My Lover Helped Another Woman Pretend to Be Me

Three years into being Nathan Cole’s kept woman, I learned I was the missing daughter of one of the wealthiest families in the city.

I was about to go to them when I saw the news. Nathan had already taken his childhood friend to the party welcoming their daughter home.

When I got there, I found Vanessa Reed crying against his chest.

“What if Claire finds out?”

Nathan wiped her tears away.

“She won’t. And you need to stop feeling guilty.

“Enjoy being a Whitmore. I’ll take care of her for the rest of her life. She won’t want for anything.”

I rested a hand over my stomach.

What a joke.

I’d almost believed that with his baby on the way and the Whitmore name, I’d finally be good enough to marry him.

————————————

The lounge door stood slightly open.

Nathan’s hand was still against Vanessa’s cheek. He brushed a tear from the corner of her eye with his thumb.

She was wearing a full set of emerald jewelry.

According to the news, Mrs. Whitmore had saved it for her eldest daughter.

The girl had disappeared twenty-one years ago. Afraid her daughter would come home with nothing suitable to wear, Mrs. Whitmore had bought a new set every year and put it in her safe.

Now Vanessa was wearing one.

I pushed the door open.

“Nathan.”

His hand dropped. He glanced at the document envelope I was clutching, then back at my face.

“What are you doing here?”

I held it up.

“You gave her my place in that family, didn’t you?”

Vanessa drew back behind him. He raised an arm in front of her.

“There are people everywhere. We’ll talk at home.”

I stared at the arm he’d put between us.

Three years earlier, I’d been doing odd jobs at a bookbinding studio. Nathan had come to collect a custom art book and happened to see my boss docking my pay.

He’d covered the money I was owed, then asked whether I wanted to leave with him.

I was twenty-two. I had a vocational school certificate, no family, and a rented apartment with a leaking ceiling.

He’d stood under the awning in a neatly pressed shirt.

“I can give you a home. I can give you the love you want.

“All you have to do is listen to me. I promise no one will hurt you again.”

So I’d gone with him.

Three years later, his friends still referred to me as the girl Nathan kept.

I’d always wondered whether a better background would have earned me a proper place in his life.

Instead, he’d given someone else the identity that was mine to begin with.