Chapter 2

A week later, Ethan tried to bridge the growing chasm between them.

He found Izzy in their bedroom at the Hamptons estate, reading.

The baby was due in a few months, the surrogate supposedly progressing well.

He sat on the edge of the bed.

"Izzy, can we talk?"

He wanted to ask about Liam, about the papers, but the words wouldn't come.

Instead, he reached for her hand. "I miss us."

He tried to kiss her, to feel some connection.

She turned her head slightly. "Not now, Ethan. I' m tired."

Her eyes were distant.

Her phone buzzed on the nightstand.

She glanced at the screen, and a small, almost imperceptible smile touched her lips.

She picked it up. "Hello?"

Her voice was soft, intimate, a tone he hadn' t heard directed at him in months.

He couldn' t hear the other side, but her responses were telling.

"Yes, I know... I miss you too... Soon."

She laughed quietly.

Ethan felt a cold dread creep up his spine.

Who was she talking to like that?

She hung up, her expression carefully neutral when she turned back to him.

"Who was that?" he asked, his voice tight.

"Just business," she said, waving a dismissive hand. "You know how it is."

"At this hour? Sounded personal."

"Don't be silly, Ethan. I have to take a call from Eleanor about a foundation matter. I' ll be in the study."

She stood up, avoiding his gaze, and walked out of the room.

A flimsy pretext. He knew it.

Eleanor rarely called this late unless it was a dire emergency.

Ethan lay in bed, staring at the ceiling.

The silence of the huge house pressed in on him.

He couldn't shake the image of her smile while on the phone.

He got out of bed.

He walked to her side of the bed, his heart hammering.

Her phone was still on the nightstand. Unlocked.

He picked it up. His hands trembled.

He went to her messages.

The most recent chat was with "L."

Liam.

He opened it.

Intimate texts. "Can't wait to see you." "Thinking of you."

Photos.

Liam, shirtless, smiling at the camera.

Izzy, in a silk robe he hadn't seen before, looking at Liam with an expression of pure adoration.

Then, a legal document. A PDF.

He tapped it open.

Sperm Donor Agreement.

Liam O' Connell.

Detailed clauses. Compensation. Confidentiality.

The child would be Liam' s biologically.

Chosen for his resemblance to Ethan.

Izzy' s plan, laid out in cold, legal terms.

To pass Liam' s child off as Ethan' s.

The truth, undeniable, brutal.

Ethan sank to the floor, the phone slipping from his grasp.

Shock. Cold, numbing shock.

It wasn' t just a lie. It was a betrayal of everything.

Their marriage, his love, his trust. All a sham.

He thought back to her "confession" about the anonymous donor, the surrogate.

The tears, the carefully crafted story.

All to manipulate him, to keep him compliant.

He remembered her increasing control, her insistence on the Hamptons, the isolation.

It all made sense now.

She wasn' t protecting their future. She was protecting her secret, her deception.

He picked up the phone, his mind racing.

Why Liam? Why this elaborate, cruel charade?

The Vanderbilt legacy. Eleanor' s pressure.

Izzy would do anything to secure it, even destroy him in the process.

He scrolled through more messages, a sick feeling churning in his stomach.

Messages between Izzy and Eleanor.

"Liam is perfect. He looks enough like Ethan. No one will question it."

"The boy is malleable. He' ll do as he' s told."

"Ethan must never know the truth. It would destroy everything."

Destroy him, they meant.

He wanted to confront her, to scream, to rage.

But a chilling thought stopped him.

She was capable of this. What else was she capable of?

He felt a sudden, primal fear.

He put the phone back on the nightstand, exactly where he found it.

He needed to think, to plan.

He couldn' t let her see he knew. Not yet.

He had to pretend everything was normal.

The thought made him sick.

He crept back into bed, his body rigid.

Sleep was impossible.

Every time he closed his eyes, he saw the texts, the photos, Izzy' s smiling, deceitful face.

The woman he loved, the woman he married, was a stranger.

A cold, calculating stranger who had just ripped his world apart.

The night stretched on, an eternity of torment.

The Hamptons estate, once a symbol of their success, now felt like a luxurious prison.

And he was trapped inside with his betrayer.