### Chapter 5

When I opened my eyes again, I was back at the hotel. I had no idea when or how I'd been brought here.

Sunlight sliced through the window. I stared at the ceiling for a long time before the memories pieced themselves together. The basement. The darkness. Passing out. They'd tossed me in there like a broken piece of furniture they no longer had use for.

Dustin's messages sat waiting on my phone.

"Letting it slide this time. Alice's condition is unstable. You'd better not provoke her again, or I'll make sure you learn your lesson."

"I'm taking her abroad for treatment. I won't be able to go to your prenatal appointments."

I'd barely finished reading when my phone buzzed again—the notification tone I'd set for priority alerts. Alice had updated her social media.

In the photo, a man's familiar back filled the frame. A woman rested her head on his shoulder, the two of them nestled together against a backdrop of glaciers and penguins in Antarctica.

The caption was only a few words: "With you, to the ends of the earth."

I stared at that photo for a very, very long time.

When we got married, I'd made a list of all the places I wanted to visit with Dustin. Every time I brought it up, he'd say the same thing: "Sure, Cecily. Once I close this deal, we'll go."

"Cecily, just let me get through this busy stretch, and we'll go."

"Once the project launches, I promise I'll take you."

"Once..."

So I waited. And waited. I waited past our wedding anniversary. I waited through a pregnancy and a miscarriage. I waited as time slipped through my fingers like water and love dissolved like smoke, and still, not once did we take that trip for two.

The first place on my list had been Antarctica. To see the penguins.

He'd gone to Antarctica after all. With Alice Dotson.

How absurd.

I closed out of Alice's page and tossed my phone onto the bed. A notification popped up on the screen: Your scheduled termination procedure is today at 3:00 PM.

I rushed to the hospital. The nurse glanced around when she saw me alone, professional concern settling across her face. "Where's your family? You may need someone to look after you post-op."

"My husband is dead."

I said it calmly. She blinked, then her expression softened into sympathy.

She helped me change into a surgical gown, her hands gentle as she guided me onto the gurney.

The ceiling tiles slid past overhead, one by one, as I was wheeled down the corridor. Harsh white light carried me into the operating room.

The surgical lamp blazed down, so bright it made my eyes ache. I closed them. Cold instruments probed inside me. A tiny life, scraped away from my body. Tears blurred my vision once more.

The next time I surfaced, it was the sound of voices outside my room that pulled me back.

"To help Mrs. Delgado carry the baby to term, Mr. Delgado actually flew in the best specialists from all over the world to our hospital. I heard he even got certified as a nutritionist, just to make sure the Delgado heir is born healthy."

A second woman's voice dropped to a whisper. "But I heard this 'Mrs. Delgado' is actually his sister-in-law? So what about his real wife? That poor woman..."

"Shh! Do you want to get fired? That topic is off-limits at this hospital. Keep your mouth shut!"

Footsteps retreated. The corridor fell silent.

I lay on the hospital bed, staring at the ceiling. Motionless.

My child had never once had his father present for a single prenatal checkup. Not one, right up until the termination.

Her child was given the best of everything the world had to offer.

I slowly turned my head toward the television mounted on the wall. An entertainment segment was playing. A private jet sat on a runway, and Dustin was helping Alice down the stairs, a procession of bodyguards, attendants, and medical staff trailing behind them.

"Sources say Delgado Group CEO Dustin Delgado has spared no expense in chartering a private jet for a global trip to pamper his wife during her pregnancy. The couple's devotion has left the public green with envy..."

I remembered an urgent meeting once that required a fourteen-hour flight. I'd mentioned it offhandedly: "It'd be nice if we could take the private jet. It'd be so much more comfortable."

He'd looked at me with open disapproval. "Cecily, if you can't handle a little discomfort, how are you going to set an example for the employees at Delgado Group? As CEO, I have to lead by example."

Now I understood. He wasn't principled. He simply didn't think I was worth making an exception for.

Over the next few days, Alice posted more from their travels.

Notre-Dame Cathedral. She leaned into Dustin's arms, Gothic spires rising behind them.

The Pampas grasslands. He grilled steak for her with his own hands. She photographed his busy silhouette and his smoke-flushed face.

