༇ CHAPTER ONE

My hands trembled as I picked up the pregnancy test staring back at me, for like the third time in the past few minutes.

As if checking it again and again would somehow change the result, or better yet, change everything else.

But nothing changed. The two pink lines remained there, unchanging.

 

Pregnant.

 

I pressed my palm against my still-flat stomach, a fragile hope blooming in my chest for the first time in months. Maybe this would finally bridge the cold distance that had grown between Jaxon and me since our wedding six months ago. Maybe a baby would remind him of the childhood we’d shared, when he used to look at me with warmth instead of that icy indifference that I was unfortunately starting to get used to.

 

I took another deep breath…and another, but it did nothing to calm my racing nerves. It was 11:47 PM, and Jaxon had left this morning without a word, without breakfast, without even meeting my eyes.

Which was really nothing new.

 

But at least after tonight…things could be different…hopefully.

 

I moved to the window, staring out at the dark expanse of our compound. The home I had grown up thinking I belonged.

 

Thomas and Eleanor Stone had adopted me when I was three, after my parents died in a rogue attack. They’d raised me alongside their son Jaxon, and somehow, I’d fallen hopelessly in love with him.

 

When they arranged our marriage last year, I thought it was a dream come true.

I was such a fool.

 

The marriage had been Thomas’s idea, suggested casually over dinner one night. “You two have always been close,” he’d said with a smile. “It makes sense. Keeps everything in the family.”

 

Eleanor had clapped her hands together, delighted. “Oh, it’s perfect! Father would have loved this.”

 

Grandfather William. My heart clenched at the memory of his funeral a year ago. He’d been sick for four years, bedridden and weak, and I’d been the only one who sat with him during those long, painful months. Everyone else had been too busy, Thomas with pack business, Eleanor with her charity galas, Jaxon with whatever kept him away from home. Even Aurelia, after she’d returned three months into William’s illness, rarely visited the old man.

 

But I’d been there. I’d read to him, held his hand, listened to his stories about the empire he’d built from nothing.

 

“You’re a good girl, Lyra,” he’d whispered one night, his weathered hand squeezing mine. “Don’t let them tell you otherwise. You’ve got more heart than all of them combined.”

 

Movement at the edge of the driveway caught my eye. Headlights cut through the darkness as Jaxon’s black Mercedes pulled up to the house. My heart stuttered in my chest, and I smoothed down my dress, the blue one he’d once said brought out my eyes, back when he still noticed things like that.

 

I grabbed the pregnancy test and headed downstairs, trying so hard to walk steadily with my legs, which were quivering.

 

This would fix things. It had to. We were going to be parents. Surely that meant something, even to him. I knew how much Jaxon loved kids…wanted kids. This would change things.

 

The front door crashed open.

 

I froze on the landing, my hand gripping the banister. Jaxon stumbled inside, and my hope shriveled and died in my chest.

 

He was drunk. Again.

 

But worse, he wasn’t alone.

 

Aurelia Stone helped him through the doorway, her arm supporting his weight. Her long dark hair cascaded over her shoulders, and she looked up at me with those wide, innocent eyes that had fooled everyone since she’d arrived three months ago.

 

The real daughter of the Stone family.

The one Thomas and Eleanor had searched for after discovering the adoption agency’s terrible mistake twenty years ago. The daughter who’d suffered through foster homes while I, the imposter, lived in the luxury that should have been hers.

 

At least, that’s how Aurelia told the story. And everyone believed her.

 

“Lyra!” Aurelia’s voice was sugary sweet. “We didn’t expect you to be awake. I found Jaxon at the Moonstone Bar, and he was in no condition to drive, so I decided to bring him home.”

 

“Thank you for bringing him home,” I said quietly, descending the stairs. My eyes found Jaxon’s. “I need to speak with you, Jaxon. It’s important.”

 

“I’m tired.” He pulled away from Aurelia’s supporting arm and stumbled toward the living room. “Whatever it is can wait until morning.”

 

“It can’t.” I followed him, the pregnancy test clutched tight in my palm. “Please, Jaxon. Just five minutes.”

 

Irritation flickered in his eyes, and for a second I feared he would snap at me. Instead, he bit out, “Fine, but fucking make it fast. Aurelia, go to bed.”

 

“Of course.” Aurelia smiled, but her eyes were cold as they met mine. “Don’t keep him up too long, Lyra. He needs his rest.”

 

She headed upstairs, and I waited until I heard her door close before following Jaxon into the living room.

 

He poured himself another drink, and I sighed. He was already drunk enough, yet he could not get himself to stay away from alcohol.

 

“What is it?” he asked, his back to me.

 

I took a breath, hope and fear warring in my chest. “I’m pregnant.”

 

Jaxon went very still, the glass halfway to his lips.

 

“We’re going to have a baby,” I continued, moving closer. “I know things have been difficult between us lately, but this, this could be a fresh start. For both of us. For our family.”

 

He set the glass down with a sharp click.

Then he laughed.

 

It was a hollow, bitter sound that made my skin crawl. “Pregnant. Of course you are.”

