BOOK ONE: Chapter 0001

•GISELLE•

“Congratulations to my son and future daughter-in-law, Octavia North, for their upcoming spring wedding!” Janet announced as I walked into the ballroom of the Blackwood mansion.

The room was full of important businesspeople. Even the mayor of California was in the room, and people were cheering as Octavia walked up to the podium and embraced Janet.

I maneuvered to the front row and clapped my hands as Octavia took the microphone and thanked the crowd for attending her engagement party.

When her eyes met mine, she smirked and asked for her fiancé to come to the stage for people to see him.

Octavia was my foster sister. Her parents took me in and fostered me after my parents died when I was fifteen years old.

She and I were best friends, considering we were only two years apart. She had always been an older sister who took the fall whenever our parents scolded me.

We were close. Well, until my marriage to Noah.

So, when Janet, my mother-in-law, announced her engagement, I hoped things would get better between us since we would be married to brothers.

When I lifted my eyes and saw Noah walk up to the podium and take the microphone from Octavia, my heart skipped a beat. I felt as if the world had stopped moving.

“Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for honoring our invitation and attending our engagement party. Octavia and I are excited about this new adventure we’ve been waiting for!”

My sister and my husband were going to get married. Surely, I had to be dreaming or being pranked.

Without a second thought, I walked up to the podium and laughed before I took the microphone from him.

“Excuse my husband, guys,” I chuckled as I looked at him. “He’s not getting married to my sister. In fact, Donald should come up here because he has done a wonderful job and is a lucky man for getting married to Octavia. She and I are going from sisters to sisters-in-law. How wonderful?” I chuckled before Janet took the microphone and asked Noah to get me off the podium.

“Forgive that chance-taker for her ridiculous speech. My son is getting divorced from her, and she doesn’t know how to accept that she could never be the woman he wants.” Janet spoke to the crowd as Noah and Octavia led me outside the ballroom and got me into a car.

“How could you do this to me, Octavia? I’m your sister, and you know Noah has been my husband for six months. He and I are expecting our first baby in a few months. Doesn’t that mean something to you?”

“Stop talking, Laura. You’re not my sister, and you were never my sister. My parents were fostering you because of the money they received from that. But now that the money is gone, what good are you to us?”

I shook my head in disbelief as I looked at Noah hopping into the car and sitting next to Octavia.

“What did I do to you, Noah? How could you do this to the woman you call your wife and mother of your child?” I asked as tears rolled down my cheeks.

“Sign these papers and stay out of my life and Octavia. I no longer love you, Laura, and I’ve never loved you,” Noah sneered as he handed me a document and a pen.

I looked at him and couldn’t believe he was the same boy I had loved when I was first fostered in the North family.

Noah would always come by the house to see Octavia’s brother, Nick, and smile at me whenever we came into contact.

Even when I scraped my knee on the ground when I was running to the house, he came over and patched it with a piece of his shirt, not caring that he would return home with a torn shirt.

I had told Octavia many times that Noah and I would get married one day, and he would be my husband, with whom I would grow old.

She was happy for me and encouraged me to tell Noah I had a crush on him, but I didn’t want to say anything until he said something during our senior year in high school.

“Divorce papers?” I gasped and felt an agony that ripped through my bones. “We’ve only been married for six months.”

“The worst six months of my life, believe me,” he chuckled as he leaned over to Octavia and kissed her cheek. “Octavia is the woman of my dreams, so sign those papers and leave us alone, Laura.”

“After all the years we’ve been together. You’re leaving me now, why?”

Noah sighed as he turned around and looked at me with those eyes that once looked at me with love. He now looked at me as if I were a stranger.

“You have nothing to offer me anymore, Laura. What do you think I’ll do with someone who has lost everything her parents left her? Besides, you and I know that without your money, you’re nothing.”

I swallowed hard at his words. “You told me you loved me and not the things I did for you with my inheritance money.”

“Which world do you live in, Laura?” He chuckled. “There’s no man nowadays who loves a woman who has nothing to offer on the table. If you were smart and as pretty as Octavia is, I would’ve reconsidered my decision, but you’re none of those things.”

“Did you mean it when you told me you loved me?” My heart started racing, hoping he would tell me he felt the same way.

“Gosh,” he scoffed. “I was probably drunk when I said that.”

The pen trembled in my unsteady fingers, and I took a deep breath before scribbling my signature on the document.

When the car stopped, I looked out the window and saw a hospital sign, and I felt confused.

“What are we doing here?” I asked Noah as I gave him back the signed documents. “I don’t have any scheduled check-ups.”

“We are here for your abortion appointment. Octavia and I want a clean start with no bastard children.”

“How could you call a baby we planned together a bastard child?” My hand hovered over my lower stomach. “You told me you wanted this baby and would protect them with your life.”

Noah didn’t answer as he grabbed my wrist and pulled me out of the car.

He led me to the hospital, and when he had confirmed our details at the reception, he took me to a doctor’s office with Octavia following behind us.

“Is she Laura Blackwood?”

“Laura McClain,” Noah corrected him, and I gulped. “She’s here for the abortion appointment. My fiancé and I will wait outside until the procedure is done.”

“It’s okay. My name is Dr. Ashton,” the doctor smiled as he looked at me. “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of you and make this procedure as painless as possible.”

When the doctor closed the door after Noah left, I took the last cash in my name from my handbag and placed it on the counter.

“Take this money. That's all I have. I want you to tell Noah that the procedure was successful. He shouldn’t know that I didn’t go ahead with the abortion.”