Prison For Love, Drowning In Deceit

I served five years in prison for my fiancé, Austin, to save the company we built together.

The day I got out, I found him on a yacht, marrying a woman who looked exactly like me.

He told me the position of Mrs. Alexander was still mine, but when his new bride, Eva, dragged us both into the ocean, he swam right past me to save her, leaving me to drown.

He brought me to his home only to force me to serve the woman who stole my life. When she deliberately scalded my arm with hot porridge, he screamed at me.

"You're an animal!"

He was destroying me for a woman and a child he believed were his future. The ultimate betrayal.

But then I found his medical report. Austin was sterile. The baby wasn't his.

Chapter 1

Alexis Brandt POV:

The prison gates clanged shut behind me, a final, metallic echo in the silence. Five years. Five years I' d traded my freedom for Austin Alexander' s. And now I was out, a ghost in my own life. My first thought, the only thought, was Austin. I went to Aether Corp, the company I' d helped build. The receptionist, a young woman with bright, oblivious eyes, eyed my worn clothes with a polite, dismissive smile.

"Austin Alexander, please," I said, my voice rough from disuse.

She tilted her head. "Do you have an appointment?"

"No," I said. "Just tell him Alexis Brandt is here."

Her smile faltered. She typed something. Her eyes widened, flicking from the screen to me. "I... I'm sorry, Ms. Brandt. Mr. Alexander isn't available."

"He will be," I insisted. "Just tell him."

Before I could explain, two burly security guards stepped forward, their shadows falling over me. "Ma'am, you need to leave."

Humiliation washed over me, hot and stinging. "I'm Alexis Brandt. This is my company."

One of the guards snorted, a harsh, disbelieving sound. "Austin Alexander's getting married today. To Eva O'Connell. You think he'd want you here?"

The world tilted. Married? To someone else? The words hit me like a physical blow, stealing the air from my lungs. My sacrifice, my five years, all for nothing. I stumbled back, shaking my head. No. It couldn't be true. I had to see it. Had to know.

I found the yacht, a gleaming white behemoth off the coast of Malibu. I hid in the shadows of the dock, listening. Austin's voice, rich and familiar, carried clearly over the water.

"She's not Alexis," a friend said, his voice hushed. "But she looks just like her."

Austin sighed. "I know, Mark. But Eva... she's carrying my child. I can't just leave her."

My knees buckled. I sank to the ground, the concrete cold beneath my hands. A child. His child. The ultimate betrayal. He would compensate me, he'd said to Mark, but Eva was indispensable. This was it. The final, brutal truth. My past, my future, everything I' d believed in, shattered.

The phone vibrated in my pocket. My father. I hadn't spoken to him in years. "Alexis? Are you alright?"

His voice was laced with worry, a concern I hadn't heard from anyone in so long. A bitter laugh escaped me. The man I' d resented for so long was the only one who truly cared. "Dad," I murmured, the name feeling foreign on my tongue. "I'm coming home."

"Really?" His voice cracked with surprise, then joy. "I'll come pick you up right now."

I pulled the simple silver ring from my finger, the one Austin had given me before I went inside. His promise. Our future. It felt like a lifetime ago. A lie. It was all a lie. I walked to the edge of the dock, the glittering water mocking the emptiness inside me. With a silent prayer for the girl I used to be, I tossed the ring into the dark depths. It hit the surface with a tiny splash, then vanished.

Just like us. Just like everything.

I turned my back on the yacht, on the wedding, on Austin and the life I'd once known. There was nothing left for me here. The cold indifference that had settled in my chest hardened. He was a fool. A cruel, selfish fool. And I was done.

My new life started now.