Chapter 1

The report hit the floor with a sharp sound that broke the silence in the private room.

Alexander's head snapped up, ready to lash out at whoever had interrupted him. Then he saw me standing in the doorway.

He immediately let go of Sienna and walked over to me, wrapping an arm around my waist as he always did.

"Honey..."

I cut him off. "Is this what you meant by handling family business?"

Tears burned my eyes, but I was the Slade heir. I couldn't afford to lose my dignity, so I straightened my spine and refused to let him see how much it hurt.

He didn't answer. Instead, he glanced back at Sienna, who sat curled up nervously on the bed.

Alexander pulled me out into the corridor. "Evelyn, Sienna scares easily. You frightened her."

Then he frowned, his voice turning cold. "Why are you even here?"

There was no concern in his eyes, only suspicion. He thought I'd followed him here.

My heart clenched.

Alexander, the man I'd loved for 13 years, had forgotten why I'd come to the hospital. I was there to get my IVF results.

The realization drained the last bit of strength from me. "I have better things to do, Alexander. You're the one who owes me an explanation."

He said nothing. He just kept looking at me with suspicion.

I couldn't stand there any longer. I picked up my report from the floor and walked away.

The moment I stepped out of the hospital, rain began to pour.

My assistant hurried over with an umbrella, but I waved him away and walked into the rain alone.

My mouth tasted bitter. I couldn't tell whether it was from the rain or my tears.

All the way back to the estate, I kept hoping Alexander would come after me and explain himself.

I even made excuses for him in my head. Maybe he was just taking care of a pregnant employee. Maybe the baby belonged to his brother, the one who had run away and never returned.

But Alexander never came. He didn't even bother to explain.

I lay on the huge silk-covered bed, tears slipping down my face. My phone sat beside me, but not a single message came.

I cried myself to sleep and dreamed of the past.

At 15, I was completing the Slade family's rite of passage in a small town called Grassmere, where I was funding a program for poor children.

That was where I met Alexander. He was 17, badly injured, and covered in blood.

He had just escaped from an underground fight club, and blood still trickled from the corner of his mouth.

He stumbled into me and grabbed the spotless hem of my dress.

"Do you need a bodyguard, miss? I'll be loyal to you forever."

He looked up at me, his eyes bright with ambition and a desperate will to survive. My heart raced.

"Just go stay at the house by the sea. I'll come see you and the baby when I have time. Don't worry. I'll keep you both safe."

A familiar voice beside me pulled me out of the dream.

I slowly opened my swollen eyes. Alexander was sitting on the couch in my bedroom, talking to Sienna on the phone.

When he saw I was awake, he quickly hung up and came over to kiss me as though nothing had happened.

I pushed against his shoulders, but he only held me tighter.

"Did you sleep all right?" He scooped me up and carried me over to the dining table. "I got you your favorite chocolates."

A box from my favorite chocolate shop sat on the table. Alexander picked up a piece and held it to my lips.

I turned my head away as wave after wave of nausea rolled through me.

He still thought I was the same woman I'd always been, as if one piece of chocolate could make everything okay again.

I shot to my feet, sending the chair scraping across the floor, then headed for the stairs.

I couldn't bear to look at Alexander again. The sight of him made me sick.

He grabbed my hand. "Darling, are you jealous?"

"Get lost."

I tried to shake him off, but he pulled me into his arms and sighed softly in my ear.

"Evelyn, I love you. Sienna is no threat to your place. You're the woman I love most."

He kissed my earlobe, and my whole body trembled with disgust. I couldn't take it anymore. I slapped him.

"Alexander Roswell, you make me sick. You're rotten to the core. You deliberately took your mistress to a Slade hospital for a prenatal checkup. Were you trying to humiliate me? Or are you trying to make an enemy of my family?"

Anger flashed across his face. Since he'd become the Don, no one had dared speak to him that way. But he quickly suppressed it.

"Evelyn, be reasonable. The Roswell family needs an heir, and the Slade hospitals are among the best in the world."

I wanted to scream at him. I wanted to throw every failed IVF report in his face.

But I couldn't. I was an heiress. I couldn't throw away the last of my dignity by breaking down over his secret lover and an illegitimate child.

His words were so ridiculous I almost laughed.

Did he think I didn't want a child?

I'd always cared about my appearance and taken good care of my body. But to have his child, I'd swallowed countless pills and endured injection after injection. My stomach was now covered in needle marks.

"Evelyn," Alexander said again, "I don't understand why you're upset. With Sienna, you get to be a mother without putting your body through any of it. When her baby is born, I'll hand him to you to raise."

Rage flooded through me. I forgot all about keeping my composure. I grabbed the nearest thing on the table and hurled it at him.

"Get out!"

Right then, his phone rang.

I glanced at the screen. Sienna.

Alexander glanced at her name on the screen, told me to get some rest, and then left the estate.

I sank to the floor amid the scattered chocolates, tears spilling down my face. A dull ache throbbed low in my stomach, right where I'd given myself another fertility shot that morning.

For the first time, I saw Alexander for exactly what he was. Cold. Faithless. A hypocrite.

One moment, he was whispering sweet words to me. The next, a single call from his mistress was enough to send him running out the door.

I wasn't going to let him get away with trampling on the Slade family's dignity.

I dried my eyes, picked up my phone, and sent one message.

"Block every Roswell project currently underway."