Breeding the Surrogate

The waiting room didn’t look like a fertility clinic. It looked more like a five-star hotel lobby. Soft white lighting poured from hidden coves in the ceiling, highlighting the curved marble reception desk and the velvet-backed chairs set around delicate glass tables. Everything gleamed. Even the receptionist’s voice was impossibly smooth.Lili sat with her hands folded tightly in her lap, her cheap canvas tote tucked beneath her feet like it might give her away. Her dress, plain navy cotton with a high neckline and no sleeves, suddenly felt like the wrong choice. Not modest enough. Not expensive enough. Not enough of anything, really.When her name was called, she stood quickly, heart racing. A tall woman in pale peach heels and a tailored cream blouse greeted her with a firm, professional smile. She looked about forty, with perfect posture, expensive perfume, and hair that didn't dare misbehave.“Liliana Vale? Please, come with me.”The consultation room was just as luxurious. Ivory

The town car was sleek black luxury, gleaming even under the overcast sky. Lili had never been inside a vehicle so quiet, so smooth, so obviously expensive. The leather seats smelled like money. Her fingers toyed with the edges of the folder in her lap as the city passed by outside, her nerves twisting tighter with every turn.They pulled up in front of a towering glass-and-steel building in the heart of the city. It didn’t just look expensive, it looked untouchable. A place where people like her only came to deliver flowers.The driver stepped out and opened the door for her.“You’ll head straight through the lobby,” he said, his tone polite but efficient. “There will be someone waiting at the elevator bank. You’re going to the top floor.”She nodded, stepped out, and looked up. The building seemed to stretch into the clouds.The lobby was a cathedral of glass and stone. Marble floors. Dark polished wood. A massive art installation hung overhead like a frozen storm of silver. Everyon

The words made her pulse skip. She felt them in her spine, in the flutter of her stomach. A declaration too bold, too raw, and yet perfectly controlled.We would fuck you.Lili stared at him. For a split second, she nearly laughed, certain it had to be a joke. A dark, dry joke.But Cade didn’t look like a man about to burst into laughter. And the looming shadow on the other side of the room, Beckett, didn’t look like the type to allow jokes in the first place. His presence made the room feel colder, heavier.Cade’s voice cut through her swirling thoughts again. “Once we’re comfortable together, of course.”She took a faltering step back, breath catching, heart kicking up its pace. “I—I’m not a—”“We would pay you ten million dollars,” Cade said, cutting smoothly across her protest. The figure left his lips like it was nothing. Casual. Off the cuff. “We’ll transfer an initial payment after your first day.”She froze. Her first instinct was disbelief. Ten million? That couldn’t be real.

At exactly 8:25 a.m., Liliana stepped into the pristine lobby, her pulse tapping an anxious rhythm against her neck. Despite being early, the sleek black town car was already waiting at the curb, its glossy surface gleaming like obsidian in the morning sun.The driver stepped out as she approached, his expression professional and unreadable. “Miss Vale,” he greeted with a small nod, just as he had the morning before. He opened the rear door for her without hesitation.The routine was the same, but she was not.As she slid into the back seat, her skirt inching higher on her thighs than she would’ve liked, Lili became painfully aware of herself in a way she hadn’t been yesterday. She tugged it down as much as she could, but there wasn’t much to work with. Her reflection in the mirror before she left had stopped her cold. The girl looking back at her had been polished, styled, expensive.After the healthiest meal she’d had in months, organic oatmeal with berries and almond butter from th

The movie was supposed to be a distraction.Something light, forgettable, romcom fluff to smooth out the knots in her chest and help her forget, just for a while, that she’d just bent over in front of two billionaire strangers like a trained pet.But it didn’t quite work.The earbuds dulled the world around her, but not completely. She was still acutely aware of their presence. Cade’s quiet murmurs, Beckett’s near-total silence. The faint rustle of papers. The subtle creak of an expensive chair shifting.The film played on, candy-colored and too bright, as her body gradually unwound. Slowly. Bit by bit. Her hands stopped shaking. Her heartbeat steadied. She sank further into the soft leather of her chair and let herself breathe. She had done it. She had followed instructions. And they had approved. That alone had earned her something. Respect, maybe. Or the illusion of safety. She wasn’t sure which.The credits were just starting to roll when a soft ping lit up the corner of her scree