Chapter 1

On the afternoon I found out I was pregnant, I drove to the Johnson estate in Long Island.

This was where, in just one week, Gavin and I were set to have our wedding of the century.

I clutched the pregnancy test tightly in my hand, picturing the look of surprise on Gavin’s face when he saw those two red lines.

As soon as I stepped onto the second-floor terrace garden, a heated argument made me stop in my tracks.

“Gavin, do you really have to be so boring?”

The voice was flippant and malicious, laced with a cynical laugh.

“Just give this video to the DJ and have it projected on the big screen right when you exchange rings. It’ll be a hell of a show!”

I held my breath and peered through the gap in the French windows.

Two men stood on the terrace.

One wore a dark gray bespoke suit, his back straight as a pine tree. That was Gavin, my fiancé of three years, the man I loved.

The other… had a face identical to Gavin’s!

But this man’s shirt collar was unbuttoned, his expression wicked, and he was twirling a black USB drive in his hand.

Twins?

I had been with Gavin for seven years, yet I never knew he had a twin brother.

Gavin snatched the USB drive from him, his brow furrowed, his tone filled with disappointment, as if scolding a hopeless child.

“Kalen, that’s enough.”

His voice still had that elegant, cello-like quality, but it was cold.

“We can cancel the wedding, we can make her leave, but there’s no need to ruin her reputation with such dirty tactics.”

“That is the bottom line of a gentleman.”

“Gentleman?”

The man called Kalen laughed so hard he leaned back, as if he had heard the funniest joke in the world.

“My dear brother, why are you pretending to be a saint now?”

Kalen leaned back against the railing, lit a cigarette, and looked at Gavin with mocking eyes.

“Didn’t you personally design this whole setup to get back at Ivy for ‘bullying’ Elena back in school? Just to let Elena vent her anger?”

“You were the one who said a hypocritical woman like Ivy doesn’t deserve true love.”

“And you were the one who personally delivered her to my bed.”

Boom—

The thunder outside and Kalen’s words exploded in my mind simultaneously.

I felt all the blood in my body freeze in an instant.

To let Elena vent her anger?

Delivered… to his bed?

“Stop talking,” Gavin interrupted him in a low voice, a flicker of annoyance crossing his face.

“Elena is your childhood friend, too. If she hadn’t risked her life to drag the two of us out of that fire years ago, we would have been nothing but ashes.”

“Ivy shouldn’t have targeted Elena in school, causing Elena’s depression to relapse. That was her biggest mistake.”

“I just wanted to teach Ivy a lesson, to let her know what it feels like to have one’s feelings toyed with.”

Gavin sighed, a look of twisted justice in his eyes.

“I originally just didn't want her competing with Elena for resources anymore. I wanted her to use these seven years of her youth to atone for her sins. But I never intended to ruin her completely!”

Gavin took a deep breath, his tone carrying a hint of inexplicable emotion.

“Besides, after all these years, she’s been punished enough.”

“Anyway, I’ll give her a huge trust fund as compensation. It’ll be enough for her to live a wealthy life in Europe.”

“Provided she disappears from Elena’s and my world forever.”

Upon hearing this, Kalen blew a smoke ring, his lips curling into an amused, mocking smirk. He tilted his head, staring dead at Gavin. “Tsk tsk. Punished enough? And now you want to compensate her?”

“My dear brother, don't tell me you’ve played the part for so long that you’ve actually fallen in love with her?”

Gavin’s back stiffened instantly.

Then came his voice, cold and hard as iron, without a shred of hesitation: “Absolutely not.”

“I would never fall in love with such a manipulative, malicious, and hypocritical woman.”

I clamped my hand over my mouth, stifling any sound.

My nails dug deep into my palm, but the physical pain was nothing compared to the agony in my heart.

Absolutely not.

Manipulative. Malicious. Hypocritical.

So, that was how he saw me.

For seven years, he didn't see me when I blistered my hands learning to cook just to cater to his picky appetite.

He didn't see me when I drank until my stomach bled and ended up in the hospital just to help him secure difficult business deals.

We had spent over two thousand days and nights together, and I had laid my bare heart out before him.

Yet, he would rather believe a clumsy lie concocted by someone else years ago than turn back to look at the real me even once.

That overwhelming sense of injustice and despair washed over me like a tidal wave, suffocating me.

It turned out that for the past seven years, what I thought was honey was actually poison.

But... in those years, I was the one being bullied.

I thought Gavin was busy with work, flying to London often, which was why we spent so much time apart.

Turns out, he just didn’t want to face me.

And during those countless nights of passion, the man whispering sweet nothings in my ear, taking me again and again…

Was this wicked-looking rogue in front of me, Kalen.

“Fine, whatever you say, Mr. Philanthropist.”

Kalen shrugged, looking indifferent.

“I’m bored of sleeping with her anyway. Her body is incredible, sure, but that stupid look on her face—crying tears of gratitude over a single word of concern from you—it really makes me sick.”

“Elena, that pure, innocent little flower, is much more lovable.”

“By the way, Elena’s plane lands tomorrow. Are you really planning to propose to her right after revealing the truth?”

Gavin didn’t answer immediately.

He turned around, looking at the flowers and ribbons already set up in the estate.

In those deep eyes, a complex emotion I had never seen before flashed by.

There was satisfaction, relief, and perhaps a hint of… reluctance?

But soon, that reluctance was replaced by cold indifference.

“This is what I owe Elena.”

Gavin adjusted his cuffs, returning to his lofty, elite demeanor.

“Ivy stole Elena’s happiness. Now, it’s time to pay it back.”

I stood in the shadows, looking at the man I loved to the bone.

He was still so handsome, so respectable.

Even when plotting such a heinous deception, he could make it sound so dignified.

To repay a debt, for that so-called “savior” Elena.

He didn’t hesitate to throw my dignity and chastity into the mud to be trampled upon.

I looked down at the crumpled pregnancy test in my hand.

The surprise I had felt earlier had now become the greatest irony.

The child in my belly… I didn’t even know who the father was.

Was it the brother, a beast in human clothing?

Or the cynical, playboy younger brother?

Disgusting.

An unprecedented wave of nausea rose in my throat.

I took one last deep look at the two devils on the terrace.

Silently, I turned and left the estate that was about to become hell.

The rain outside was getting heavier.

I tore the pregnancy test into pieces and threw it into the sewage of the drain.

Just like burying my dead love.