Chapter 3

The house felt different when I returned from my doctor's appointment. Something in the air had shifted—a heaviness that made my skin prickle with unease. I'd gone to discuss some concerns about the pregnancy with Dr. Martinez, leaving Ryan and Melissa to plan the nursery layout.

I called out as I entered, my voice echoing through the unusually quiet hallway. "Ryan? Mel?"

No answer.

My heels clicked against the hardwood as I made my way upstairs, following the faint sound of... something. A rustling. Movement. My hand found the banister, gripping it as an inexplicable dread settled in my chest.

The guest bedroom door—where Melissa had been staying during her frequent visits—stood slightly ajar. Through the crack, I could see movement, shadows dancing in the afternoon light.

I pushed the door open.

Time stopped.

Ryan's bare back faced me, muscles tense as he scrambled for his clothes scattered across the floor. Melissa lay tangled in the sheets, her hair wild, her face flushed with something that wasn't pregnancy glow.

They were naked. In bed. Together.

The air left my lungs in a violent rush, like I'd been punched in the solar plexus. My purse slipped from nerveless fingers, hitting the floor with a dull thud that made them both freeze.

"Olivia—" Ryan spun around, panic flooding his features as he fumbled with his shirt. "It's not—"

A laugh tore from my throat, high and sharp and completely unhinged. "Not what it looks like?"

The words came out as a shriek, raw and animalistic. "You're NAKED in bed with your PREGNANT sister!"

Melissa clutched the sheet to her chest, and for the first time since I'd known her, she looked guilty. Actually guilty. Her dark eyes—so like Ryan's—couldn't meet mine.

I turned on her, my vision tunneling until she was all I could see. "How could you?"

My voice cracked on the words, years of gratitude and trust shattering like glass. "I trusted you with my BABY!"

Melissa's face crumpled, tears spilling down her cheeks. "I'm sorry. We didn't mean for this to happen."

"HAPPEN?" The word exploded from me, bouncing off the walls. "This doesn't just HAPPEN!"

Ryan stepped between us, his shirt now on but still unbuttoned, his hair disheveled. "Let me explain—"

"Explain WHAT?" I shoved him hard, my palms flat against his chest. "That you're fucking your sister?"

He stumbled backward, his face pale as parchment.

"While she carries what I thought was MY baby?"

"It IS your baby—" Ryan started, but I cut him off with a sound that was half-laugh, half-sob.

"IS IT?" The question hung in the air like a blade. Something cold and terrible was crystallizing in my mind, pieces of a puzzle I'd been too blind to see.

"How long has this been going on?"

Silence stretched between us, thick and suffocating. Ryan's mouth opened and closed like a fish gasping for air. Melissa pulled the sheet higher, as if she could hide from my question.

"HOW LONG?!" I screamed, my voice breaking.

Melissa's whisper was barely audible. "A year."

The words hit me like a physical blow. I staggered backward, my legs suddenly unable to support my weight. "A year. A YEAR?"

My back hit the doorframe, and I slid down until I was sitting on the floor, staring up at them in horror. "Before the surrogacy?"

Melissa nodded, fresh tears streaming down her face.

The betrayal was so complete, so devastating, that for a moment I couldn't breathe. Couldn't think. Couldn't process the magnitude of what they'd done to me.

"So the surrogacy..." My voice was hollow, distant. "Was what? An excuse?"

Ryan took a step toward me, his hand outstretched. "Liv, please—"

"Don't you DARE touch me." I jerked away from him so violently that my shoulder hit the doorframe. "Don't you dare."

The room spun around me as the full scope of their deception became clear. My hands shook as I pulled myself to my feet, using the wall for support.

"Whose idea was the surrogacy?" My voice was trembling, barely controlled.

Ryan and Melissa exchanged a look—quick, guilty, telling.

And I knew.

"Yours." The word was flat, emotionless. "It was YOUR idea."

Melissa opened her mouth to protest, but I held up a hand to stop her.

"You wanted an excuse to be together."

"I wanted to help—" Melissa started, but I cut her off with a bitter laugh.

"HELP? You wanted to steal my husband!"

I turned to stare at her stomach, that small swell that I'd been so careful with, so protective of. "And the baby?"

My voice dropped to a whisper. "Whose baby is it really?"

Ryan ran his hands through his hair, making it stand up in wild tufts. "The embryo was from donor egg and my sperm—"

"But have you two been..." I couldn't finish the sentence. "Without protection?"

The silence that followed was answer enough.

I stood up slowly, feeling strangely numb. "You don't even know."

The words came out flat, matter-of-fact. "The baby could be from the affair."

"We can do a paternity test—" Melissa began, but I cut her off with a scream that seemed to come from somewhere deep in my soul.

"I DON'T CARE!"

The words tore from my throat, raw and desperate. "This was supposed to be MY baby!"

I looked between them—my husband and his sister, tangled in sheets and lies. "And you two... you USED my pain to justify your affair!"

I turned to Ryan, this man I'd loved for eight years, who I'd thought would love me through anything. "You let me thank her. Thank HER."

My voice broke completely. "While you were fucking her behind my back."

I stumbled toward the door, my legs unsteady beneath me. The walls seemed to be closing in, the air too thick to breathe. I had to get out. Had to escape this nightmare before it suffocated me completely.

Behind me, I heard Ryan call my name, but I didn't stop. Couldn't stop. The sound of his voice made my skin crawl.

I ran down the stairs and out the front door, leaving behind everything I'd thought I knew about my life, my marriage, and the people I'd trusted most in the world.