The Great Rift Valley in East Africa. He crouched on the ground and caught her vomit in his bare hands. The photo was blurry, as if taken candidly, but the caption dripped with pride: "Morning sickness hit. He panicked and just caught it with his hands."

Every landscape I'd fantasized about a thousand times, every destination I'd never reached—Alice Dotson had claimed them all.

I was more certain than ever. Alice knew exactly what she was doing. She'd been faking her illness the entire time. All of it, to steal Dustin from me.

Finally, the sixth day arrived. Tomorrow evening was the time my father and I had agreed upon.

The sun was sinking. I stood by the window, slid the wedding band off my ring finger, and dropped it into the trash can with a sharp clink.

Out of nowhere, a large hand with pronounced knuckles reached past me and fished it out bare-handed.

"Cecily, you threw away our wedding ring?" Dustin's fingers were smeared with filth from the trash, but he gripped the ring tight, his eyes wide with disbelief. "Why?"

His little vacation with her was over, then.

"No reason." My voice was flat. "You stopped wearing yours a long time ago."

I glanced at his ring finger. Our wedding band was long gone. In its place sat a custom-made matching ring—the one he'd spent a fortune designing as a set with Alice's.

"I've told you over and over, Alice and I are just putting on an act." His voice rose, edged with the kind of anger that comes from being caught. "Do you have to be this unreasonable?"

Unreasonable. In the past, those words would have gutted me. I would have been devastated, drowning in hurt.

But now, even feeling hurt was just another form of self-destruction.

"You're right. I'm being unreasonable." My tone was as flat as a weather report. "Happy now?"

He froze, as if he couldn't believe those words had come out of my mouth. Then irritation creased his brow, and he changed the subject with blunt force. "I don't have time for this. The family banquet is tomorrow. Be there early."

I paused. "You still need me there?" The Delgado family banquet—that symbol of status and belonging.

"You are carrying my child, after all. Come quietly, and don't stir up trouble with Alice."

The way he said it, like he was granting me a favor. As if I really were the other woman, permitted to attend only because I happened to be carrying Dustin Delgado's baby, and even then, I had to sneak in through the back door.

It didn't matter. This would be the last time anyway.

Dustin fixed me with a hard stare. Something flickered in the depths of his eyes—a thread of unease he couldn't quite name.

I nodded.

"Alright. I'll be there on time."

He exhaled, the tension leaving his shoulders so subtly it was almost imperceptible.

### Chapter 6

Time slipped by, and before I knew it, the night of the Delgado family banquet had arrived.

I stepped into the grand hall on the hotel penthouse floor, and the room blazed with light. Crystal chandeliers dripped from the ceiling, casting a brilliant glow over every smiling face. A champagne tower rose impossibly high, and a string quartet played softly in the corner.

Dustin and Alice stood at the center of the crowd in matching silver evening wear, looking like a picture-perfect couple under the lights.

Alice clung to his arm, wearing a poised, gracious smile.

Guests raised their glasses one after another, faces bright with flattery, compliments pouring out like a tide: "Mr. and Mrs. Delgado are truly a match made in heaven! So handsome, so elegant together!"

"I heard Mrs. Delgado is expecting again? Congratulations!"

"Look at how Mr. Delgado dotes on his wife. What a lucky woman!"

Everyone was offering their blessings, as if every single person had forgotten that Alice was the wife of Dustin's late elder brother, not his. No one dared ask whose child she was carrying.

I watched the whole spectacle and felt nothing. No pain. Just the absurdity of it all.

I turned and walked toward an empty corner.

"Cecily."

Dustin caught up and grabbed my arm.

"Are you upset? You know the guests only said those things because they're afraid of setting Alice off again."

"Oh, and what about the pregnancy?" I turned to face him, a bitter smile curling my lips. "Your brother's been dead for years. Did he crawl out of his grave to get her pregnant?"

The color drained from Dustin's face. A vein throbbed along his neck.

"What kind of attitude is that?" His voice was barely controlled, fury simmering beneath every word. "Can't you show even a shred of the grace expected of Mrs. Delgado?"

His eyes were black with something dangerous, a pressure that made it hard to breathe. But I didn't back down. Not this time.

