Chapter 1
Sabine's POV
On the day I gave birth to my daughter, Iris, my husband Hollis pushed open the hospital room door, dragging a four-year-old boy by the arm. Eyes red and welling with tears, he said, "Look who I brought home."
My mother-in-law wept tears of joy. My son, Felix—who supposedly died in the winery fire five months ago—had returned "from the dead."
The whole room was crying over this miracle, but my blood ran cold: since the second he walked through that door, Hollis hadn't spared a single glance at our newborn daughter.
I secretly collected a DNA sample from the boy and sent it for expedited testing. The results confirmed it: this wasn't my son at all. He was Hollis’s illegitimate child with another woman.
That same night, I pulled up the nursery's hidden camera footage and watched with my own eyes as this man injected poison into Iris’s breast milk. Soon after, he brazenly moved his mistress—my personal assistant—into my home.
A towering wave of hatred consumed me. I swore I would make them pay in blood...
After twenty-four blistering hours of labor, it felt like every bone in my body had been crushed. I leaned back against the hospital bed, holding my newborn daughter, Iris, tightly in my arms.
The door creaked open.
In walked my husband, Hollis. His hand was locked around the wrist of a four-year-old boy.
"Sabine," Hollis stepped toward the bed, his voice trembling. "Look who I brought home."
Trailing behind him was my mother-in-law, Lorraine. She covered her mouth, tears streaming down her face.
"Thank God! Felix isn't dead!"
Five months ago, the winery’s aging cellar caught fire. The police pulled a charred body from the ashes and handed me Felix’s death certificate.
I stared dead at the boy in front of me.
He was wearing a brand-new pair of ill-fitting overalls, his little shoulders hunched. His silhouette, his hair color, the way he looked down—it was all terrifyingly similar to Felix.
"Whose child is this?" I looked at Hollis, my voice freezing cold.
"Sabine!" Hollis looked deeply wounded. "It's our Felix!"
"Drop the act," I held Iris tighter. "My son died in that fire. Where did you find an orphan that looked so much like him?"
"Are you out of your mind?!" Lorraine lunged forward, pointing a shaking finger in my face. "Your own flesh and blood just survived death to stand right in front of you, and you're denying him?"
She glared venomously at the infant in my arms.
"Did you plan this all along? Now that you have a new baby girl, you don't want your traumatized son?"
"Traumatized by the fire." I stared at Hollis. "So where has he been for the last five months?"
"A hospital. A rehab center," Hollis said, eyes brimming with tears. "He was rescued that night. He inhaled toxic smoke and suffered burns on his back. You were pregnant with Iris and highly unstable. Dr. Halloran warned me that any massive emotional shock could cause a miscarriage."
Hollis stepped closer, looking down at me from his moral high ground.
"I bore the agony all by myself, just waiting for you to deliver safely so our family of four could reunite. And now, you won't even acknowledge him?"
He gently pushed the boy forward.
The boy flinched, shuffled to the edge of the bed, and whispered in a stiff, tiny voice, "Mommy..."
My heart violently twisted.
Hollis moved quickly, pulling down the collar of the boy's left shoulder. My eyes locked onto his shoulder blade.
There it was—a thumb-sized, caramel-colored cafe-au-lait spot. Shaped like a slender crescent moon.
Felix's unique birthmark.
I took a sharp breath, and a tear violently broke out of my eyes.
"Felix..." I suddenly burst, pulling the boy fiercely into my arms. "Oh God... It's really you! My Felix!"
My fingers dug into his back as I sobbed hysterically, my shoulders shaking.
"Sabine?" Hollis tested the waters, a flicker of caution crossing his eyes.
I abruptly lifted my head, glaring at him through my tears.
"When you walked into this room, I thought I was going insane!" I pointed a trembling finger at him, voice raspy. "You brought him in, said all those words, shed all those tears, but you didn't even glance at Iris! I am your wife who just went to hell and back to give you a daughter, and you entirely ignored her!"
I buried my face into the boy's shoulder, wailing aloud.
"I was lashing out! I thought you only cared about getting your son back, and didn't give a damn about me and Iris! How could I ever reject my Felix? He's a piece of my own soul!"
Dead silence fell over the room.
Lorraine’s aggressive arrogance evaporated, totally shut down by my "jealous postpartum meltdown." She awkwardly twitched her lips. "So that's why... I knew it."
The doubt in Hollis’s eyes vanished too, replaced by condescending relief and hidden glee.
