Chapter 1

~Eliza~

“B-baby, what are you doing here?” Daniel asked breathlessly as he scrambled to pull up his trousers.

The smile died on my trembling lips as I watched my sister slowly pull down her skintight skirt. She smirked at me.

I had just entered Daniel’s office to share the most wonderful news, only to be faced with… this.

“Oh, look who finally decided to join the rest of us outside,” she snarked, and I stumbled back into the doorway.

“Shut up!” My husband hissed as he slowly approached me.

“D-Daniel, what is going on here?” My voice was hoarse and faint as my heart tripped in my chest.

“Oh, please! What do you think?” Isabella huffed, coming to stand beside my husband. “We were obviously fucking.”

My breath shuddered out of me at the confirmation of what I didn’t want to believe. My sister and my husband?

“Daniel, s-she’s lying, right?”

My husband of four years rolled his eyes and shrugged. “You have eyes, Eliza.”

“And you know what? This is as good a time as any,” he continued and snaked an arm around Isabella’s slender waist.

My wide eyes tracked the movement as shock and disbelief wound through me. Was this another nightmare? I dug my fingers into my palms, but nothing changed.

“In case you still haven’t figured it out, Isabella and I are in love,” he announced proudly, and she tittered wildly.

Oh, my God! This was not a dream!

“What are you saying, Daniel?” I demanded harshly, walking further into the room. “We are married for goodness’ sake!”

“How could you be—”

I couldn’t finish the sentence as pain spasmed in my stomach. I groaned and clutched my stomach while Isabella walked over to stand before me.

“You’re still as dumb as ever, Eliza,” she snorted. “Your dear husband is mine now.”

Through the pain lancing through my insides, I managed to whisper, “How long?”

Isabella opened her mouth, but Daniel cut her off. “That’s not important right now.”

“And I know you’re probably feeling hurt and all right now,” he said in a patronizing tone that set my teeth on edge, waving a dismissive hand in front of my face. “But you caused this.”

“It’s entirely your fault that I am in love with another woman.”

I blinked as a disbelieving gasp escaped me. “What are you even talking about?”

“You cheated on me with my own sister and somehow, it’s my fault?!”

Daniel tutted as if I were a disobedient child and wagged a finger at me. “After the car crash, it has become so fucking depressing to be around you.”

His lips twisted in a disgusted grimace that broke my heart even more. “You mean the car crash that took our baby from us?” My voice broke as tears burned in my eyes.

“Well, you just said our baby. It was ours, Eliza!” he snapped. “But all the time, you acted like it was just your loss.”

“What else was I supposed to do? Uh?”

His voice gentled slightly as he added, “I am a man with needs, Eliza, and you just don’t satisfy me.”

“B-but I… we—”

Isabella cut into my stammering. “B-b-but what, Eliza?” she mocked ruthlessly.

“The plain truth is that Daniel is madly obsessed with me, so you can just,” she finished by shooing me away with her perfectly manicured nails.

“You are so useless, you know that? You couldn’t even keep your baby and now, you lost your man too.”

“Do I need to remind you that the only reason we lost that baby was because of your stupidity?” Daniel asked, and my eyes snapped to him in disbelief.

Pain blossomed in my chest at their callous words, along with the cramping in my stomach. At least, I could understand Isabella’s wickedness since she has always hated me right from when we were kids.

But the man standing before me was a total stranger, nothing like the one who held me when I fell apart. I thought I had the perfect life, the perfect husband.

But oh, how terribly wrong I was.

“How could you say that to me, Daniel?” I cried, hating how pitiful I sounded.

These bastards didn’t deserve my tears. I shouldn’t waste any more time mourning the life that had obviously been a cruel lie all along.

“Actually, damn you!” I snarled even as my body shook. “Pack your shit and get the hell out of my company right this minute!”

There was silence for a second before the two of them burst into loud laughter, as if I had just said the funniest thing. Slowly, a shiver of foreboding trickled down my spine as I stared at them.

Still chuckling, Daniel straightened to look me right in the eyes. “Wake up, darling,” he drawled.

“This all belongs to me now,” he said, throwing his arms wide to encompass the luxurious space.

For the second time in less than twenty minutes, the wind was knocked out of me. “What?” I whispered. “This… this company is mine, Daniel.”

“Oh, not anymore, sweetheart,” he replied in the same patronising tone that made me long to wipe that stupid smirk off his face.

I stumbled on nothing as understanding crashed into me with full force. Before I could gather my scattered senses, Daniel continued speaking.

“By the way, I’m also divorcing you.”

Isabella let out a joyous squeal that barely penetrated the fog that had clouded my mind. Through a red haze, I watched her jump on Daniel and plant a wet, sloppy kiss on his mouth.

Bile rose to my throat and my stomach turned queasy as the ache became even more insistent. I grabbed the edge of the doorway to keep from falling flat on my face. I didn’t need any more humiliation than I already got.

When they finally parted with a loud pop, Daniel sneered, “Don’t even bother trying anything stupid, Lizzie darling. I have transferred everything we own into my name only.”

His lips pulled up in a wicked grin. “I got you good.” He turned and sauntered to plop down on his seat.

I opened my mouth to scream at him, but could only groan and bend over, clutching my stomach as the pain ramped up.

Through my groanings, I heard Daniel say, “Get in here.”

Then, Isabella bent to hiss in my ear, “I win again, sister.”

Then she stepped back and joined Damien behind the desk. Within minutes, two security men burst into the office.

“Take her away and don’t ever let her into this building again,” Daniel ordered curtly, and they grabbed my arms.

“You will pay for this, Daniel!” I raged, struggling as best as I could with the ache in my stomach.

But all I got in return was the mocking laughter from Daniel and Isabella. After a moment, I gave up and just went along as the men dragged me away.

They unceremoniously dumped me on the pavement outside the company I had handed to my husband with my own hands and walked inside.

I lay on the floor, curled up as black spots dotted my vision. Slowly, the small pregnancy test stick I had been hiding in my right palm dropped onto the floor.

The last thing I saw before darkness mercifully took over was the two lines on the stick.