My hand drifted to my flat stomach without thinking. The smile on my face turned bitter. I wanted to ask him why I should show grace to the woman who had cost me my child.

But the words wouldn't come.

Something in my eyes must have reached him, because a flicker of unease crossed his face. His anger dimmed, just slightly.

"Cecily, I know you've been wronged."

He reached out and wrapped his arm around my waist. I flinched, but he was already leaning down, his burning lips pressing toward mine.

"Ahhh!!"

Before I could push him away, a scream tore through the entire hall.

I turned and saw Alice standing a few yards away, her face white as paper.

"What are you doing?!" Her voice was shrill enough to pierce eardrums. "You shameless homewrecker! Why do you keep throwing yourself at my husband? Why?!"

Then something wild flooded her eyes, and she spun and bolted toward the terrace.

"Alice!"

Dustin shoved me aside without a second's hesitation and chased after her. "Alice, don't do anything stupid!"

The force of his push sent me stumbling several steps before I caught my balance. The crowd surged past me, rushing toward the terrace.

Alice had climbed onto the ledge. Wind whipped her gown at that height, the fabric snapping like a flag. She stared straight at me, her eyes filled with nothing but hatred. "Cecily Harding, you worthless tramp! You keep seducing my husband, so I'll die right in front of you!"

Gasps erupted from the crowd.

Dustin stood a few steps away from her, his eyes full of regret and raw terror.

"Baby," his voice shook, and he inched forward with agonizing caution, "please come down. Just come down, and I'll never see that woman again."

Alice gripped the railing and shook her head like a woman possessed. "I don't believe you! Dustin Delgado, you bastard, I will never believe you again!"

"What do I have to do? Tell me. I'll agree to anything!"

Everyone held their breath, completely taken in by her flawless performance.

And I stood at the back of the crowd, suddenly so exhausted I just wanted to leave.

"I want that filthy whore on her knees! I want her to apologize and admit she's the homewrecker who stole another woman's husband!"

What?

I looked up in disbelief, only to watch Dustin take a deep breath and turn to me, his voice like ice. "Apologize to Alice. Now."

"Tell her you're the other woman."

My breathing stopped. My heartbeat stopped. My blood froze solid.

Seconds of silence passed before my entire body began to tremble. "Dustin Delgado, you want me to kneel before the woman who stole my husband and announce to everyone here that I'm the mistress?"

Dustin seized my arm. "Yes. Now."

My eyes flooded with red. "Never."

The word ground out through clenched teeth, soaked in blood and tears, carrying the last scrap of dignity I had left. Dustin froze for a split second. In that instant, I wrenched free of his grip and turned on my heel.

I tore down the corridor, burst into the restroom, and locked myself in the last stall.

I had never imagined Dustin would do this to me. Even if the love was gone, I never thought he would make me stand before a room full of people and let my dignity be trampled into the ground.

The tears came anyway.

I sat on the closed toilet lid, buried my face in my knees, and fought to steady my breathing, telling myself that this man was not worth a single tear.

Slowly, my heart rate settled. I was about to leave when the restroom door slammed open.

"Don't be mad, baby. I promise I'll have that woman gone by tomorrow. Out of this city for good."

Dustin's voice. Low, urgent, threaded with appeasement.

My hand on the stall door went slack.

"If you ever see her again, I will disappear, and you will never find me."

"I swear on my life." His voice dropped to barely a whisper, but it was deadly serious. "You're the only one I love. Have you forgotten what I did to her so you could get pregnant again?"

What did that mean?

What had he done to me? My mind went blank. I wanted to scream, to burst out and grab him and demand the truth.

The last thread of reason kept me rooted in place.

The sound of rustling clothes, fabric tearing, and then Alice's aggrieved whimper melted into soft laughter and a low moan.

"Fine," her voice was liquid, boneless, "I'll believe you one more time."

A pause. Then she spoke again, a note of testing in her tone. "But what if she finds out the truth about her little brat's miscarriage?"

Dustin's voice went cold.

"Don't worry about that. It's been six months. I've already told every doctor to keep their mouths shut. No one would dare tell her."

A chill crawled from the soles of my feet to the crown of my skull.

I stared down at my stomach. Alice's words from before crashed back into me. She had said my miscarriage was no accident.

