Chapter 1

The two pink lines on the test stick were the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.

I stared at them, my heart pounding a fast, happy beat against my ribs. After five years of marriage, five years of quiet hopes and hushed prayers, it was finally happening.

I was pregnant.

My hand trembled as I wrapped the test in tissue paper and placed it carefully into a small gift box. This was it. This was the news that would make our life complete.

David would be so happy.

I imagined his face, the way his eyes would light up, the wide, brilliant smile that always made my own heart feel full. He talked about our future family all the time, about teaching our son to throw a baseball or walking our daughter down the aisle.

He was in his study at his family' s old estate, a place he went to for quiet work. I decided right then I couldn't wait. I couldn't tell him over the phone. I had to see his face. I grabbed my keys, my purse, and the little box that held our entire future. The drive was a blur of happy thoughts and plans racing through my mind.

The old house was quiet when I arrived, just as I expected. I let myself in with my key, my steps silent on the thick Persian rugs. I wanted it to be a perfect surprise. The door to his study was slightly ajar, a sliver of warm light spilling into the dark hallway. I could hear his voice, low and familiar. He was with someone.

I smiled to myself, thinking it was his best friend, Liam. Perfect. Liam could be the first to congratulate us. I crept closer, my hand on the doorknob, ready to swing it open with a joyful shout.

But then I heard David' s words, and the world stopped.

"She can never find out, Liam. Not ever."

His voice was hard, a tone I had never heard him use when talking about me. A cold feeling started in my stomach. Find out about what?

Liam' s voice was strained. "David, this is insane. Five years. You' ve been living a double life for five years."

"It was necessary," David snapped back. "Rebecca understands. She knows what' s at stake."

Rebecca.

The name hit me, but it didn't make sense. Rebecca Davies was a woman I vaguely knew, a struggling artist my family' s charity had once sponsored. David had always spoken of her with a kind of pity, a dismissive tone that made me feel a little guilty for our own good fortune.

"Understands? She' s your wife, David! Your actual wife!" Liam' s voice rose, full of disbelief.

My breath caught in my throat. I couldn' t breathe. I pressed my ear flat against the cold, heavy wood of the door, my body frozen.

"And Sarah?" Liam asked, his voice softer now.

I heard the clink of ice in a glass, then David' s long sigh. "Sarah is... she' s different. I do love her, in my own way. She' s sweet, she' s trusting. She makes things easy."

His words were poison. Every syllable dripped with a casual cruelty that felt like a physical blow. Sweet. Trusting. Easy. He made me sound like a pet.

"But Rebecca is my wife," David' s voice was firm, leaving no room for argument. "She gave me Thomas. He' s my son, my heir. Everything I' m doing is to protect his inheritance, to secure the Thompson legacy."

Thomas. A son. He had a son.

The gift box in my hand suddenly felt heavy, obscene. My surprise, my joy, it was all a joke. I was the joke.

I heard David laugh, a low, bitter sound. "Rebecca and I made a deal. She gets the status, the security. Thomas gets everything. And I get... peace. A life without complications."

"You call this peace?" Liam sounded disgusted. "You' re lying to everyone. What about Sarah? What is she in all this?"

There was a long pause. I held my breath, my ears straining, needing to hear the final, damning truth.

"She' s the woman I love to be with," David said, his voice dropping to that intimate tone he always used with me. The tone that made me believe every lie he ever told. "But she' s not my wife. She was never going to be my wife. She' s the mistress. A very, very beloved mistress, but a mistress nonetheless."

The word hung in the air, ugly and final.

Mistress.

The floor beneath my feet seemed to disappear. I leaned against the wall, the blood draining from my face. My entire marriage, my entire life for the past five years, was a lie. A carefully constructed sham. Every "I love you," every shared dream, every tender touch was a performance.

I was just a side piece, a pleasant diversion from his real life. The woman he kept for fun while his real wife and his real son lived somewhere else, holding the titles that I thought were mine.

My mind went blank. The shock was a physical force, hollowing me out completely. I couldn' t think. I couldn' t feel. There was only the sound of his voice, echoing in my head, tearing my world apart piece by piece. I was a fool. A naive, trusting fool.

And I was carrying the child of a man who had never truly been mine.