005

Chapter Five

Addie’s POV

I turned around slowly, my heart seizing in my chest.

Standing behind Sebastian’s chair in casual denim and a jacket was Felix—Preston’s younger brother.

A sudden panic flared up in my throat, making my palms sweat against the paper cup.

Why was he even at Saint Mary’s?

I forced myself to take a breath, trying to calm the racing beat of my pulse. Sebastian was my sister's husband. We were in-laws. It shouldn't be strange for two family members to sit in a public hospital cafeteria sharing a table, right?

Why was I sitting here terrified like I had already committed a crime?

"Hi, Felix," I forced out, my voice cracking slightly before I cleared my throat to steady it.

"Hey, Addie," Felix said, walking over with a broad, genuine grin on his face. He nodded respectfully toward Sebastian. "Mr. Greene. Didn't expect to see you down here."

Sebastian merely gave a polite, detached nod, leaning back in his chair without offering a single word of explanation.

Felix turned his attention right back to me, his eyebrows furrowing in playful confusion.

"What are you doing down here in the basement?" Felix asked, gesturing toward the elevator bank. "Why aren't you back up on the third floor listening to the baby's heartbeat with Preston?"

The room seemed to tilt sideways.

"What... what do you mean?" I asked, my fingers digging into my knees under the table to keep myself from shaking apart.

"Preston called Mom and me this morning on his way over," Felix explained with a chuckle, totally oblivious to the blade he was driving into my chest. "He told us you guys had decided to try alternative reproductive routes—surrogacy and donor options—because you were terrified of the health risks of carrying a pregnancy yourself."

He rubbed the back of his neck, smiling warmly at me.

"He said the procedure took on the first try, and that you two had the eight-week confirmation scan scheduled for today. He sounded so excited on the phone. Said he was buying the biggest bouquet he could find to celebrate."

Every single drop of blood drained from my face.

Alternative options.

Surrogacy.

Preston hadn't just cheated on me. He hadn't just planted his child inside my sister while leaving me to bleed out in a trauma bay.

He had already drafted the cover story for his entire family.

He was setting the stage to pass off Darcia’s illegitimate pregnancy as our surrogate baby, painting me as a fragile, fearful wife who couldn't handle carrying a child, while he played the devoted, doting husband making miracles happen behind the scenes.

The audacity of it was so monstrous, so meticulously calculated, that my breath hitched in my dry throat.

"Addie?" Felix tilted his head, noticing the pale shock on my skin. "You okay?"

I dug my nails so deep into the flesh of my palms that I felt the skin break.

I forced my lips to curve upward, stretching them into the widest, brightest, most radiant smile I had ever worn in my entire life.

"I'm wonderful, Felix," I said, my voice smooth, and perfectly cheerful. "I was just feeling a little overwhelmed from all the excitement upstairs, so I stepped down to the cafeteria for a quick breath of fresh air. I was with Preston just a little while ago."

Felix beamed, letting out a relieved sigh. "Man, that makes sense. It's huge news! Mom is already crying on the phone trying to plan a nursery shower."

"Tell her to wait until the first trimester clears," I replied with a soft, practiced laugh that felt like swallowing glass.

"Will do," Felix said, giving my shoulder an affectionate squeeze. "I'm heading up to the fourth floor to drop off some dental files for a client, but I wanted to say congratulations, Addie. You guys are going to be amazing parents."

"Thank you, Felix," I murmured.

The very second Felix turned his back and walked toward the double doors, the fake smile slid from my face like melted wax.

A single, scalding tear broke free from my eyelash and tracked a slow, silent path down my cold cheek.

How dare he?

How dare that lying, narcissistic bastard use his own mother, his brother, and me to build a shield for his filthy affair?

He was going to bring Darcia's bastard child into our home, make me smile for family photos, and force me to play mother to my sister's baby while the two of them laughed at me behind closed doors.

I wiped the wet streak from my cheek with the back of my hand and slowly looked across the small table.

Sebastian was staring at me.

His dark eyes were unblinking, stripped of their usual arrogance, holding a look of pity that burned worse than an insult.

Fuck. 

I didn't have time to sit here weeping into some cheap paper cup.

I didn't have time to mourn a dead marriage, a traitorous sister, or the five years of my life I had wasted on a man who saw me as nothing more than a convenient prop in his little theater.

If Preston and Darcia could paint me in the bright, humiliating colors of a fool without losing a single night of sleep...

Then I was going to make sure they burned in the exact same circus they created.

I leaned forward across the table, fixing my gaze onto Sebastian’s face with a terrifying clarity I had never felt before in my life.

"I accept your proposal, Sebastian," I whispered, my voice hard as diamond, without a single tremor left in my throat.

Sebastian’s eyes darkened, the corners of his lips curving into a slow, lethal smirk.

"You're very sure, Addie?" he asked for the sake of it, his voice a low, dangerous rumble.

"Six months," I said, holding out my hand over the table. "I'll be whatever you want me to be. Just make sure they lose everything.”