Chapter 1

After Daniel Rivers' obsessive alternate personality, Danny, was killed off, he forgot all about me.

I took 30 million dollars in hush money and pretended to have an abortion.

Three years had passed, and I thought we'd never have anything to do with each other again.

It wasn't until my son, Leo Villar, was diagnosed with a rare blood disorder that my world turned upside down.

Out of the whole country, only one person's bone marrow was a perfect match for Leo.

And that man was Daniel.

I changed my name, had minor cosmetic work done, and got myself hired as his secretary.

He had a woman by his side who looked a lot like the old me from three years ago.

He held her close and called her by the name I used to go by.

But I kept my eyes down, handing over the documents without a flicker of emotion.

One day, the lookalike came running out, crying her eyes out.

Daniel stood in the doorway, clutching a butterfly needle that had pierced Leo's vein.

He looked at me with a faint smile. "Emily, did you really think I never checked the DNA in that medical waste bag?"

*****

The doctor placed the CT scan onto the lightbox and pointed at the white mass on the image. "Severe aplastic anemia.

"A bone marrow transplant is the only option. There's a four-month window. After that, Leo's body won't be able to handle the high-dose chemo."

My son, Leo, was only three years old.

He lay in the hospital bed, an IV taped to the back of his hand, a blue butterfly needle stuck in his wrist, so thin that the bones were almost visible.

He didn't cry, just held onto my finger, refusing to let go. "Mommy, it hurts."

I crouched down and gently held his hand, never taking my eyes off him. "I know this is hard. I'll help you be brave. You just hold my hand.

The doctor was waiting for me outside the door.

After I got Leo to sleep, I tiptoed out and quietly closed the door behind me.

"Ms. Ortega, the bone marrow matching results are in," the doctor said. "There's no match in the national bone marrow registry. The best chance is with a family member. Where is his father?"

I stayed silent.

The doctor flipped through the report. "We did an expanded search. Out of millions of registered bone marrow samples nationwide, only one person is a perfect HLA match."

He pointed to the name on the report. [Daniel Rivers.]

My nails dug into my palm.

Three years had passed.

Three years ago, Daniel handed me 30 million dollars to make me abort the baby.

No, to be exact. It was his real self who gave it to me.

Daniel had a dual personality.

His other self, Danny, was twisted, pathological, and possessive, and he was the one who fell for me.

When his real self took control, the first thing he did was erase every trace left behind by Danny. That included the baby I was carrying and me.

With 30 million dollars in hush money and a consent form for the abortion, one of his men said, "Mr. Rivers doesn't want to see you again."

I pocketed the cash. But I never went through with the abortion.

I vanished with my baby bump. I moved to another city, took on a new name, and changed my looks.

For three years, I moved three times, from south to north, east to west, hiding myself so well that it was like I'd disappeared from the face of the earth.

I thought Daniel would be nothing but a ghost from my past. But fate had a cruel sense of humor.

My son's life depended on his father.

I stood in the hospital hallway all night.

When dawn broke, Leo woke up and grinned at me through the glass, showing off his two tiny baby teeth. "Mommy."

I turned and went back into the room, scooped him up, and planted a kiss on his face. "Mommy has to go to work. Be brave and wait for me here in the hospital, okay?"

"Where are you going to work, Mommy?"

"Somewhere... really far away."

I set him down, gave the nurse some instructions, and walked out of the hospital.

The taxi dropped me off at a plastic surgery clinic on the east side of the city.

I sat in front of the mirror and told the doctor, "Raise the outer corners of my eyes a bit, make my nose bridge a little higher, and shave down my chin a little.

"Keep it subtle, but I want anyone who used to know me not to recognize me right away."