Everyone knew my husband loved me more than life itself.

The only regret between us was that after three years of marriage, we still didn't have a child of our own.

The day I found out I was pregnant, I wept with joy. I couldn't wait to get home and share the news with him.

But the man who had loved me for seven years didn't react the way I'd imagined. Not even close.

He gripped the ultrasound printout, his face darkening, and let out a cold, derisive laugh.

"You cheat on me and then come home grinning to share the good news? What am I supposed to do, throw you a parade?"

"I must've treated you too well all these years. Made you think you could do whatever you wanted. And now you actually have the nerve to make me raise some other man's bastard?"

I didn't understand. I couldn't understand why he was reacting this way. I searched his face desperately for an answer.

Then he slammed a medical report down in front of me.

"I have azoospermia!"

"Go ahead. Tell me. Where did this bastard come from?"

——

I stared at the report on the coffee table, the room tilting around me.

Kieran Sanchez's face was a mask of contempt, his eyes sharp with something cruel.

"Say it. Say it right now. Tell me the baby in your belly is mine."

"Harper Whitfield, I have to hand it to you. That innocent little act of yours, so convincing. Meanwhile you've been doing filthy things behind my back. I really did underestimate you."

I snatched the report off the table. The words were right there, printed in black and white.

Azoospermia.

I shook my head, unable to accept what I was reading.

"No... that's impossible! You were my first. I've never been with another man."

"How could this baby not be yours!"

Kieran shot to his feet and ripped the report from my hands.

"Even now, you're still lying! Harper, haven't I been good to you all these years? Money, love, devotion. What have I ever denied you?"

"And what did I get in return? You sleeping around behind my back and trying to pass off someone else's kid as mine!"

His eyes were bloodshot, every muscle in his jaw straining against his fury.

I lunged forward and grabbed his hand, the words tumbling out of me.

"Kieran, believe me, please believe me. This baby is yours."

"There has to be something wrong with the test. You can't have azoospermia. We'll go to another hospital. We'll get retested—"

He wrenched his hand free.

He used every ounce of his strength. I wasn't braced for it. My feet left the ground and I hit the floor hard.

Kieran crouched down, seized my chin in a vise grip, and spoke in a voice so cold it barely sounded human.

"Harper, why are you still fighting this?"

"That test was done at the biggest hospital in Ridgeport. The deputy director performed it personally. Do you really think there's been a mistake?"

"Now tell me. On your way home with that ultrasound, what were you thinking?"

I looked up at him and saw tears streaming down his face, heavy and uncontrolled.

He didn't seem to notice. He just kept talking.

"Were you thinking you'd finally have a child of your own, even if it wasn't mine?"

"Or were you figuring out how to deceive me? How to slip this past me without my ever knowing?"

"Or maybe you were celebrating with your lover. The two of you finally have proof of your love!"

His fingers tightened on my chin, grinding into bone. A cry of pain tore from my throat.

When he heard it, a smile flickered across his face.

"Does that hurt? That pain is nothing. Not even a fraction of what I feel right now." His voice cracked. "I knew you wanted children. I told you we could adopt."

"So why? Why did you have to hurt me like this?"

Kieran had always held me like something precious. He'd never once looked at me with an expression this terrifying.

Tears streamed down my face as I tried to pull him back to reason.

"Kieran, you know me. I'm home all day, every day. I barely even leave the house."

"You know my entire social circle. My whole life revolves around you and no one else. How could there possibly be another man?"

Something in his expression wavered. He seemed to be turning it over in his mind.

Then a woman's voice cut in from the doorway.

"Is that so?"

"Then who's this walking into a hotel with a man?"

Kieran and I both looked up at the same time.

It was Paula James, his childhood friend.

She hurled a stack of photographs at my feet, her voice sharp and accusing.

"I was at that hotel two days ago for a business meeting, and I saw you going in with some man. I didn't know how to tell Kieran. I agonized over it for two days before finally coming here today."

"And now it turns out you're pregnant?"

Kieran let go of me. One by one, he picked the photos up off the floor.

His face darkened with every image. The hand gripping the photographs shook harder and harder.

A moment later, he flung the entire stack into my face.

"This is what you call innocent? Tell me who this man is!"

"You've really outdone yourself, Harper!"

His roar nearly shattered my eardrums. I scrambled to grab the scattered photos from the floor.

It was me. It was undeniably me, with another man, and the photos looked damning.

In one, he was handing me a gift. In another, he was shielding me from an oncoming car as we entered a hotel. In yet another, we were sitting in a restaurant and he was wiping the corner of my mouth.

I looked up at Kieran, whose face had gone ashen.

"Kieran, that's my brother. My actual brother. He just got back to the country two days ago!"

