Chapter 1

"Mrs. Vance, are you sure your husband didn't come with you today?"

Selene looked up from across the doctor's desk and offered a small smile. "I came straight from the office. Damien is busy."

The doctor shook his head with a chuckle as he flipped through her file. "Busy or not, I have a feeling he'll be upset when he finds out he missed this appointment."

Selene didn't respond to that.

For the past three years, she'd visited hospitals more times than she could count. Blood tests, hormone treatments, fertility consultations. she'd done everything the doctors recommended, always hoping that the next visit would be the one that changed everything. But most appointments ended the same way: a polite apology, a new treatment plan, and another month of waiting. She had learned the hard way not to expect too much. Hope had a way of breaking her heart.

So when the doctor closed her file, folded his hands on the desk, and smiled at her with that unusually wide grin, her heart lurched before she could stop it.

"Doctor?"

He leaned back in his chair. "Congratulations, Mrs. Vance. You're going to be a mother."

Everything went still.

The noise from the hallway, the ticking clock on the wall, even her own breathing,  all of it seemed to disappear. She sat there staring at him, unable to make sense of the words she'd just heard.

"I'm sorry," she whispered. "What did you say?"

He pushed a report across the desk toward her. "You're pregnant."

Selene looked down at the paper. The words blurred. She blinked, then blinked again, but the word staring back at her didn't change.

Pregnant.

After three years. After every failed attempt, every treatment that led nowhere, every night she'd cried alone wondering if something was fundamentally wrong with her. She was pregnant.

A shaky laugh escaped her, then another, and before she knew it tears were spilling down her cheeks.

"That's usually how people react," the doctor said warmly, already holding out a tissue.

She took it with trembling fingers. She wasn't sad — God, she was the opposite of sad. She just couldn't remember the last time she'd felt happiness this big, the kind that had nowhere to go except out of you.

"You're approximately seven weeks along," he said. "Everything looks healthy so far, but you'll need regular checkups going forward."

"Seven weeks," she repeated softly, like saying it out loud would make it more real.

He nodded. "Both you and the baby appear perfectly healthy."

A smile spread across her face before she could stop it. There was a baby growing inside her. A real baby. Without thinking, she placed a hand over her stomach. Nothing felt different yet, but somehow everything was.

The doctor kept talking about future appointments, precautions, things to watch for, and she heard most of it, but part of her mind had already drifted to Damien.

How would he react?

Damien wasn't an expressive man. In three years of marriage she could count on one hand the number of times she'd seen him genuinely happy. But this was different. This was his child, his heir, their family. Maybe this would finally close the distance he always kept between them. Maybe he would stop seeing her as simply the woman his grandmother had chosen for him and start seeing his wife.

She caught herself before she got too far down that road. She knew better than anyone how dangerous expectations could be. Still, she couldn't stop the image from forming — Damien hearing the news, Damien smiling, Damien pulling her into his arms. It was such a beautiful thought that her chest ached with it.

The doctor slid a sealed envelope across the desk. "Your reports are inside."

She took it carefully. "Thank you, Doctor."

"No, Mrs. Vance," he said. "Today I think congratulations are more appropriate."

She laughed. "Thank you."

Outside, the afternoon sun was warm on her skin and the city moved around her like nothing had changed. But Selene felt like she was floating. She stood at the top of the hospital steps, looked down at the envelope in her hands, and laughed again — louder this time. A few people on the sidewalk glanced over at her. She didn't care even a little bit.

She was going to be a mother.

Her hand drifted to her stomach again. "Hello, little one," she said softly, almost shyly, and felt her throat tighten with emotion she couldn't fully name.

She wanted to tell Damien in a way that was special. Something he'd remember. So when she spotted a baby store a few blocks away, she went inside. Everything was impossibly small — tiny shoes, tiny socks, tiny hats arranged in neat little rows. She picked up a pair of soft white baby shoes barely bigger than her palm and stood there just looking at them until her eyes stung. She bought them without hesitating.

Back in the car, she tucked the shoes carefully into her handbag beside the medical report and turned the plan over in her mind. She'd show him the shoes first, let him wonder, then hand him the report. Simple. Perfect. The more she thought about it, the more she smiled, and for the first time in years she was genuinely looking forward to going home.

By the time her car pulled through the gates of Vance Mansion, the sky had turned golden. The massive estate rose up ahead of her, grand and imposing as always. Normally the sight of it settled something heavy in her chest. Not today.

The guards greeted her at the entrance and she returned the greeting with more warmth than usual. One of them looked visibly surprised. She couldn't blame him — she knew she wasn't exactly known for coming home cheerful.

But the moment she stepped through the front doors, she noticed something was off. The mansion was unusually lively. Voices echoed through the hallways, bright and excited, like some kind of gathering was already underway. No one had mentioned any event to her.

She slowed her steps as the sound grew louder. Then she heard it — a woman's laughter, clear and bright and completely unfamiliar. Something shifted in her chest, a strange, unsettled feeling she couldn't explain. The laughter was coming from the main living room, surrounded by other voices, everyone sounding celebratory and warm.

Then she heard something that made her stop entirely.

Damien was laughing.

It was rare enough that she recognized it immediately. For a brief moment she almost smiled — maybe this was perfect timing. She could tell him the news while he was already in a good mood.

Then a voice she didn't recognize said softly, "Welcome home, Aurora."

Selene went still.

The smile faded from her face. She stood there in the hallway, the envelope in her hand suddenly feeling much heavier than it had before.