Chapter 1

The restaurant was expensive, the kind with white tablecloths and candles that flickered softly. It was our eighth wedding anniversary, and Liam had booked the best table, the one overlooking the city lights. He reached across the table and took my hand, his thumb tracing circles over my knuckles.

"Happy anniversary, Ava," he said, his voice low and warm. "To many more."

I smiled, a genuine smile that reached my eyes. "Happy anniversary, Liam."

For a moment, everything was perfect. He was the same boy I' d fallen in love with, the one who promised me forever under a sky full of stars. I was a successful architect, he was expanding his family's business, and we had a beautiful life. But a shadow lingered, a conversation we kept having and never resolving.

"My grandmother called again today," he said, pulling his hand back to cut his steak. The perfection shattered.

"What did she want?" I asked, though I already knew.

"The usual," he sighed, not meeting his eyes. "She's getting impatient, Ava. She wants a grandchild. An heir."

The word "heir" felt cold and heavy. For eight years, we had tried. We had seen doctors, run tests, and endured countless disappointments. The fault, the doctors said, was mine. My body simply wouldn't cooperate, and the pressure from his traditional, powerful family was becoming unbearable. Especially from his grandmother, the matriarch who ruled the family with an iron will.

A week later, the matriarch took matters into her own hands. I came home from a late meeting to find a strange girl sitting in our living room. She was young, with wide, innocent eyes and a simple dress that looked out of place against our modern furniture. Liam's grandmother sat beside her, straight-backed and severe.

"Ava, this is Chloe," his grandmother announced, her tone leaving no room for argument. "She's from the countryside. A good, healthy girl. She'll be staying with us for a while."

Liam stood awkwardly by the fireplace, avoiding my gaze. I looked from him to the girl, Chloe, who gave me a small, nervous smile. I felt a strange mix of anger and pity. She was just a pawn in this old woman's game.

"What is this?" I asked Liam later, once his grandmother had left.

"It's just for show, Ava," he pleaded, taking me in his arms. "Grandma is just being dramatic. I'll handle it. I love you. Only you."

I wanted to believe him. I let him hold me, telling myself this was just another test for our marriage, another hurdle we would overcome together. Chloe was quiet and unassuming, always keeping to herself. She did chores around the house and spoke only when spoken to. I almost forgot she was there, a silent threat to our life.

The news came not as a bang, but as a whisper. I was at a family dinner at Liam's grandmother's estate. The air was thick with polite chatter. I overheard two of Liam's cousins talking in a corner, their voices low.

"...can you believe it? So quickly."

"Grandma is thrilled. She said Chloe is already pregnant."

The wine glass in my hand felt slick. My heart started pounding in my ears, drowning out the noise of the party. Pregnant. The word echoed in the empty space where my own hopes had lived. I looked across the room and saw Chloe, a hand resting protectively on her still-flat stomach, with Liam' s grandmother smiling beside her.

I walked out of the party without saying a word. When Liam came home that night, I was sitting in the dark, the divorce papers I had printed out lying on the coffee table between us.

"Is it true?" I asked, my voice flat.

He had the decency to look ashamed. He knelt before me, his eyes filling with tears. "Ava, I'm so sorry. It was a mistake. I was drunk that night after the business dinner. I came home, I went into the guest room... I thought it was you. I swear, I thought it was you."

His words were a pathetic excuse, a flimsy shield for his betrayal. But looking at his face, the face I had loved for more than half my life, I saw a glimmer of the man I married. A part of me, the weak part, wanted to believe him.

"Please, Ava," he begged, his voice breaking. "Don't leave me. We can get through this. I'll send her away. I'll take care of it. Just give me one more chance."

I let him convince me. The divorce papers remained unsigned. He promised he was handling it, that Chloe would be sent away with a generous sum of money to live her life elsewhere. I saw him making calls, arranging things. For a few weeks, a fragile peace settled over our home. I allowed myself to hope.

The call that destroyed everything came on a Tuesday afternoon. It was from a rival of Liam's in business, a man known for his ruthless tactics.

"I have something of your husband's," the man's voice crackled over the phone. "Two things, actually. He needs to make a choice."

I was confused until I was pulled into a black van. When I could see again, I was in a dusty, abandoned warehouse. Chloe was there too, tied to a chair opposite me, crying silently. Our kidnappers were Liam's business rivals. They had discovered his secret.

They put Liam on speakerphone. "Liam," the man said calmly. "We have your wife, Ava. And we have your other woman, Chloe, the one carrying your heir. You can only have one. We'll let one go. The other one... well, business is tough."

There was a long silence on the other end of the line. I held my breath, my heart pounding against my ribs. I knew what he should say. I knew what a husband should do.

"Let Chloe go," Liam' s voice finally came, strained and distant. "Protect the child. I need the child." Then his voice dropped, a frantic whisper directed at me. "Ava, I promise. I'll come back for you. I'll pay them whatever they want. Just hold on. I promise."

The promise was empty air. The line went dead. The men untied a sobbing Chloe and led her out of the warehouse. One of them walked over to me, a cold smile on his face.

As he raised a heavy metal pipe, my mind flooded with memories. Liam proposing to me on a windswept cliff, his eyes shining with love. The day we bought our first house, painting the walls ourselves, laughing until we were covered in blue paint. Our vows, his promise to love and protect me, in sickness and in health, for better or for worse. "For worse" had arrived.

The first blow landed on my shoulder, a searing, white-hot pain. The world spun, the concrete floor rushing up to meet me. Through the haze of pain, I heard the man laugh. "He chose the baby. Tough break."

My last thought before darkness consumed me was of Liam's empty promise, echoing in the ruins of our love. He was not coming back for me.