Chapter 1

Freya's POV

When I woke up in the stark white hospital room, my world had already stopped turning.

"Her shock was triggered by extreme psychological trauma," the doctor's voice drifted through the partially open door. "Keep her calm. No stress."

"Just fix her!" a man roared.

The door crashed open.

Aaron Kensington rushed in. The ruthless tech empire CEO who once fought his entire board of directors to marry me—a woman with absolutely no background—dropped to his knees by my bed.

He had shelved a multi-billion-dollar Silicon Valley merger just to fly back overnight on his private jet.

I stared at him. His eyes were violently bloodshot.

"Freya." He grabbed my hand. His voice shook.

The billionaire who never even blinked at corporate hostile takeovers was trembling all over just because I had passed out.

"I'm here, baby," he choked out. "I'm right here."

Looking into his eyes—eyes I used to trust with my entire life—felt worse than being sliced apart.

"Why are you shaking?" I asked, my voice hollow.

"Because I almost lost you!" He kissed my knuckles frantically. "Tell me what happened."

His love wasn't an act. But beneath the perfect surface, it was rotting to the core.

My mind flashed to the anonymous email I read right before I collapsed.

"You're lying to me," I whispered, testing him.

"What?" He froze. "Baby, what are you talking about? Tell me who hurt you. I'll destroy them."

You, I wanted to scream.

He had a secret. Her name was Brianna Steel. The so-called "family friend" and fiercely independent businesswoman.

And Sophia. Their three-year-old daughter with a rare congenital heart defect.

He hid them from me for years. Worse, he used the charity fund set up in my name to secretly build a top-tier private medical research center overseas for them.

I had seen the legal documents. They listed Aaron as the little girl's "emergency guardian".

My hand trembled as it slid down to my stomach.

"Does it hurt?" Aaron panicked, tracking my movement. "Doctor! Get in here!"

"Don't," I rasped, grabbing his silk tie.

Three years of marriage. Countless agonizing, tear-filled IVF cycles. And I was finally pregnant.

Now, all I could do was let the tears fall.

"Don't cry, please," Aaron begged, pulling me into his broad chest, coaxing me gently. "Whatever it is, I can fix it. I promise."

I pressed my face into his shoulder.

Then, the scent hit me.

Beneath the rich, masculine cedar of his bespoke suit, I caught it.

A highly specific, sterile odor. Pediatric hospital disinfectant.

And cutting through that chemical smell? The faint, undeniable floral notes of another woman’s perfume.

My stomach violently churned.

"Get off me!" I shoved his chest hard.

I sprinted into the attached bathroom.

I dropped over the toilet, dry heaving until my throat burned and bled.

He didn't flinch. He dropped to the floor beside me, completely uncaring about his ruined designer suit, gently patting my back.

"I've got you," he murmured, wiping my mouth with a towel. "Let it out. I'm not going anywhere."

I choked on a sob. I almost broke.

I was a fraction of a second away from forgiving him. I wanted to scream that I was pregnant, beg him on my knees to cut ties with Brianna, and pretend none of this happened.

I looked at him, my walls crumbling. "Aaron... I have to tell you something. I—"

Bzzzt.

His encrypted private phone violently vibrated.

Aaron froze. He glanced at the screen, and a muscle ticked in his jaw.

He leaned in, kissing my sweaty forehead.

"Core server security breach," he lied smoothly, his eyes masking the panic. "I have to handle this. Give me ten minutes."

"Don't go," I pleaded.

"I'll be right back, baby." He walked out of the ward without looking back.

Thirty minutes later, my own phone buzzed.

A message from Brianna.

I tapped the screen. It was a photo.

Aaron, wearing a sterile isolation suit, sitting in a private hospital room. He was gently kissing the sick little girl's forehead.

There was zero guilt on his face. Only the calm, heavy responsibility of a father.

That single photo completely shattered my last illusion.

"I'm checking out," I told the stunned nurse ten minutes later.

Once discharged, I didn't order my driver to take me back home.

"Change of plans," I told the cab driver. "Downtown."

I went straight to Mia Jones. My best friend. A top-tier hacker and systems architect.

I threw my bag on her desk. "I need a favor."

"You look like a ghost," Mia said, spinning around in her chair. "Where's Aaron?"

"Rewrite the underlying code of my fully autonomous car," I commanded, my voice dead.

Mia paused, her fingers freezing over her keyboard. "Excuse me?"

"I need a plunge into the ocean. Something not even the black box can trace back as human error."

"Are you out of your damn mind?!" Mia sprang up, her eyes wide with terror. "Freya, no!"

"He lied, Mia. He has a child. A whole other life."

"Then divorce him! Sue him for half his empire! Don't kill yourself!"

"Do you really think he’ll let me go?" I grabbed her shoulders, my nails digging in. "With his terrifying control and capital power? As long as I am alive, I can absolutely never escape him."

Mia stared at me, the blood draining from her face.

"I am dead either way," I whispered. "Help me make it official."

She swallowed hard. She didn't argue anymore.

I didn't wait. I went back home and started the purge.

I pulled out the billion-dollar stock proxy authorizations he bought me to prove his loyalty.

Rrip. Shredded.

I pulled out our gold-embossed marriage certificate.

Straight into the paper shredder.

I sat in the darkness, watching the symbol of my fake life turn into confetti.

At exactly midnight, my screen lit up in the pitch-black room.

An encrypted, scrambled text from Mia.

I decrypted it with shaking hands.

Base logic altered. In two days, the typhoon hits, and you will disappear forever.

I touched my flat stomach one last time.

Let him be a hero to his perfect family. I was taking my baby, and I was vanishing.