's child.

And now he was going to destroy my reputation and take everything I had left.

I barely remembered driving home. My hands shook so violently on the steering wheel that I almost crashed twice.

I drove home in a daze, their conversation replaying endlessly in my head.

‘She’s an idiot. She has nothing and no one. She’ll end up back in some countryside hovel where she belongs.’

I walked inside the house absentmindedly, then I headed straight to Adrian’s home office.

I needed proof. Evidence. Something to make sense of what I had heard.

My hands shook as I searched through his files, his laptop, his locked drawers. I found the small brass key hidden beneath the drawer lining and opened the filing cabinet.

Medical records with my name. Dates that matched every pregnancy. Procedures I never consented to. Bank statements showing payments to a private research facility.

I kept searching, my hands moving faster.

Finally, I found the transfer record. The company shares Adrian had promised me as a wedding gift—I had signed them all back to him without realizing it.

I stared at the document until the words blurred.

"She'll walk away with nothing."

A bitter laugh escaped me. Adrian was so ignorant of the truth.

I couldn't be left with nothing, because what Adrian didn't know was that he hadn't built Moretti Enterprises from nothing.

I had.

Five years ago, when his company nearly went bankrupt, an anonymous investor saved it. The investor paid all the debts, funded the expansions, and covered the losses.

That investor was me.

I was the anonymous silent shareholder with fifty percent ownership of his company. I had created the account under my maiden name, Elena Rossi, using an offshore account that Adrian never knew existed.

Before I married Adrian, Clara had left me her entire life savings. It was money she had carefully saved from her seamstress work over decades, along with inheritance from her parents.

It was about a million thousand dollars, but I was careful with it. I invested it wisely, made smart decisions, and over the years, it grew. By the time Adrian's company was failing, I poured $147 million into his failing company.

So his empire was built on my money.

And he called me an idiot.

Another laugh escaped me.

I gathered every document, every file, every piece of evidence, and made copies, hiding them where he would never think to look.

Then I sank to the cold floor of his office and cried until my body had nothing left to give.

When there were no tears left, I just sat there, feeling empty. I had no idea where to start.

Then I remembered something Adrian had said months ago.

"Stay away from Ivan Romano. He's my biggest competitor. He is ruthless and dangerous. He will do anything to destroy me."

Ivan Romano. Adrian's biggest rival and worst enemy.

He was the only one who could help me now.

I picked up my phone with trembling fingers and began searching. It took twenty minutes to find Ivan's private number buried deep in Adrian's files.

I stared at it for a long time.

Once I made this call, there would be no going back.

But when I thought of my four babies, of Celeste's mocking laughter, of Adrian's cruelty, I pressed Call.

The phone rang twice before a deep, smooth voice answered. "Who is this?"

My throat tightened, but I forced the words out. "My name is Elena Moretti. I'm Adrian Moretti's wife."

A pause. "Moretti's wife. What do you want?"

Tears blurred my vision. "I need your help."

"Why would Adrian Moretti's wife be calling me? I am your husband's rival." His tone sharpened.

"Because I want him destroyed," I whispered. "And I think you're the only man who hates him as much as I do."

Silence stretched.

Then Ivan laughed. It was a dark, low sound that sent a shiver through me.

"Mrs. Moretti," he said slowly, "you have my complete attention."

Elena’s POV

"Tell me everything." Ivan's voice was sharp and cold. “Tell me why Adrian Moretti's devoted wife wants her loving husband destroyed."

I explained everything from the tracking app, to finding Adrian with Celeste, the conversation I had overheard concerning the experiments on my babies, and his plan to divorce me.

By the time I finished, tears were running down my cheeks again.

Ivan was silent for a long moment.

"Do you have proof?" he finally asked.

"Yes." My voice was stronger now. "Medical records, bank statements, transfer documents. Everything."

"And you have fifty percent shares in the company?" Ivan asked.

