Chapter 1

The positive pregnancy test lay hidden under a pile of socks in my drawer.

Three years.

Three years I' d been Sarah Miller, no, Sarah Cole, wife to Ethan Cole.

He' d asked for a divorce again this morning, his ninety-ninth time by my count.

"One year, Ethan," I' d said, my voice flat. "Give me one year."

He didn' t know about the tiny life inside me.

I married Ethan because I owed him.

A college camping trip, a sudden storm, a capsized canoe.

He pulled me from the water. He saved me.

His mother, Eleanor, never let me forget it.

"He risked his life for you, Sarah. Such a good boy."

So I married him.

Now, the news blared from the TV in the ER breakroom.

A boating accident.

Marcus Cole, Ethan' s older brother, was dead.

Ethan, they said, miraculously survived. Severe injuries, memory loss.

My phone rang. It was Eleanor.

"Sarah, you need to come to the estate. For the memorial plans. Ethan... Ethan thinks he' s Marcus."

Her voice was strained, but firm.

At Marcus' s memorial, the scent of lilies choked me.

The stress, the grief, the secret I carried – it was too much.

I fainted.

I woke up in a quiet room upstairs, the murmur of voices outside the door.

Eleanor' s sharp tones, then Ethan' s.

But it wasn' t Ethan' s usual voice. It was deeper, smoother, the voice he used when he was trying to be charming. The voice he was using to impersonate his dead brother.

"The memory loss is perfect, Mother," Ethan was saying, a chilling calm in his voice. "Olivia will finally be mine. Marcus is gone. And Sarah... Sarah will be easy to get rid of now."

My breath caught.

Eleanor' s voice, lower, conspiratorial. "She' s pregnant, Ethan. I saw the test in her room when she fainted."

A beat of silence.

Then Ethan, or "Marcus," laughed. A cold, empty sound.

"Pregnant? An inconvenience. We' ll deal with that later. She' s not going to tie me down with a child, not when Olivia is finally within reach."

My blood ran cold.

The man I married, the man who supposedly saved my life, was a monster.

The memory loss, the severe injuries – a lie.

He was using his brother' s death.

And my baby... an inconvenience.