 

“Jaxon, I thought you’d be—”

 

“What?” He spun around, and the hatred in his eyes stole my breath. “Happy? Excited? Did you really think trapping me with a baby would change anything?”

 

“Trapping you? We’re married—”

 

“A marriage I never wanted!” he yelled. “A marriage I was forced into because of that old fool’s will!”

 

I stumbled back. “What are you talking about?”

 

Footsteps sounded on the stairs, and Aurelia appeared in the doorway, no longer pretending to be asleep. “Oh, she doesn’t know.” That innocent mask she was putting on slipped away. “Jaxon, you haven’t told her the truth?”

 

“Told me what?”

 

Jaxon’s lip curled with disgust. “Grandfather William left everything to you in his will. The entire Stone empire. Billions of dollars, all the properties, the investments, everything our family built for generations. He left it all to you.”

 

The room tilted, and I staggered back. “That’s not, that can’t be—”

 

“But there was a condition,” Aurelia cut in, moving to stand beside her brother. “You had to be married to transfer it to your spouse. Convenient, wasn’t it? The old man’s little insurance policy to keep you in the family.”

 

“So yes, Lyra.” Jaxon’s laugh was razor sharp. “I married you. But not because I loved you. Because marrying you was the only way to get back what should have been mine. What should have been my father’s. What should have stayed in the bloodline of his actual grandchildren, not some outsider with no claim to the Stone name.”

 

I took another step back, and it really took every bit of willpower in me to make my legs hold me upright at that moment.

 

I stared at Jaxon. He had to be joking. No way this was true. This had to be another one of his attempts to be cruel.

He can’t…

 

“He was a senile old man who didn’t know what he was doing!” Jaxon roared. “You’re not his granddaughter! You’re not even related to us! You were just some orphan my parents took pity on, and somehow you manipulated your way into his will!”

 

“I didn’t manipulate anyone,” I whispered, tears streaming down my face. “I didn’t even know—”

 

“She stole everything,” Aurelia said coldly, her voice dripping with venom. “I spent years in foster homes, Lyra. Years being passed from family to family, sleeping in shelters, wearing donated clothes. And you? You were here, living in my house, playing with my toys, being loved by my family. And when our grandfather died, you even stole my inheritance. An inheritance that should have gone to his real grandchildren, his actual blood.”

 

“I didn’t know!” I sobbed. “I swear I didn’t know about the will—”

 

“Of course you didn’t know.” Jaxon grabbed my arm, his fingers digging in hard enough to bruise. “You were too busy playing the devoted granddaughter, spending every day with him while he was dying, whispering in his ear, turning him against his own family.”

 

“That’s not what happened! I took care of him because no one else would—”

 

“You manipulated him!” Aurelia shrieked. “You made him think you were worth more than his own flesh and blood!”

 

The pregnancy test fell from my hand, clattering to the floor.

 

Jaxon’s eyes dropped to it, and when he looked up at me, the look in his eyes made my already frantic heart skip a beat.

 

“You know what? I am so damn tired of seeing your face every single day, of living in the same house as a malicious imposter like you, of being married to YOU. The sight of you disgusts me. I hate you more than I have ever hated anything in this life. But you know what? I do not have to deal with this anymore.”

 

“What does that mean?” I asked, taking a step back as horror crept up my spine.

 

Aurelia picked up a crystal vase from the side table. “It means, dear sister, that you’re no longer useful. The marriage certificate is signed. The lawyers have been working on the asset transfer for months. And now…” She smiled. “Now you’re just in the way.”

 

“You’re insane,” I whispered, backing toward the door. “Both of you—”

 

Jaxon’s fist connected with my cheek before I could finish the sentence, and I screamed out as the pain from his punch exploded through my skull, sending me to the floor.

 

“Jaxon!” I sobbed, but he was already reaching for me again.

 

His hands found my shoulders, slamming me back against the hardwood. My head cracked against the floor, stars bursting behind my eyes.

 

“You took everything from us,” he snarled, his face twisted with rage. “Everything our grandfather built was supposed to be ours!”

 

He gave me another blow…and another.

 

I sobbed, yelled, begged for him to stop until my voice gave out, until my throat became sore, but he didn’t stop. He kept hitting, kicking me over and over again, and all I could do was curl on the floor, screaming through the pain as his legs connected with my ribs.

 

“Jaxon,” I whispered, blood bubbling at my lips. “Please… the baby…”

 

“There is no baby.” His voice was empty, devoid of any humanity. “There’s nothing left of you that matters.”

 

“Jaxon…”

 

He bent down, and before I could process anything, before I could beg, I felt a sharp pain in my belly, a pain so deep that I couldn’t even scream or make a sound. My eyes widened, and I looked down, horrified when I saw that Jaxon had actually stabbed me.

 

Why?

 

I wanted to ask, but no sound came out.

 

“This is for taking what was never yours,” he said, and twisted the knife.

 

White hot agony tore through me, and I screamed, or tried to, but only a wet gurgle escaped.

 

My vision darkened at the edges as blood pooled beneath me. The last thing I saw was Aurelia’s satisfied smile, and the last thing I heard was her bright, cruel laughter mixing with Jaxon’s.