I HEARD HIM SAY " DADDY"

CHAPTER ONE: ANNIVERSARY GIFT ANNALISE “Happy anniversary… I can’t believe it’s been five years already,” Allison, a friend and one of the guests at our anniversary dinner, hugged me tightly. Her warmth pressed against the tension coiling in my chest. Most of the attendees were colleagues from my former company—the one I had handed over to Sam after our marriage so I could focus on our home, our life together. “You pulled this off, didn’t you? Gosh, your dress is fire. And Sam’s suit… I could kill for it!” I forced a laugh. “Stop exaggerating, Allison. I just wanted to do something with my skills again. Obviously, I’m still in the game.” “Of course you are, and this is so lovely. You know, I’ve been thinking… you should come back to work, Annalise,” Allison said softly, eyes searching mine. “Things haven’t been the same without you, and you haven’t lost your touch one bit.” I forced a smile, stomach twisting. “You know what, Allison? It’s my anniversary. And I am defin

CHAPTER THREE: COME BACK, ANNALISE ANNALISE I must have blacked out for barely a minute—maybe even less—because when someone touched me, my whole body jolted as if struck by lightning. My eyes flew open, and for a split second, I had no idea who I was, where I was, or why the world looked like it had been violently shaken apart. My mind was a blank canvas, smeared with panic and terror. Everything was a blur of cold asphalt, blinding headlights, and the sharp sting of night air burning down my throat. My skin felt clammy, my palms scraped and gritty, and my heart thrashed painfully inside my chest—each beat like a fist slamming against bone. My breaths came in jagged, uneven gasps, but it didn’t feel like breathing at all. And then… I saw him. A man knelt beside me—tall, broad-shouldered, and breathtakingly handsome in a way that seemed impossible. The shadows clung to his features, carving out a face so sculpted, so unnervingly perfect, that my terrified mind couldn’t r

CHAPTER SIX: THE REALEST FAKE KISSAIDEN I swallowed hard, trying to quiet the uneven rhythm of my heartbeat as I leaned a little closer to her. “Of course, babe,” I whispered, forcing my voice to stay steady, trying to make it sound natural—normal. “Have you forgotten when you said yes to me?” The words slipped out low, teasing, the way a real boyfriend might coax a smile out of his girl. But inside, my nerves were crawling. My mother stood just a few feet away, and if there was anything she was better at than breathing, it was detecting lies. She could sniff out a secret like a hawk. And right now, I needed her to believe every drop of this performance. She—this girl—looked completely thrown. Her eyes were wide, too wide, like a deer caught in headlights, and for a second I thought she’d forget to breathe. She didn’t move at first, then blinked slowly, still unsure of what the hell she had just been dragged into. I almost winced. This was risky. So damn risky. Just play along, p

CHAPTER EIGHT: ANN IS PREGNANT?ANNALISE"I am not his fiancée. I am just a stranger he met last night." The words hovered in my mind, sharp and insistent, but when I tried to speak them, my throat betrayed me. It felt as if the truth had lodged itself somewhere between my lungs and my lips, refusing to come out. I wanted to make it clear—that I had no claim on Aiden’s words, no place in their world—but all I could do was stand there, tongue-tied and vulnerable.Instead, what slipped out was almost laughably tame: “I just wanted to tell you… how much I admire your work. Your designs are really amazing.”My stomach twisted in knots as the words left me. They sounded clumsy, awkwardly polite, a poor substitute for the honesty I longed to convey. I wanted to apologize before the words even registered, but the moment had passed.Aiden, who had been staring at me with that unnerving intensity—like he was measuring the very edges of my soul—exhaled slowly, as though he hadn’t realized he’d

CHAPTER NINE: CAUGHT IN-BETWEEN AIDEN “Mum, I don’t know why you keep insisting when there is actually nothing to tell. She is not pregnant.” I said the words sharply, though I didn’t mean them to cut as much as they did. I felt my chest tighten the moment I said them, as if I had suddenly drawn a line I could not take back. For the first time since this whole situation began, I regretted introducing Annalise as my girlfriend. What was supposed to be a simple distraction—a small way to get my mother off my back for a few days—had turned into an interrogation I couldn’t control. I had wanted a moment of peace, not a full-blown investigation. I thought Introducing Anna would calm Mum down, but clearly, I had underestimated how stubborn she could be. “She is not fine,” Mum said, her tone sharp and unwavering. She looked at Annalise like she could somehow detect illness with a single glance, narrowing her eyes and squinting as if scrutinizing her was all it would take to find the tr