At the time, I'd dismissed it as another one of her provocations. But what if the truth was far worse?

### Chapter 7

"I still can't believe she was in the dark this whole time," Alice laughed. "You told her the miscarriage happened because she went out in the middle of the night, and she actually bought it."

"That's what she owed you as a mistress," Dustin scoffed. "She'll swallow whatever lie I feed her."

My body could barely hold itself upright, but I forced myself to keep listening.

"Sweetheart, you terminated that little bastard and extracted the fetal stem cells just to repair my womb." Alice's voice dripped with syrupy sweetness. "I'm truly touched. As long as you promise never to go near that tramp again, I'll forgive you."

I clamped my hand over my mouth so hard my fingers nearly tore through my lips.

Thunder cracked through my skull, one bolt after another, shredding everything I thought I knew.

The baby I believed I'd lost on that rainy night—lost by accident, lost through my own carelessness—had been murdered by its own father.

To repair his fake wife's womb.

So that woman, that fraud who'd been playing insane, could carry his child instead.

"I'll give you anything you want. You're carrying the Delgado heir now, so you can't get too worked up, understand?"

Alice smiled, sweet as poison. "Fine. I won't hold it against her anymore. After all, it was her baby that made it possible for me to conceive yours."

Breathing became almost impossible. My vision blurred again, and for one terrible instant, I thought I was dying.

Through the crack in the door, I could see them at the vanity counter—clothes disheveled, bodies tangled together. Alice's nails raked down the hard muscles of Dustin's back as they moved in a frenzied rhythm.

Then she saw me.

The moment our eyes met, her moans grew louder, more theatrical.

"Slow down—didn't that little mistress ever satisfy you, baby?"

Dustin's mouth swallowed her cries before she could say more.

I collapsed onto the toilet seat like a hollowed-out shell, every last drop of life wrung from my body.

An eternity passed before they finally finished. Alice told Dustin to leave first.

Then a knock came on the stall door.

"Come on out." Her voice was thick with lazy satisfaction. "He's gone."

I pushed the door open and stepped out.

She stood there, deliberately, unhurriedly pulling her dress down from her chest—putting on a show, displaying the fresh marks scattered across her skin.

"I'm going to keep you as the dirty little secret forever." Her voice was feather-soft, as casual as commenting on the weather. "So if you know what's good for you, walk away from him on your own."

Her gaze dropped to my belly. "You think you'll actually carry his child to term? No. I'll make you taste that loss all over again. Every brat you lose will be nothing more than a sacrifice on the altar of my love with my husband."

Pure, white-hot fury shattered whatever was left of my restraint. I swung my hand and slapped her across the face with everything I had.

"You vile woman—give me back my baby!"

"Ahhh!"

She crashed to the floor, and her shriek pierced through the entire restroom.

Dustin burst in within seconds, bodyguards and a crowd of guests flooding in behind him.

He saw Alice crumpled on the ground, sobbing. He saw the vivid handprint blazing across her cheek. His eyes turned bloodshot in an instant—a beast provoked beyond reason.

"What did you do to her?!"

He scooped Alice up, passed her to a bodyguard, then turned and bore down on me in long, furious strides.

A tearing pain ripped across my scalp. Dustin seized my hair and wrenched it back so hard my entire face was forced upward.

"I'm done going easy on you, Cecily. Apologize to Alice. Now."

I thrashed in his grip, my scalp screaming with pain, but I didn't care anymore.

"She's not insane! She never lost her memory!" The words tore out of me in a raw, desperate scream. "Dustin, listen to me—she's been faking it from the very beginning! Believe me!"

"Enough!"

His roar detonated like a gunshot, and the room went dead silent.

My heart hammered so violently I could hear it pounding in my ears.

"I don't know what she's talking about," Alice whimpered in the bodyguard's arms, crying so pitifully, so helplessly. Her voice hitched like a startled fawn's. "Sweetheart, I'm so scared. Why won't she just leave us alone? I only told her I'd give her a generous sum if she'd walk away from you, and she said she'd kill me and my baby."

Whispers rippled through the crowd.

Every condemning stare landed on me, as if I were the monster in this room.

"With a temper like that, she's clearly unfit to be Mrs. Delgado," someone murmured.

