Chapter 1

Since my husband supposedly had fertility issues, we told everyone we were happily childfree by choice.

But six years into our marriage, he suddenly changed his mind.

I put my body through hell—endless fertility treatments, hormone injections, and pills—until I finally got pregnant.

After a routine prenatal checkup, I heard his voice echoing in the hospital stairwell.

"I thought Veronica was the only woman you loved," his friend was saying. "Why did you get Lillian pregnant?"

Alex let out a cold, dismissive scoff.

"I wasn't about to put Veronica through another pregnancy."

"If we didn't need the cord blood to save Ethan, I never would have let Lillian carry my child."

*

I clamped a hand over my mouth and backed away.

I didn't stop until I was safely out of earshot. Only then did the tears come.

A violent wave of nausea crashed over me. The hallway tilted, and my vision went black.

I reached for the wall, but my legs gave out completely.

When I opened my eyes, Alex was hovering over my hospital bed. His eyes were red, and he was gripping my hand like a lifeline.

"Lillian. Thank God."

"You scared the hell out of me."

The tears welling in his eyes looked entirely real.

But the words I had just heard in that stairwell were real, too.

The nurse checked my monitor, shooting Alex a warm, sympathetic smile.

"He hasn't left your side," she told me. "The second your blood pressure drops, he panics worse than you do. You don't see many husbands this devoted."

Alex smoothed my blanket, adjusting my pillows with sickeningly gentle precision.

"Lillian is the one suffering for this baby," he murmured.

"She takes all the physical pain. Sitting here is the least I can do."

If I hadn't heard him in that stairwell, I would have believed the act. I would have thought I was the luckiest woman in the world.

Because my blood pressure was erratic, the OB kept me overnight for observation.

Alex eased me back against the mattress. His voice was smooth, flawlessly tender.

"Get some sleep. I'm going to run home and make you some real food. Hot soup, okay?"

Normally, he would have his assistant handle that. Alex Sterling didn't run errands.

I didn't argue. I just nodded and closed my eyes, letting my breathing level out.

A few minutes later, assuming I was out cold, he slipped quietly out the door.

I threw off the covers and followed him. I trailed him through the corridors, all the way to a private VIP suite in the pediatric wing.

Through the crack in the door, I saw him. He was holding Veronica.

She was pressed against his chest, sobbing delicately.

"If she wasn't stuck in a hospital bed, you wouldn't have even come to see us," she whimpered.

"Ethan and I are always going to come second."

Alex pulled her tighter against him.

"When I'm with her, all I'm thinking about is you. And our son."

"I'm only playing the doting husband so she doesn't miscarry. We need that baby safe."

His hand slid down her spine, settling heavily on her waist. His voice dropped, thick with sudden heat.

"Her body is completely ruined from the pregnancy. But you... God, Veronica, you smell so good today."

His words grew more explicit, and soon, they were tangled together.

Right next to them, a little boy lay in a hospital bed, hooked up to an oxygen machine.

My stomach violently heaved. One more second, and I was going to throw up.

I stumbled back to my room.

Pregnancy hormones already made everything feel raw, but this was a blunt knife hacking away at my chest.

I finally broke down, sobbing uncontrollably.

Doctors and nurses rushed in, surrounding my bed.

The gentler they were, the more vividly I pictured my husband wrapped in another woman's arms.

Alex got the call from the doctor and rushed back in under five minutes.

"Lillian, what's wrong?"

The second he reached for me, I shoved him away.

Instead of snapping at me, Alex turned his dark, furious gaze on the medical staff.

"I leave for a few minutes, and she's like this? What the hell kind of care is this?"

Out of the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of his neck.

There was a fresh, red mark right on his collarbone.

I completely lost it. I thrashed, shoving at him so hard my hand knocked over the thermos on the nightstand.

Scalding water splashed across his chest. He let out a muffled groan of pain.

But the very next second, his hands shot out to grab mine.

"Lillian, did you get burned?"