Chapter 3

I froze.

The nanny hurried over and scooped the girl back into her arms, looking embarrassed. "You look so much like the lady of the house. No wonder she got confused. I'm so sorry about that."

Inside the spacious living room hung a family portrait: Zeke, my sister, and their daughter, all three of them together.

Looking at the little girl standing in front of me, I felt all the blood in my body run cold.

I was still trying to convince myself it was some kind of mistake when Crystal came out in a bathrobe and swept the girl, Janice Malone, into her arms. "Janice, what are you—"

The moment she saw me, her expression froze.

My lips moved, but barely any sound came out. "What... is going on here?"

Crystal opened her mouth, then closed it again. Right then, Zeke walked out, and the smile on his face died instantly.

"Lizzie, let me explain. This child was an accident. Back then, I mistook her for you, and that's how Janice came to us. She's been kept and raised elsewhere all these years. This doesn't have to change anything between us."

We'd once had a child together too. He used to press his palm against my stomach and murmur baby names, calling out to our little one over and over.

"Our baby's going to be just as adorable as you are," he used to say.

Now here he was, holding another woman's child with that exact same doting look on his face.

Through the gap in the door, I could see the living room was an exact replica of ours. Same sofa, same mural on the wall, the only difference being the happy family portrait hanging where ours would have been.

So the two of them had been keeping another home behind my back this whole time.

Something in me went numb. "When did this start?"

Zeke looked away, guilt written across his face. "Three years ago. When Crystal went abroad that one time, we ran into each other over there."

I did the math in my head. That was the exact same trip where Crystal had told me she'd finally tracked down where our parents were living.

I'd waited for that news with my whole heart hopeful, waited for the only family I had in this world to come back to me with news so we could finally be together. Instead, that was the trip where she and my fiancé had conceived a child.

And I'd lost my one chance at ever finding my real parents.

Rage burned through whatever restraint I had left. I raised my hand and slapped her across the face.

"Ah!"

Crystal clutched her reddened cheek, staring at me in shock.

A second later, Zeke grabbed my wrist.

"Lizzie, ever since you were assaulted, you've become completely irrational. You're being completely unreasonable!"

I froze, unable to believe those words had come out of his mouth. He was the one who'd turned me into this, and now he was twisting it around to blame me for being unreasonable.

The wound on my stomach had torn open again, and I couldn't even feel it.

Zeke seemed to realize he'd misspoken and opened his mouth to take it back, but before he could, the little girl in Crystal's arms shoved me.

"Go away!"

I instinctively raised a hand to block her, and the girl burst into tears.

Zeke panicked instantly, and his gaze turning venomous.

"You'd hurt a child this small? She's innocent. If you have a problem, take it out on me!"

He didn't hold back. He shoved me to the floor with all his strength.

Every wound on my body split open at once, blood seeping through.

But I didn't cry. I just watched him instinctively shield Crystal and their daughter, the three of them looking far more like a real family than we ever had. Whatever had still been burning in my chest finally went out.

"Zeke, we're over."

Something flickered across his eyes, surprise, and then he gave a knowing, cold laugh.

"I'm the man you love most in this world, and Crystal is the only family you have left. You could never actually let go of either of us. And you know how much I hate being threatened."

He was so sure of himself, so certain I'd never leave him, that he'd felt free to wreck my entire life just to pave the way for my sister. But this time, he was wrong.

"I mean it, I'm—"

Before I could finish, Crystal, still holding Janice, suddenly screamed.

"She's burning up. I think the shock gave her a fever. We need to get her to a hospital now!"

Zeke bolted toward them in a panic, not even realizing he'd knocked me down in the process, and hurried the girl into the car.

I tumbled down the front steps. My vision went black, and I felt a warm gush suddenly flowed between my legs.