Chapter 1

“Two hundred thousand to pay off your father’s debt, but you have to get Amara pregnant!”

A check sailed through the air and landed neatly on the cold marble table. The number was right there in plain sight. So many zeros it would make anyone’s eyes go wide.

Adrian stared at the paper with a blank face. The thirty-two-year-old looked lost in thought for a moment. His white doctor’s coat hung carelessly over one muscular arm, over a light blue shirt.

Across from him, Ratih studied him closely, because she knew exactly what the OB-GYN in front of her needed. “Your job is simple, Adrian. Get Amara pregnant and give me a grandchild from your seed!”

The order sounded insane. It made no sense at all!

How could it? Adrian was Doni’s own cousin, a distant one. Even with the blood so thin, it still felt strange.

But Adrian didn’t refuse right away.

His gambling-addicted father was lying half dead in a hospital right now. The thugs the loan sharks had sent were threatening to finish off the old man’s life if Adrian didn’t pay tonight. On top of that, the surgery bill was overdue by tens of thousands.

“Are you serious, Aunt Ratih? Amara has a husband. I’m his cousin, for God’s sake. What will people say if Amara gets pregnant with my baby?” Adrian asked, going through the motions.

Meanwhile, his hand was already itching to grab that check.

Ratih snorted. Her face turned red with fury whenever she thought of her son-in-law.

“Besides,” she said, “my son-in-law hasn’t been able to give me a grandchild in five years. And if I make them divorce, he’s a manager at my husband’s branch office. If that gets out, where would my family put its face?”

Not long after, Amara came in. She had missed the confession that Adrian and Doni were cousins. All she knew was that Adrian worked for her family as a private OB-GYN, there to help her and Doni have a baby soon.

Amara already knew why she’d been called here, because she had talked it over with Ratih beforehand.

Amara, Ratih’s only daughter, sat curled up on the cream leather sofa. Her body was shaking hard. Her pretty face, the one that usually graced society magazines, was wet with tears and snot. Her mascara had run, leaving black tracks across her smooth white cheeks, and somehow that only made her look more fragile, the kind of fragile that stirs the instincts of any man who sees it.

“Well, Adrian? My offer doesn’t come twice. Pay off every last rotten debt your father owes, and you’ll get an extra bonus once my daughter tests positive,” Ratih said, her voice cold and sharp, with no tolerance for refusal. The middle-aged woman, her hair teased high, sat in her oversized chair like a queen ordering an execution.

“Mom, are you out of your mind? You want Dr. Adrian to get me pregnant? That’s disgusting, Mom!” Amara screamed between sobs. She lifted her face and stared at her mother, eyes blazing and full of hurt.

“I have a husband, Mom! I have Doni! How can you tell me to sleep with… with a man like him? I love Doni to death, and I always will, no matter that he’s… that he can’t have kids!”

Adrian only glanced at the slender finger pointing at him. He wasn’t offended.

“Husband?” Ratih snorted, as if the word were the funniest joke of the year. She rose from her chair, walked around the table, and towered over her daughter.

“Five years, Amara! Five years you’ve been married to Doni, and what do you have to show for it? Your womb is still empty! The doctors said Doni is weak and his seed is poor quality. How long do you plan to wait? Until your father’s company falls into your cousin’s hands because we have no heir? Until Doni dies and you have to marry someone else?”

“But I love him, Mom! We could adopt, or try IVF…”

“Enough, Amara. Stop defending your husband when it comes to a child!” Ratih snapped. “Blood is everything. I screened plenty of candidates, and Adrian is the best. He’s physically perfect, he’s smart, he has no family history of genetic disease, and most importantly, he needs money right now. He won’t demand custody of your child later.”

Adrian drew a long breath. The scent of expensive perfume in the room mingled with the smell of desperation. He looked at Amara, who had started sobbing hysterically again. She wore a knee-length silk dress that hugged every curve. Even a mess, Amara looked tempting. Her skin was pale and flawless, a sharp contrast to his own tan.

Ratih turned her attention back to Adrian, this time to make her final offer.

“After Amara is pregnant, you leave and your duty to my family is done. Two hundred thousand after your first night together, and I’ll cover the rest once Amara shows signs of pregnancy. That’s enough to clear your father’s debt and build yourself a new life!”

Half a million.

The words rang in Adrian’s ears. A fantastic sum for a job that, honestly, plenty of men dreamed about.

Sleeping with a woman as beautiful as Amara, and getting paid for it? What was there to lose?

Pride? To hell with pride. Pride couldn’t pay the debt that had nearly crippled his father for life when the loan sharks beat him.

And my code of ethics as a doctor? Oh, please. The code only applies when I’m on duty. Right now I’m just a man who plants seed, not an OB-GYN.

Adrian reached out and picked up the check from the table. He studied the row of digits for a moment, making sure the amount matched the suffering he was about to take on.

“I accept,” Adrian said, without a trace of hesitation.

“What? Doc, you’ve lost your mind!” Amara cried out under her breath. She shot to her feet and stared at him in disbelief. “You’re really going to do this just because Mom said so? I swear, I’m so disappointed in you, Doc. Doni and I have trusted you for three years, and this is how you pay us back? You’re the most disgusting man I’ve ever met in my whole life!”

Amara spat the harsh words right in Adrian’s face, her eyes full of hatred.

“I don’t have any other way to save my father’s life from those loan sharks.”