Chapter 1

"I've explained this a hundred times. Elias has cancer. He has a year left, at most. All he wants is to leave his family a child. He saved my life once, Dorian. I have to help him fulfill that wish!"

Dorian Halberg had heard some version of that speech almost every day for the past month.

The first time Marielle Rousseau suggested carrying another man's baby, he'd refused without hesitation. She hadn't accepted his answer. What began as a tentative request had become an argument she felt entitled to win, as though refusing made him some kind of monster.

How did saving a life entitle someone to a child?

After a month of fighting, Dorian was exhausted. Looking at the woman he'd loved for five years, he asked in a hoarse voice, "Marielle, we're getting married in two weeks. You want to have another man's baby right before our wedding. What does that make me?"

She looked startled by how defeated he sounded. For once, her expression softened.

"I know it's hard to accept, but I'm the only person who can help Elias. I can't just watch him die with that regret. Besides, it's artificial insemination. Nothing physical will happen between us. You love me. You'll understand, won't you?"

His heart sank. She'd already made her choice. His opinion was a formality.

Before she could continue, her phone rang. She glanced at the screen and stepped onto the balcony to answer it.

Dorian watched her go with a bitter smile.

They'd known each other since grade school. They'd been in the same classes, then attended the same university. He'd loved her from childhood and stayed at her side for years without receiving much in return. Only at graduation had she finally acknowledged his devotion and agreed to date him.

After more than twenty years of knowing each other and five years as a couple, he should have been the person she trusted most.

Instead, he'd never been allowed to touch her phone. She even took calls out of his hearing.

Once, while she was sick with a high fever, her phone kept chiming beside the bed. Dorian reached over to silence it so she could rest. She opened her eyes just as his fingers touched the screen and immediately accused him of snooping. No explanation could convince her otherwise. He'd spent that night curled up alone on the couch.

He'd told himself she was simply private. Eventually, he would earn her complete trust.

Five years later, nothing had changed.

Now she wanted to carry Elias Bruckner's child without a thought for the man she was supposed to marry.

When Marielle came back inside, she was visibly delighted. She grabbed her coat and headed straight for the door.

"Something's come up. I need to go out. Think about what I've said."

Dorian listened to her hurried footsteps fade away.

Only Elias could make her rush out like that.

A little while later, a photograph arrived from Elias himself.

Dorian enlarged it.

The image on his screen nearly brought him to his knees.