Chapter 1 Labor of Lies

When I opened my eyes, I was back on the delivery bed. The sharp, unmistakable pangs of labor told me one thing that I had been reborn.

Right now, a nurse was pushing me toward the delivery room.

I saw the door drawing closer.

"Stop!" I clutched my swollen belly and rolled off the bed. "I'm not giving birth! Let me go!"

Once inside, my husband Julian Steele would force me, unconscious, to deliver a deformed child.

I pressed my hands against my swollen belly. Only while inside me was my baby truly safe.

"Are you going to waste Dr. Steele's time?" the nurse snapped, her tone sharp. "You're just here to pop out a kid for him, so what's the big deal?"

She reached for my hair, ready to hit me. I shoved her to the floor.

"How dare you!" she shrieked.

"Go get my phone," I demanded, cold and steady. "Or I'll expose every private photo you sent my husband."

Pregnant women had no say in this. I needed to call my parents and get transferred to another hospital.

She hesitated for a second, then relented.

In my past life, Julian had used her flirtations to place her by my side as a spy, all to ensure the baby swap succeeded.

I'd found the first hint of his plan and wanted to do a paternity test on the deformed child. But no matter how I tried, I couldn't find my phone and contact my parents to help me get discharged. By the time the baby died and was cremated, there was no proof left.

Only then did the nurse finally hand over the hidden phone.

Julian's every step had been calculated to kill me, all for Sienna.

Another contraction hit, and I forced myself back into the moment, kneeling on the floor and breathing through the pain.

Then, an alarm blared. The delivery room door swung open, and Julian stepped out.

The second he saw me, he forced a tender look into his eyes.

"You're about to be a mother, and you're still acting stubborn?" he said with a smile, approaching me. "I didn't spend yesterday with you because of work. Don't be mad, okay?"

His words were soft, but the strength in his hand told another story.

"Don't touch me!" I screamed, dodging.

All I could see in my mind was the memories of him pushing me and my daughter down the stairs.

Towering above us, he held Sienna in his arms, a smile in his eyes as he watched me and my daughter struggle in despair.

"Perfect," he had said. "Two burdens gone."

He kissed Sienna over and over. "Now, we can have a baby that's truly ours."

That was when I realized everything. The reason he kept going to Sienna's place, ignoring the abuse she inflicted on his own daughter, was simple. He wanted her dead. He only wanted the child that Sienna would give him.

"I'm transferring to another hospital," I said, my body trembling with instinctive fear.

"Lexi, you really are unruly," Julian said, a flicker of cold in his eyes even as his smile never wavered.

The people around us started scolding me. In my previous life, his perfect husband image had fooled everyone.

When I cried that my child had been swapped, no one believed me.

Julian called it postpartum depression. Everyone agreed. I even started doubting myself, thinking maybe I was just being irrational after all the trauma.

Now that I had a second chance at life, I was determined to reveal his true colors to everyone.

The nurse brought the phone over. Julian noticed and tried to stop me.

"Get the patient onto the delivery bed and move her in," he ordered his assistant.

"Don't worry," he said, gripping my hand tight. "Lexi, your condition is very serious. Only I can save you."

As if! Without me, how would he ever swap babies for his first love?

"Honey…" I softened my voice, pretending to give in, my tone almost pitiful. "Before I deliver, I just want to call my parents. You wouldn't refuse, right?"