"He doesn't know about them. Nobody does." I replied. "I also have evidence of everything illegal he had done in his company. But I can't use it. He has connections, lawyers, and my family—"

"Your family supports him?"

The question was like a knife to my chest, because the answer was a bitter truth.

My mother had never wanted me back.

I was ten when the DNA test results came back. Celeste and I had been switched at birth because of a hospital error.

When they came for me, I had been living in a small countryside village with a seamstress who had raised me. We were poor, but I’d been happy.

They took me to their mansion in the city, but my mother couldn't let Celeste go. She had raised Celeste, and loved her.

So she kept both of us.

But there was never any question who she preferred.

“Elena, fix your posture. You look like a peasant.”

“Elena, speak properly. Your accent is embarrassing.”

“Elena, why can't you be more like Celeste?”

Nothing I did was ever good enough. I took etiquette classes but I was too clumsy. I studied languages but my pronunciation was wrong.

Celeste was perfect and graceful, and my mother made sure I knew I didn't measure up.

By eighteen, I had learned to stay quiet, to make myself small, and to not expect love.

That's when I met Adrian. He was charming, successful, and he looked at me like I mattered.

“You're different from other girls,” he had said.

I fell in love with him fast and hard.

When he proposed after six months, I said yes immediately.

My mother had pulled me aside the night before the wedding. “Adrian Moretti is using you. But you're too stupid to see it.”

I hadn't listened.

I had married him, spent eight years trying to be the perfect wife.

And the whole time, Celeste had been there, sleeping with my husband behind my back, and I had never suspected a thing.

My chest ached as I blinked hard, forcing myself back to the present.

"My family loves my sister. They'll most likely side with him when he divorces me. I can't trust on their support."

Ivan was silent for a moment. "So you want revenge."

"I want justice," I corrected, my voice breaking. "He murdered my babies. He used them to cure my adopted sister's womb so she could carry his child. He made me sign away everything I had, and now he's going to throw me away like garbage."

"And why did you come to me?" Ivan asked curiously.

"Because you hate him." I replied desperately. "Adrian told me to stay away from you. He said you would do anything to destroy him."

He chuckled coldly. "What do you want from me, Elena?"

I clenched my fists tightly. "I want to take everything from him, the way he took everything from me. His company, his reputation, his freedom. I want him to lose it all. I have fifty percent of his company. You're his biggest competitor. Together, we can ruin him."

Ivan was quiet, then finally he spoke. "If I help you, it won't be charity. I want something in return."

My stomach clenched at the tone of his voice. "What do you want in return?"

"Marry me."

"Marry you?" I repeated incredulously, my voice barely above a whisper.

"Yes," Ivan said simply. "If I'm going to help you destroy Adrian Moretti, I want something permanent in return. Not money. Not shares. You."

"But—"

He interrupted. "Think about my offer, Mrs. Moretti. You have my number."

The call was disconnected.

I stared at my phone, my mind spinning. Marry Ivan Romano? Adrian's biggest enemy?

I shook my head. No. I didn't need him. I had the evidence. I had the shares. I could handle this myself.

I would make sure Adrian lost everything, the same way he'd taken everything from me.

Elena’s POV

I didn't waste any time. I went straight to the bedroom and began packing my things. I didn’t know what to do, but I was very certain that I couldn’t stay here anymore.

I moved mindlessly, pulling clothes from hangers, emptying drawers as I arranged them all in my bags.

"Elena?"

I froze.

Adrian's voice came from the doorway. "What's going on? What are you doing?"

I turned slowly to face him.

His expression changed instantly when he saw my face. My eyes were red and swollen from crying, and my cheeks stained with tears.

"What's wrong?" Panic flashed in his eyes as he stepped closer. "Are you okay? What happened?"

The concern in his voice made my stomach turn. He was so good at pretending. He sounded so convincing.

I shook my head. “Nothing.” I croaked.

