Chapter 1

Ruby heard the doctor’s words before she understood them.

“There are two embryos.”

The room went silent.

Not the calm kind of silence, this one was sharp, crushing, the kind that pressed against her ears until her heartbeat became unbearable. 

The hospital room smelled of antiseptic and cold metal. The lights above her were too bright. Too unforgiving.

Ruby lay frozen on the narrow bed, one hand clenched into the sheet, the other resting over her stomach as if instinct alone could protect what was growing inside her.

“Two?” she whispered.

Kelvin stood beside her, tall and unmoving, his presence usually a comfort she leaned into. Now he felt distant. Untouchable.

His face was carved from stone, jaw tight, eyes locked on the ultrasound screen like he was staring at a threat.

The doctor adjusted his glasses, clearly aware that this was not a moment that could be rushed. “Yes. Two embryos. Two heartbeats.”

Ruby’s breath hitched. Her mind struggled to catch up. She hadn’t expected joy not in the normal sense but she had expected certainty. One pregnancy. One heir. One outcome.

Kelvin broke the silence. “Twins”

The doctor hesitated.

“No,” he said carefully. “Not twins.”

Ruby’s chest tightened painfully. “What does that mean?”

The doctor turned the screen slightly toward them. Two small flickers pulsed softly, rhythmic and fragile. Two lives. Her vision blurred.

“These embryos were conceived at different times,” the doctor continued. “It’s rare, but possible. A condition known as superfetation.”

Kelvin’s hand curled into a fist.

Ruby shook her head slowly. “That’s not… that’s not possible.”

Her voice cracked.

“I’ve only been with” She stopped herself, breath catching sharply as reality crashed into her. 

She turned to Kelvin, panic flooding her eyes. I swear to you. I didn’t. 

Kelvin took a step back.

Just one.

But it felt like the floor opened beneath her.

“Are you saying,” Kelvin asked the doctor, his voice dangerously calm, “that one of those embryos may not be mine?”

The doctor didn’t answer immediately.

That was worse than an answer.

Ruby’s hands trembled as she pressed them to her stomach. The room felt too small. Too tight. She couldn’t breathe.

“No,” she whispered. “No, that’s wrong. This is wrong.”

“We’ll need further testing,” the doctor said. “Paternity tests once it’s safe.”

Kelvin nodded once. “Do it.”

The doctor excused himself, leaving the door closing softly behind him.

The silence returned.

Ruby turned toward Kelvin, tears slipping down her cheeks. “I didn’t betray you.”

He didn’t respond right away.

This time, when he looked at her, something had changed. The softness she had learned to trust wasn’t there. Only calculation. Hurt. And something darker beneath it.

“This marriage,” he said slowly, “was built on trust.”

“It was built on a contract,” she snapped, fear sharpening her voice. 

“You didn’t marry me because you loved me. You married me because you needed an heir.”

His jaw tightened.

“And now I don’t even know whose child I’m protecting,” he said.

The words sliced through her.

She shook her head violently. “I don’t know how this happened. But I didn’t lie to you. I didn’t sleep with anyone else. You have to believe me.”

Belief flickered across his face. Then doubt swallowed it whole.

“This changes everything,” he said.

Ruby closed her eyes.

She had learned long ago that hope was fragile.

She had been an orphan before she learned how to dream.

Hunger was the first thing Ruby remembered clearly. The way it curled in her stomach at night. The way it taught her to wake early, work harder, and ask for nothing. At twenty-one, survival was the only skill she trusted.

Cleaning jobs. Serving tables. Running errands for people who never learned her name.

She was invisible.

Until the night she collided with Kelvin Blackwood.

Rain poured relentlessly as she rushed down the sidewalk, exhausted and hungry, not looking where she was going. The impact knocked her off balance, papers scattering across the ground.

“I’m sorry,” she blurted, crouching quickly.

Blackwood Holdings.

The name alone made her hands tremble.

Kelvin had looked at her like she was something unexpected. Unplanned.

“Where are you going?” he asked.

She almost lied.

“Somewhere dry.”

That answer changed everything.

Three days later, she sat in his glass-walled office, staring at a contract that would erase the life she knew.

“I’m not offering love,” Kelvin had said calmly. “I’m offering protection.”

“And the price?” Ruby asked.

“Marriage. An heir. 

The words felt unreal then.

Terrifying.

Kelvin Blackwood was a billionaire in title, but not in freedom. His father’s will was cruel and precise. Without a wife and child, Blackwood Holdings would pass to his younger brother.

Dante.

Dante Blackwood smiled easily and destroyed quietly. He wanted the company not to run it but to ruin Kelvin with it.

“You’ll live under my name,” Kelvin said. “Under my protection.”

“And if I say no?” Ruby asked.

“That’s your right.”

That was what broke her.

Ruby signed.

The wedding was quiet. Cold. Legal.

No vows of love. No kisses meant for cameras.

Dante (kelvin's younger brother) stood at the back of the room, clapping slowly, eyes lingering on her like she was already his to study.

“Welcome to the family,” he had said softly. “You’ll be very important here.”

That night, Ruby cried alone in a bedroom larger than every place she had ever lived combined.

She didn’t realize then that safety could feel like a cage.

The intimacy came later.

Not out of romance.

Out of obligation.

Doctors’ schedules. Expectations. The pressure of calendars and quiet reminders.

Kelvin had been careful. Controlled. Until one night he wasn’t.

That night, he held her like something fragile. Precious. He whispered her name like it mattered.

She believed him when he promised protection.

Now, lying in a hospital bed with two heartbeats growing inside her, belief felt dangerous.

The door opened.

Kelvin stood frozen in the doorway, his phone clenched tightly in his hand.

“Ruby,” he said hoarsely. “Dante knows.”

Her blood turned cold. “Knows what?”

Kelvin stepped closer and turned the screen toward her.

Unknown Number: Two heartbeats.One womb.

Tell me, sister-in-law… which one belongs to my brother?