Chapter 1

On the night Valen Varesi's dying first love went into labor, his parents stationed armed men outside my suite to make sure I stayed far away from the private maternity floor and the birth of the Varesi family's heir.

I never gave them the scene they were expecting.

Not when Sabina Orsini was taken into surgery, not when the baby's first cry carried through the corridor, and not when the whole family finally relaxed.

His mother sat beside Sabina's bed, clutching her hand with relief. "As long as we're here," she said, "that barren wife of his won't get anywhere near you or the baby."

Valen stood at Sabina's side, wiping the sweat from her forehead with a tenderness I had once believed was mine. "Don't worry," he said. "My father has men covering every exit. If Nerina tries anything, she'll be gone before the night is over."

Only then did he finally let himself breathe.

As far as Valen was concerned, he had done nothing unforgivable. He had granted a dying woman one final wish and secured the bloodline his family had demanded for years. I was the one refusing to be reasonable.

He had even decided that if I came later, apologized to Sabina, and stopped fighting him, he might be generous enough to let me raise the boy in name and keep my place as Mrs. Varesi.

What never crossed his mind was that I had already made my decision.

By the time Valen finally opens the "gift" I left for his heir ceremony, I will already be gone.

And the only thing waiting for him inside is a divorce notice, a twin pregnancy report—

and the truth that the children carrying his real bloodline will never call him father.

...

My hand drifted to my still-flat stomach as I pushed open the doors to the main residence. I had come home carrying news I thought might change everything.

Laughter reached me first.

His mother was bent over a bassinet, smiling as though the family's future was secured. "He's beautiful," she said. "All Varesi. Sabina, you've given this house a miracle."

Valen emerged from the kitchen with a bowl of broth and crossed the room without seeing me. He sat beside Sabina, lifting a spoon to her lips. "You need to eat," he said softly. "You've just given birth."

He fed her with a tenderness I once believed was mine alone. Across from them, his father gazed at the baby with open satisfaction. "Thank God he takes after his mother. Imagine if he'd gotten that quiet doctor's temperament."

My grip tightened on the door handle.

I remembered him boasting that marrying a woman of my lineage into the family was the smartest thing his son had ever done. Now he spoke as if I had no place there at all.

I had only been gone ten months.

Ten months in Geneva finishing the fellowship Valen himself had insisted I accept—long enough for my place in his world to vanish.

We had been married three years. Once, before everything changed, I was pregnant. We lost the child after an attack on a family convoy. The complications left damage no doctor discussed without lowering their voice. For a long time, they weren't sure I could conceive again.

I broke under that news.

Valen held me through the worst of it, swearing he didn't care if the line continued through someone else. He said he'd rather go without children than build a future with another woman.

Now, to grant his dying first love a final wish, he had broken every promise.

When I left for Switzerland, he held me at the airport as though letting go pained him. We spoke every night for almost a year. Everyone said we still sounded like newlyweds.

Fifteen days ago, I finished my program and rushed home with the foolish excitement of a woman still in love. I wasn't tired until city traffic made me dizzy, forcing me to pull over.

At first I thought it was exhaustion. Then I looked at the test results from a clinic I'd stopped at along the way.

Pregnant. Twins.

The timing pointed back to my last vacation home.

I cried in the back of the car, already imagining Valen's face when I told him.

Then, approaching the estate, I saw him by the reflecting pool with Sabina beside him—one hand in his, the other curved beneath a belly so full she looked ready to deliver at any moment.

Whatever joy I had left died there.

"Nerina," Sabina said now, her voice thin. "When did you get back? Why are you just standing there?"

Everyone turned.

The papers in my hand were still visible: my resignation from the Varesi Medical Foundation, signed and ready.

His mother saw them first, her face darkening. "Why did I ever agree to this marriage? You resign and expect my son to support a useless wife?"

His father joined in. "You couldn't even run the foundation. What good are you to this family? If I'd known you'd be this disappointing, I'd never have allowed you to become a Varesi."

Then his mother glanced at Sabina and the baby. "She's fragile. The child needs the best. Instead of helping Valen, you're just another burden."

The cruelty was almost laughable.

"And Valen?" I asked. "While I was gone, he put another woman in my place and got her pregnant. Is that how a husband should act?"

"Nerina, enough." His expression hardened. "I did this for you."

For me.

"You couldn't carry safely," he said, as if stating the obvious. "So I let Sabina give this family the heir you couldn't. I'm giving you the chance to be a mother without the risk, and you're turning it into an insult."

When I stayed silent, his voice cooled further. "This solves everything. Sabina leaves something behind before she dies. You get the child you always wanted."

He continued, as though reason were entirely on his side. "If Sabina hadn't pulled me out of that dockside hit two years ago, I would be dead. She lost her family because of it, and now she's gravely ill. The doctors have made it clear she doesn't have much time left."

Beside him, Sabina reached for his hand, her eyes wet. "Please don't make this worse. I know it's because of me. I'll leave as soon as I can. Just don't let me ruin what you two have."

Looking at the four of them. Valen, Sabina, and the parents who had already chosen her. I felt something inside me go still.

So this was all I was now.

The barren wife. The inconvenient woman who couldn't give the family what it wanted.

The irony would have choked me if I'd still cared enough to speak. My body was carrying the purest Varesi blood in the room, and in that moment I knew I didn't want any of them to know.

Valen's voice dropped into a tone I knew too well, edged with warning. "My patience has limits. If you target Sabina again without cause, don't test how far I'll go."

Then he looked at me as if offering mercy. "If you still want your place here, act like it. Next week, I'll announce publicly that you'll raise the child. You can keep your position."

Next week.

My gaze moved to the sleeping baby.

Next week, I would be gone.