"Poor Miss Dotson. If she loses another husband and child, she won't survive it." Another voice, sympathetic and resolute.

"If you ask me, Mr. Delgado should just—"

The voices crashed over me in waves, and Dustin stared at me like I was his sworn enemy, his gaze cold as a blade.

"Get on your knees. Bow your head. Beg Alice for forgiveness."

A violent tremor racked my body.

"No—Dustin, I'm carrying your child!"

I stumbled backward, both hands pressed protectively over my stomach, grasping for any last shred of his mercy—even though the baby was already gone.

But he only stared at me, nothing in those eyes but frozen contempt.

"Do it."

He didn't want me. He didn't want our child. I'd known it for a long time, but the knowing didn't stop my heart from ripping apart.

The next second, a bodyguard clamped down on my arms and forced me downward. I refused to yield. A boot slammed into the back of my knee.

The pain was blinding, as if the bone had split in two.

"Ahh!" I screamed as my knees hit the floor.

Someone grabbed my hair. "Bow. Apologize."

The grip was merciless, treating my skull like a ball to be bounced off the ice-cold tile.

"Never!" The room spun around me. I wanted to fight back, to run. But I was powerless.

The guard gripped my head and drove it into the floor again and again.

Crack.

Crack.

Crack…

Blood ran down—warm, sticky—streaming along my brow and into my eyes. The world dissolved into a blurred wash of red.

Through that red, I saw Alice.

She was curled in Dustin's arms like a frightened rabbit, her body trembling delicately. But behind those wide, tearful eyes, triumph glittered like a blade catching light.

Dustin bowed his head and wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes, his touch impossibly gentle. He stroked her hair, slow and tender, as though she were something infinitely precious.

What a perfect couple.

What a magnificent love story.

The blood kept flowing, dripping onto the floor one drop at a time—a libation poured in honor of their magnificent love.

My screams faded to nothing. Not because the pain had stopped, but because I had nothing left. My lips were bitten through, my throat shredded raw. All that remained was the ragged sound of my breathing—like a fish gasping on dry land.

"Mr. Delgado, she—she's badly hurt." Someone spoke up, hesitant and uneasy.

Dustin finally lifted his head and looked at me. He saw it—the horrifying blood, the split flesh of my forehead.

"Just apologize," he said after a pause, something unreadable flickering through his voice, "and I'll let you go."

I stared at him and the woman in his arms. Every syllable cost me everything I had left.

"Over… my… dead… body."

Alice whimpered again, soft and pitiful.

"Let it go. Even though she wanted to kill me, I can't bear to watch this." She buried her face against his chest, her shoulders quivering. "Let's just leave. The baby's kicking—I don't feel well."

Dustin's voice turned impossibly tender. "You're too kind. That's exactly why she walks all over you."

Then he lifted her into his arms, cradling her like a bride on her wedding night.

As he passed me, he stopped. His words fell like ice.

"If there's a next time, you won't get off this easy. Cecily—for the sake of the child in your belly, I suggest you learn your place."

Then he carried her out and disappeared through the door.

The bodyguards dispersed. The crowd scattered.

I lay on the freezing floor like a discarded rag, thrown aside without a second thought. They stepped over me, every single one of them, and not a soul reached down. My body was heavy as stone. Even the agony in my chest had gone numb—or maybe it hurt so much that feeling itself had shut down.

I tried to get up. I couldn't move.

My eyelids grew heavier. Heavier. The red behind my eyes dimmed, then darkened to black.

Am I dying?

"Cecily? God damn it—Cecily! Who did this to my daughter?!"

A furious roar tore through the darkness like a crack of light. That voice—so familiar, so impossibly far away, as if it were reaching me from inside a dream.

I fought to open my eyes. Blurred shapes rushed toward me, frantic footsteps closing in.

Then a figure bent down. A face, hazy through the blood, carved with fury and heartbreak.

My father.

His hands were shaking as he reached for me, so careful, so terrified of causing more pain, as he gathered me into his arms. His eyes were red. Tears streamed down a face I had never—not once in my life—seen cry.

"Daddy's here. Daddy's taking you home."

I could finally go home.

The darkness swallowed me whole.