Chapter 6

Aurelia POV:

Days blurred into a haze of fear and frantic planning. The idea, born of desperation in my small apartment, solidified into a terrifying resolve. I had to disappear. Not just from Jacob, but from the world he inhabited. The thought of faking my own death, of erasing Aurelia Flynn entirely, was chilling, but the alternative-losing my child to Jacob and Kaleigh-was a fate far worse.

Mid-afternoon, in the midst of my tormented strategizing, an anonymous email landed in my inbox. My heart, a skittish animal by now, leaped. I almost deleted it, fearing another attack from Jacob or Kaleigh. But something, a flicker of morbid curiosity, made me click it open.

The email contained three attachments. My fingers were cold as I clicked the first.

It was a scanned document, a series of encrypted messages between Jacob and Kaleigh, dating back to before our wedding. My eyes scanned the words, recognizing their coded language, the intimate jokes, the shared memories. My true love, my only one. Soon, we will be together, truly. Just a little longer, my darling. The words were a fresh stab, confirming every agonizing suspicion. It was a long-game betrayal.

The second attachment was a medical report. Kaleigh Bradford. Infertility. My breath caught in my throat. The diagnosis was blunt, clinical. Primary ovarian insufficiency. Prognosis: extremely unlikely to conceive naturally. This was it. The root of their twisted scheme. Kaleigh' s inability to bear a child, Jacob' s desperate need to provide her with one. And I, the unwitting vessel, was the solution.

The third attachment was an audio file. I pressed play, my heart hammering against my ribs.

Jacob's voice filled the room, rough and impatient. "I told you, Kaleigh, Aurelia is just... collateral damage. A means to an end. She's fertile, cooperative, and frankly, she looks enough like you for me to tolerate for a while. The board will accept her as my wife. It' s a clean image."

Kaleigh' s soft, manipulative voice followed. "But the baby, Jacob. It must be ours. It must carry our legacy. Not hers."

"Of course, my love," Jacob's voice soothed, a sickening tenderness in his tone. "The baby will be yours. Aurelia is just the incubator. We' ll make sure it looks like you. Bright eyes, fair hair. Everything you want. She'll have no claim, no power. She's signed everything away. She's too naive to understand the real game."

My blood ran cold. Incubator. Naive. No claim. Their words, delivered with such casual cruelty, were like ice shards piercing my flesh. They had planned this. Every step, every lie, every manipulation. My entire existence had been reduced to a biological function, my child a prize to be stolen. And the worst part? Jacob wanted my child to look like Kaleigh. He wanted to erase every trace of me, even in my own son or daughter, to make them a perfect replica for his true love. The thought was so utterly grotesque, so profoundly evil, that my stomach rebelled.

I stumbled to the bathroom again, retching until my throat burned and my body ached. The fifteen years I had given him, the unwavering loyalty, the love I had poured into a bottomless pit-it was all a grotesque farce. He had seen me as nothing more than a tool, a substitute, a temporary solution to a problem Kaleigh couldn't solve.

I stared at my pale, tear-streaked face in the mirror, a bitter laugh bubbling up from my chest. "Naive, huh?" I whispered, my voice raw. "Well, Jacob Dickerson, this 'naive' wife is about to show you just how wrong you were." A steel-cold resolve settled over me. There would be no more tears, no more desperation. Only action.

I pulled out my phone, my fingers steady. I scrolled through my blocked numbers, found Jacob's, and unblocked it. It would be for one call only.

The phone rang twice before he picked up. His voice was wary, laced with annoyance. "Aurelia? What do you want now? Are you finally coming to your senses?"

My voice was calm, eerily so. "Jacob," I said, each word precise, like dropping stones into a deep well. "I just heard the recording. And I saw the medical reports. I know everything."

A beat of stunned silence. Then, a sharp intake of breath. "What... what are you talking about? What recording?" Panic seeped into his tone.

"The one where you call me an incubator," I continued, ignoring his stuttering. "The one where you promise Kaleigh you'll make our child look just like her. The one where you gloat about my naivety." My voice was a whisper, but it carried the weight of a death sentence. "Consider this my official notice, Jacob. You will never, ever get your hands on my child. And you will regret the day you ever thought you could play God with my life."

I didn't wait for a reply. I hung up, then powered off my phone, severing the connection completely. The silence was absolute, heavy with the promise of utter destruction.

My plan, once a desperate fantasy, now became a meticulously calculated reality. I had no illusions about fighting Jacob in court. He had the money, the power, the connections. He would win. But he couldn't win against a ghost.

My modest savings from my architectural firm, painstakingly squirrelled away over the years, were not enough for a new life, but they were enough for one crucial transaction. I found a discreet, cash-only private clinic on the outskirts of the city, a place that specialized in... arrangements. They facilitated new identities, provided medical assistance off the grid, and ensured complete discretion. It was shady, dangerous, but it was my only option. I paid them every last cent, securing a safe passage.

I vanished. Not overnight, but systematically. I withdrew cash, deleted digital footprints, sold off minor assets for quick money. I told my few remaining friends I was going abroad for an extended project, incommunicado. My old life, Aurelia Flynn, slowly unraveled, disappearing thread by thread.

Jacob would search. I knew he would. He would use every resource, every connection, to find me and his "incubator." But I would be gone. Untraceable.

The news broke a week later. A small, local blurb, then picked up by the larger tabloids, fueled by Jacob Dickerson's public profile.

`Tragic Fire Claims Pregnant Woman: Local Architect Aurelia Flynn Perishes in Apparent Accident.`

The article was brief, speculating on a faulty electrical wire in my old, temporary apartment building. It mentioned a small, charred piece of jewelry found in the debris, a platinum wedding band. The one I had deliberately left on the marble counter in the mansion, the symbol of a life I was shedding. It was a perfect, heartbreaking detail that would confirm my demise.

I stood miles away, clutching a set of new identification papers, my hair dyed a darker shade, my eyes hidden behind oversized sunglasses. I watched the news report on a small, flickering television screen in a cheap motel room. Aurelia Flynn, my old self, was officially dead.

A pang of grief, sharp and unexpected, pierced me. Not for Jacob, not for the life I had lost, but for the innocent woman I had once been, the woman who had believed in love and loyalty. She was gone, consumed by the flames of betrayal.

My hand instinctively went to my belly, a silent comfort to the life growing within. "We're free, little one," I whispered, my voice thick with emotion. "We're finally free. And no one will ever find us." We would start anew, far away from the monsters who sought to claim us. We would build a life, just the two of us, a life filled with genuine love and unwavering protection.