Chapter One

Mitchelle

"Good morning, Jason."

The sound of my voice barely carried over the sound of the rustling silk as my husband adjusted his tie in front of the full-length mirror, he didn't turn around or acknowledge me even though he must have seen my reflection sitting up in the bed behind him.

I pulled the duvet tighter against my chest and watched him perfect the knot with a level of accuracy that made me want to scream. Today was June sixteenth and it marked exactly three years since he had stood at the altar and watched my sister fail to show up.

"I just greeted you, Jason," I pressed harder, but he simply reached for his cufflinks and snapped them into place with a cold efficiency that told me I was invisible to him.

It was always like this in the mornings as he couldn't stand the sight of the consolation prize he had been forced to marry to save two families from a public relations nightmare.

Three years ago my parents and Jason had locked themselves in a private room while the guests waited in the chapel, and they had decided that I was the only viable option to replace Chloe when she ran off with a bartender she had met in Ibiza on her wedding day.

"Make sure you are at the clinic by ten," Jason commanded without looking at me as he grabbed his suit jacket from the valet stand and shrugged it on.

"I know the time, Jason, but I thought maybe today of all days we could actually speak like human beings considering it has been three years since we got married," I challenged him as I slid my legs out of bed and stood up to face his back.

He turned then and looked at me with indifference that hurt more than hatred ever could.

"The only thing that matters today is that you get to that appointment and give me an heir. Three years is far too long to be waiting for a return on my investment," he stated coldly.

"Is that all I am to you, Jason, just an investment that hasn't paid out yet?" I demanded, but he was already walking out the door.

"Just be at the hospital, Mitchelle."

The door clicked shut behind him and I was left standing in the center of the room with the ghost of the life I was supposed to have had before my parents guilted me into sacrificing my freedom for their reputation.

I had been days away from launching my own consulting firm when they begged me to take Chloe’s place, and now here I was living in a fake marriage while my sister was back in town playing the repentant daughter.

The doorbell rang downstairs and I frowned. Jason never forgot his keys and the staff knew better than to disturb me this early.

I grabbed my silk robe and tied it tightly around my waist as I descended the stairs to the foyer, and when I pulled the door open I found Chloe standing there with a smile that was too bright for the morning.

"Chelley, I tried calling but it went straight to voicemail so I thought I would just pop over," Chloe chirped as she pushed past me into the house without waiting for an invitation.

"I was sleeping, Chloe, and then I was getting lectured by your brother-in-law about my failing uterus," I muttered as I closed the door and followed her toward the kitchen.

"Oh don't be so dramatic, Chelley, you know Jason is just stressed about the merger and he expresses it through control," she dismissed my pain with a wave of her hand and hopped up onto one of the barstools at the island.

"It is easy for you to say when you aren't the one getting injected with hormones every month because he thinks I am defective," I shot back as I moved to the coffee machine to start a brew.

"Look, I know I messed up leaving him at the altar, but I am trying to make things right by helping the company now," she argued, and I had to bite my tongue to keep from laughing at the absurdity of her statement.

"Helping the company implies you actually do work, Chloe, but you barely know how to read a balance sheet," I reminded her as I pulled two mugs from the cabinet.

"That is why I have you, and speaking of which, did you finish that contract for the McDonald's empire pitch? I have the meeting in two hours and I really need to impress the board if I am going to secure my position," she asked with widening eyes that begged for me to save her yet again.

"It is on my vanity upstairs," I admitted with a sigh. I could never say no to her when she looked at me like that.

"You are a lifesaver, Chelley, and I knew you could do it because you were always the smart one who actually paid attention in business school while I was partying," she praised me as she accepted the coffee I slid across the counter to her.

"I wrote it out exactly how the investors need to hear it so just make sure you memorize the key points I highlighted or they will eat you alive," I warned her as I started pulling eggs and spinach out of the refrigerator to make us breakfast.

"I will, I promise, as I just need this win, Chelley. Mom and Dad are finally starting to look at me with pride again and I don't want to mess it up," she confessed.

We spent the next thirty minutes eating and talking about our childhood before everything got complicated by money and marriage, and for a moment it felt like we were just two sisters again instead of rivals in a twisted game I never asked to play.

Chloe’s phone beeped loudly on the counter and she glanced at the screen before jumping off the stool in a panic.

"Oh god, I completely lost track of time, the driver is outside and I have to get to the office to prep the conference room before the investors arrive," she shrieked as she grabbed her purse.

"Don't rush or you will look flustered when you walk in," I advised her but she was already halfway to the door.

"I love you, Chelley, wish me luck!" she yelled back and then the front door slammed shut and the house was silent once again.

I sighed and started clearing the plates, but as I turned to head upstairs to get dressed for my appointment I realized she had left the thick manila envelope sitting right on my vanity where I told her it was.

"Damn it, Chloe," I cursed under my breath, for without those documents she was going to walk into that meeting and look like an absolute fool.

I glanced at the clock and realized that if I left now, I wouldn’t have enough time to get my egg retrieval done before swinging by the office to drop off the papers before her meeting started. It had to be the office first and then the hospital.

I hurried upstairs to change into something presentable and grabbed the folder before rushing out to my car.

The drive to the office was a blur of anxiety as I thought about the procedure and the pressure Jason had put on me to make this work, but I pushed those thoughts aside and focused on the mission to save my sister’s reputation.

I navigated the city traffic with aggressive determination and pulled into the underground garage of Hunt Enterprises just twenty minutes before the big meeting was scheduled to begin.

I grabbed the envelope and took the private elevator straight up to the executive floor where Jason’s office and the main conference room were located.

The hallway was quiet when the elevator doors slid open, and I assumed everyone was already gathering in the boardroom, so I headed toward Jason’s office first to see if Chloe was in there prepping with him.

As I walked down the plush carpeted corridor, I started to hear a strange sound coming from behind the doors of my husband’s office.

It sounded like someone was in pain or distress, and my first thought was that perhaps Jason was shouting at Chloe for forgetting the documents.

I quickened my pace as I didn't want him to berate her when it was just an honest mistake, but as I got closer the sounds changed from indistinct noise to something that made me freeze.

It was the sound of a woman moaning.

"Uh... fuck, yes... yes!"

I gripped the doorknob and turned it slowly so I wouldn't alert them to my presence.

The door swung open silently and the scene before me shattered whatever fragile reality I had been clinging to for the past three years.

My sister was bent over my husband’s desk with her skirt hiked up around her waist, and Jason was behind her, gripping her hips with a passion he had never once shown me in our entire marriage while he thrust into her with all his strength.

I stood there paralyzed as the envelope slipped from my fingers and hit the floor with a soft sound that drew their attention to the door.

"Chloe?" I whispered.