"I was going to bring you to meet him, but you've been so busy with work these past few days. I never got the chance to tell you."

Before Kieran could respond, Paula jumped in.

"Oh, please. You say he's your brother and we're just supposed to believe that? Everyone knows your family's been overseas for years. Why would your brother suddenly show up out of nowhere?"

"And even if Kieran was busy, are you telling me you couldn't even make a phone call?"

I froze. When I'd found out my brother was coming back on short notice, I had tried to call Kieran.

I'd called several times, and every single one was declined. I was afraid I'd be late to meet my brother, so I went alone.

I sank to the floor and looked up at Kieran.

"I did call you. I called you multiple times. You declined every one."

"It's true, Kieran. Everything I'm saying is true. There have to be call records on your phone. Just look."

The more I spoke, the deeper the crease between his brows grew.

He pulled out his phone and threw it down in front of me.

"See for yourself! Are there any call records? Harper, you're still making excuses even now!"

"We've been together seven years. How did I never see what a disgusting woman you really are?"

My hands wouldn't stop shaking as I scrolled frantically through the call log.

Nothing. Nothing. There was nothing there.

Seeing my reaction, Paula let out a cold scoff.

"Harper, you really don't know how good you've had it. Everyone in Ridgeport knows Kieran treats you like you hung the moon. You ask for the stars and he gives you the whole sky."

"And what do you do? You betray him like this, and you still have the nerve to sit here making excuses."

I drew a long, steadying breath and fixed my gaze on Kieran.

"Kieran, I'm going to say this one last time. I have never done anything to betray you. And this baby is yours."

"The man in those photos is my brother. I'm only going to ask you once—do you believe me or not?"

There were plenty of ways to prove it. A paternity test on the baby. Getting in touch with my brother. If anyone actually wanted the truth, it could be laid bare in minutes.

Kieran pressed his lips into a thin line and said nothing. Paula snatched the phone from my hand.

"Kieran has azoospermia—he can't possibly have children! And you're claiming that man is your brother? Kieran doesn't even know what your brother looks like!"

"Harper, if you're going to lie, at least make it make sense!"

When Kieran and I got married, the Whitfield Group had been in the middle of aggressive overseas expansion. My brother couldn't get away. He hadn't attended the wedding. In all the years since, Dominic had been holding up the entire company on his own. He and I had barely seen each other, let alone Kieran.

But none of that mattered to me as much as one question: Why did Paula know about Kieran's azoospermia?

I lifted my head and stared straight at Kieran.

"Why does she know about your diagnosis?"

"Why have you never told me?"

Kieran glanced at me, his face saturated with disgust.

"Tell you? And then what?"

"What would you have done? Gotten rid of the baby behind my back so you could keep cheating on me?"

Things had spiraled too far. Kieran was blinded by rage. Nothing I said now would get through to him.

I took a deep breath, stood, and moved toward the door.

Kieran seized my wrist.

"What—run out of excuses so now you're running? Going to find your lover to come rescue you?" His grip tightened. "This baby is getting aborted. My wife is not carrying another man's child."

"As for this marriage, we'll talk about that after you get rid of it."

The moment those words left his mouth, Paula cut in.

"What do you mean talk about it? You're not actually thinking of staying married to her, are you? Kieran, how can you be this soft on her?" Her voice pitched higher. "She's already pregnant! God knows how many filthy things she's done with that man—"

Kieran whipped around and snarled at her.

"This is between us. It has nothing to do with you."

Paula pressed her lips together. She looked like she wanted to say more, but the fury on his face shut her mouth.

And all I could hear, echoing through my skull, was what Kieran had just said.

He wanted to kill our baby.

I wrenched my wrist free and stumbled two steps back.

"Kieran, this is my child! We've been married three years before I finally got pregnant—what gives you the right to take that away?"

"As long as I'm alive, no one is going to hurt this baby!"

Something in him snapped. The rage he'd been barely holding back erupted, and his open palm cracked across my face.

I didn't see it coming. The force sent me to the floor, and for a moment I couldn't get up.

Kieran grabbed the front of my collar and hauled me toward him. When he spoke, his voice was cold enough to freeze blood.

"Harper, I'm not negotiating with you. You are my wife, and you're carrying some bastard's child."

"You should be grateful that murder is illegal. Because right now, I want nothing more than to kill you."

I didn't know if it was the fall or the panic, but a sharp, cramping pain twisted through my lower abdomen.

Kieran had lost all reason. Going head-to-head with him now would only make things worse.

I wrapped my fingers around his hand, trying to loosen his grip on my collar.

"Kieran, I'm begging you. Don't hurt this baby."

"Please. Please. Please."

He froze. His eyes went wide, as if he couldn't believe what he'd just heard.