LOGINJosie’s POV“Hart-Alexander Twins on the Way.” Some headlines called it a fairytale. Others called it a calculated move to lock in the empire. I sat at the kitchen island with my coffee going cold while Lily colored beside me and Alexander read the papers with a tight jaw. The secret was out. Victor had made sure of that. But the pregnancy was real. Two babies. Our babies. I touched my stomach under the table and felt the flutter again, tiny and real, like they were already reminding me what I was fighting for.“We’re still doing the wedding,” I said quietly. “The real one,no more waiting.”Alexander looked up from the paper and his eyes softened the second they met mine. “Tomorrow if you want. I don’t care about the press or the timing. I just want you as my wife for real.”Lily’s head popped up. “A wedding? With flowers and cake and me in a pretty dress?”I laughed and pulled her into my lap. “Yes baby. With flowers and cake and you in the prettiest dress ever.”We spent the mornin
Josie’s POVI woke up the next morning with Alexander’s arm still locked around my waist and the faint taste of last night’s wine on my tongue, for one quiet second everything felt right. Lily was humming in the kitchen with the nanny, the city glowed soft and gold beyond the windows, and the stock ticker on my phone showed Hart-Alexander Holdings up three percent before the market even opened, Victor’s last desperate push had failed, we had held the line.Then my phone started buzzing.Not one message. Not two. A flood. Notifications from every news app, every gossip site, every society account we had ever been tagged in. I sat up slowly, careful not to wake Alexander, and opened the first headline.HART WIDOW PREGNANT WITH UNCLE’S TWINS—REVENGE BABY OR TRUE LOVE?My stomach dropped so fast I thought I might be sick, the article had photos, blurry paparazzi shots of me leaving the pharmacy two weeks ago. Security footage from the penthouse elevator showing me touching my stomach when
Josie’s POVWe stepped off the jet into the New York night with the city lights stretching out like they were welcoming us home.Lily was waiting at the penthouse when we walked in, already in her pajamas with her bear tucked under one arm. She ran straight to us and threw herself into our arms like we had been gone for weeks instead of hours. I held her tight breathing in the smell of her shampoo and crayons while Alexander wrapped both of us up in one big hug, but the war wasn’t over.The next morning the market opened and Victor hit harder, he flooded every financial site with carefully timed leaks about “hidden liabilities” in the new Hart-Alexander Holdings, the stock dipped again, board members started calling me directly asking if the rumors were true. I sat at the desk with my hand resting on my stomach without thinking and felt the panic rise, my little babies, my tiny creatures depending on me to keep this empire standing so they would have something safe to come into, I
Josie’s POVThe jet engines hummed steady beneath us as we climbed into the sky, Alexander had insisted we fly out together to meet one of the last holdouts in Chicago. Victor’s people were still dumping shares trying to force a panic sell-off, I sat across from him in the wide leather seat with the folder of future-knowledge open on my lap. Numbers date patterns I remembered from the first timeline when the same kind of sabotage had almost broken the old Hart empire. I pointed them out one by one and watched Alexander’s jaw tighten the way it always did when he shifted into that ruthless mode I both loved and feared.“We hit their offshore accounts at exactly 2:17 p.m. their time” I said. “That’s when the big transfer always hits. Freeze it before it clears. Then we leak the internal audit we just finished, make it look like they’re the ones hiding debts not us.”He nodded once and made the call, his voice was low and cold when he spoke to the traders, I watched him work and felt
Josie’s POVI woke up with Alexander’s arm heavy across my waist and the secret sitting like a stone in my stomach, babies, twins. They were growing inside me while the world tried to rip everything apart again, I slipped out of bed before he could pull me back in and went straight to the office, the encrypted messages from Victor were still there, the stock dip had turned into a full bleed overnight, someone was dumping shares and whispering about internal collapse, I knew it was him, he was coming for the company the same way he said Alexander had come for their father.I sat at the desk in the dark and opened the files I had kept hidden. Future-knowledge from my past life. Dates. Deals. Patterns I remembered from the first timeline when the Langfords and their allies had tried the same thing. They always struck at the shipping routes first. Weakened the cash flow. Then they leaked just enough truth to make the board panic. I pulled up the live market feed and saw the pattern rep
Josie’s POVWe stood there in the hallway for a long time just holding each other while Lily slept down the hall. Alexander’s arms felt like the only solid thing left in the world and I let myself sink into them.We had promised each other alot, but the second I closed my eyes I felt the weight of Victor’s folder still sitting in my desk drawer and the words he had said at the dockyard echoing in my head. I told myself I would show Alexander everything in the morning so that we would face it together like we always did.Morning came too fast.I woke up feeling off. Not sick exactly. Just… different. My breasts were tender in a way they hadn’t been before and the smell of Alexander’s coffee made my stomach roll in a way that wasn’t normal. I slipped out of bed before he stirred and went straight to the bathroom. The little white box had been sitting in the back of the cabinet for weeks. I had bought it on a whim after one too many late nights and never opened it. Until now.I peed on t