He stepped closer even more, looking worried. “Come on, it can’t be nothing, you’ve been crying.”

I knew Adrian wouldn’t drop it anytime soon, so I lied,

"It's Clara," I whispered, my voice breaking.

He furrowed his brows. “Your foster mother? The one who’s been in a coma since the car accident?

I nodded. "The hospital called. She's getting worse. They said... they said she might not make it."

For a split second, I saw relief flash in his eyes.

Then it was gone, replaced by fake sympathy.

"Oh, Elena." He stepped forward, pulling me into his arms. "I'm sorry. I know she means a lot to you."

My skin crawled at his touch. The hands that had murdered my babies, were now holding me, and comforting me.

I wanted to scream. I wanted to claw his eyes out.

But I forced myself to stay still, to let him hold me.

"Adrian?" Celeste's voice called from the doorway.

Adrian's body tensed up. He pulled away immediately and rushed to Celeste's side.

"Are you okay?" he asked her with genuine concern, not the fake concern he had just given me.

Celeste nodded, smiling. "Yes, I just wanted to know if you've told Elena yet."

Adrian turned to me, and suddenly his entire demeanor changed. His voice was vibrating with excitement.

“Elena, Celeste has good news.”

I lifted an eyebrow. “Good news?”

He nodded. “Yes. And I would be throwing a party next week for a big celebration of the good news. I'm inviting all my friends, business partners, investors—everyone important."

I knew what the good news was. The pregnancy. My husband's baby growing inside my sister. And I knew the plans he had for me at that party.

I stared at him. "All these for the ‘good news’?"

"Yes." Celeste smiled sweetly. "Adrian wanted to do something special for me, as we’re all family."

He was throwing a party to celebrate the baby he had created using my murdered children.

"There will be a family dinner tonight first," Adrian continued. "Just us and your parents. But the big party is next week. I've already hired caterers, sent out invitations—”

"I'm not interested," I said flatly.

Celeste's smile faltered. "But Elena—"

"I said I'm not interested."

Celeste’s face dropped, and her eyes watered.

"Elena!" Adrian snapped, his expression darkening. "Your mother and father will be there. They're expecting you."

“I can’t bring myself to celebrate while Clara is dying," I said quietly, the lie rolling off my tongue easily.

"She's old," Adrian said dismissively. "She's lived her life. But this baby—" He placed his hand on Celeste's stomach. "This is new life. Something to be happy about."

My hands clenched into fists at his cruel words. Clara had always treated him like her son, even though I wasn’t her biological daughter. I couldn’t believe that he would be so flippant about her life.

"Don't be selfish," he continued. "Celeste is trying to include you in something important—"

"I said no."

Celeste's eyes filled with tears. "I just wanted us all to be together as a family. But if you don't want to be there..." Her voice broke. "If you hate me that much..."

"I'm just worried about Clara." I replied, turning away from her to continue packing the clothes.

"She wasn't your real mother," Celeste said softly. "She was just—"

"Don't." My voice was cold. "Don't you dare finish that sentence."

Celeste flinched, fresh tears spilling down her cheeks. She turned to Adrian. "See? She hates me. I try so hard to be a good sister, but she—"

"Enough." Adrian's voice was sharp. He turned to me, his eyes hard. "You're coming to dinner tonight. And you're coming to the party next week. That's final."

"No, I'm not."

"Yes, you are." He stepped closer, his voice dropping to a dangerous tone. "You're my wife. You'll attend both events, you'll smile, and you'll support your sister. Do you understand?"

I stared at him. The man that I had loved for eight years. The man who had murdered our children.

"Fine," I said quietly. "I'll come."

Satisfaction flashed across his face. "Good. Dinner starts at seven."

He turned and guided Celeste out of the room, whispering something in her ear that made her laugh.

The door closed behind them.

I stood there for a long moment, staring at the closed door with a glare on my face.

Adrian had no idea of the storm that was coming for him.