Chapter 2

"How would she ever find out?" Inside the office, my mother, Evelyn, let out a scoff before taking a sip of her black tea.

"Chloe has been as dumb as a pig since she was a little girl. Give her a slight bit of affection, and she stops questioning everything. She doesn't have the brains to be suspicious."

As soon as the words left her mouth, Liam raised his eyes, shooting Evelyn an icy glare.

Clearly intimidated by her son-in-law, Evelyn abruptly stopped talking and clamped her mouth shut.

Liam withdrew his gaze. He grabbed Serena by the wrist and yanked her closer to him.

"Don't worry about that," he said, his tone arrogant. "She will never know."

Taking advantage of the pull, Serena perched herself on the arm of his sofa. Her fingers undid a button on Liam's shirt, tracing lazy circles over his collarbone. "You never know. A woman's intuition is a tricky thing. You two sleep in the same bed every single night. What if she catches on someday?"

Liam chuckled and wrapped a hand around her waist, pulling her into an intimate embrace. "Even if she does figure out something is off, with her personality, she would never march into a clinic and get rid of the baby. You know how desperately she wants a child. Besides, she loves me too much. She could never bear to hurt my baby."

Serena let out a low laugh and pressed a kiss against his jaw. "You've always had her wrapped around your finger. Honestly, three years ago, when you looked ready to kill me over that stab wound, I thought we were completely over."

"I really did hate you back then." Liam's hand slid down the curve of Serena's back. "But life can't always be so bland. Married life is just too boring."

Serena giggled. "Hearing that, you should probably thank Evelyn. If she hadn't been smart enough to slip those pills into your drink when you were drunk... you wouldn't have been nearly so honest that night."

Liam leaned in closer to her. "The process doesn't matter."

Pressed against the freezing wall of the hallway, my entire body trembled.

From their casual, careless conversation, I pieced together every detail of the past few years, watching the sickening puzzle form in my mind.

In the beginning, Liam truly had loved me. He had been filled with guilt and devotion over me saving his life.

But he quickly grew tired of our domestic routine. Serena’s volatile, extreme nature was exactly what he craved to fill his emptiness.

And my own biological mother had been the driving force behind this betrayal.

Under Serena’s orders, Evelyn had drugged Liam’s drink, orchestrating their very first night together.

For the last few years, Liam had played the role of a loving husband on the surface while maintaining a torrid affair with Serena in the dark.

And this baby... Serena wanted Liam's child, but she refused to endure the physical toll of pregnancy herself.

So, she suggested using me as a ready-made incubator.

She even promised that as soon as the child was born, they would directly inherit her massive fortune.

Driven by greed and the desire for an heir, Liam agreed without a second thought.

He figured that after being tangled up with Serena for so long, compensating her with a baby was only fair.

And I? I would essentially get the child I had always dreamed of.

So they bribed the doctors and secretly implanted their fertilized embryo into my body.

In their eyes, it was a perfectly executed transaction.

Memories slashed through my brain like razor blades.

Over the past four months, Liam had been exceptionally overjoyed every time a prenatal test came back positive.

I had thought it was because he loved me. Now I realized he was never looking at me through this child.

And what about Evelyn?

A horrifying chill shot straight down my spine.

Every single night for the past few years, my mother would bring me a glass of warm milk, standing there to watch me drink it all.

She had been lacing it with heavy, sleep-inducing sedatives.

She kept me knocked out just to clear the way for my husband and my stepsister to sleep together under my own roof!

My legs turned to jelly, and I nearly collapsed onto the carpet.

I clamped my hands hard over my mouth, refusing to let even the slightest whimper escape.

Finally, I turned around and walked away.

The sky outside was grim and overcast.

I hailed a cab and gave the driver the address of a private maternity clinic.

Sitting in the examination room, I ignored the doctor's stern warnings. Risking a catastrophic miscarriage, I fiercely demanded an immediate, expedited amniocentesis.

"Ma'am, performing an amnio at your current week of gestation carries a real risk of triggering contractions," the doctor said, watching me with a pen in hand.

"Do it," I said, leaning back in the medical chair. My voice was completely dead.

The freezing needle pierced the skin of my abdomen, embedding itself into my uterus with a sharp, agonizing stab.

As the amniotic fluid was slowly drawn out, I squeezed my eyes shut.

Even now, I was still pathetically clinging to a shred of hope, praying to God that everything I had heard back in that office was just some sick joke.

It took two grueling days for the DNA report to process. I didn't know how I was supposed to face Liam.

Fortunately, he had been "working late." Every morning when he left, I was still in bed, and by the time he came back, I was already pretending to be asleep.

Even though I knew his so-called overtime was just an excuse to mess around with Serena, I was too numb to care.

Two days later, a nurse handed me the expedited DNA results.

The waiting area in the hallway was completely empty.

I flipped open the thin sheets of paper. It took no medical degree to understand the clear, objective conclusion printed on the final page.

The report confirmed it. The baby growing inside my womb had absolutely zero biological connection to me.