Chapter 2

Oakbrook Estate was the most exclusive private resort in the city.

I sat in the driver's seat, my hands white-knuckling the steering wheel.

I hadn't driven a car myself in three whole years.

As the panic attack washed over me, my heart felt like it was being fed through a meat grinder. My vision blurred, and icy sweat drenched my back.

Deep breaths, Elara. You are not sick. You are not toxic.

I chanted this over and over in my head, forcing my foot down on the gas pedal.

The spring sunshine along the drive was undeniably radiant, and the wildflowers on the roadside bloomed with a brazen vibrancy. Yet, it all felt like an elaborate mockery of my own blinding stupidity.

By the time I reached the estate, it was mid-afternoon.

I easily located the most lavish villa on the property. Sunlight poured through a massive glass dome, flooding the interior.

I peered through the window.

Theron was lounging on the sofa, his eyes practically melting with a sickeningly tender gaze.

Daphne, clad in a sheer silk slip dress, leaned languidly against his chest. Her finger traced idle circles over his heart as they shared a soft, intimate laugh.

And my son, Flynn, was sprawled on the plush rug, building a Lego set.

He looked the picture of perfect health, his cheeks flushed and rosy.

"Mommy Daphne!" Flynn suddenly held up a completed section of blocks, running excitedly toward her. "Look, I built a giant castle! We're going to live here together forever!"

Mommy Daphne.

Those two words felt like a rusty, jagged blade plunging straight through my eardrums and twisting violently in my skull.

The son I had labored over for three agonizing days and nights, nearly bleeding to death in the delivery room.

The son I had sacrificed my career for. The son whose suffering I had hated myself for over five agonizing years.

And now, he was calling another woman Mommy.

Daphne beamed, taking the toy and pressing a kiss to Flynn's cheek. "Good job, sweetheart. Once your daddy finally gets rid of that crazy woman, we'll be together all the time, okay?"

Flynn nodded vigorously. "Yeah! I hate that monster mommy. She's always so creepy and sad. I don't want her, I want Mommy Daphne!"

Theron flinched slightly, casting a brief, guilty glance toward the door.

"Theron," Daphne cooed, resting her chin playfully on his shoulder. "Just how much longer can you milk that ridiculous 'Rejection Syndrome' excuse? I am so sick of only getting to see you two for three months out of the year."

Theron rubbed his temples in irritation, his gaze shifting evasively. "Just give me a little more time. Her mental state is incredibly fragile right now. I don't want to completely destroy her..."

I clamped a hand over my mouth, fighting back a violent wave of nausea.

Enough.

No matter how deep our love once was, this five-year campaign of deception and exploitation was over. I squeezed my eyes shut against the agonizing pain, the decision to file for divorce solidifying in my chest.

I turned on my heel, ready to walk away from this waking nightmare, when Daphne's harsh, mocking laugh suddenly pierced the glass.

"Completely destroy her? Oh, Theron, are you actually getting addicted to playing the devoted husband?"

"You seem to have forgotten that I am your legally wedded wife! What the hell is she? If I hadn't been infertile—if we hadn't needed to use her as a walking incubator to birth Flynn—would you really have gone through the trouble of forging a fake marriage certificate just to con her?!"

The heartbreak that had just moments ago spurred my decision to divorce was instantly swallowed black by an abyss of absolute, freezing absurdity.

The air vanished from my lungs.

The jagged, ugly C-section scar tracking across my abdomen—the one left from my near-fatal hemorrhage five years ago—suddenly began to spasm violently. It felt as though someone was burying their bare hands in my flesh, ruthlessly tearing me open all over again.

A fake marriage? I was just a surrogate?!

At that exact moment, Flynn abruptly turned his head, looking straight toward the floor-to-ceiling glass.

His eyes widened in shock, the Lego blocks slipping from his little fingers and clattering to the hardwood floor.

"Mommy's here!"