Chapter 1 - The Woman on the Marble FloorFor years, Adrian Blackwood had learned how to survive a life built on appearances.
There were elegant dinners beneath crystal chandeliers. Private meetings behind closed doors. Expensive whiskey poured into glasses no one actually drank from. Smiles that meant nothing and handshakes that concealed entire wars.
He had everything a man could supposedly want.
Money.
Power.
A name that opened doors before he even touched them.
And yet, on that afternoon, all of it disappeared the moment the doors of his mansion opened.
A woman was kneeling on the cream-colored marble floor.
She wore the pale uniform of a housekeeper.
Orange juice soaked her hair, her face, and the front of her clothes.
One hand trembled against the floor.
The other was wrapped protectively around her enormous pregnant belly.
Behind her stood Victoria.
Perfect.
Elegant.
Dressed in white.
Holding an empty glass.
Adrian stopped breathing.
Because he knew that woman on the floor.
“Elena?”
The pregnant woman slowly raised her head.
Their eyes met.
Seven months.
Seven months since she had disappeared.
Seven months since Victoria had told him Elena had stolen from the house.
Seven months since Victoria had told him Elena had lost their baby.
Seven months since Adrian had forced himself to believe the woman he loved was gone forever.
But Elena was standing—or rather, kneeling—right in front of him.
Alive.
Terrified.
And very, very pregnant.
Adrian's heart seemed to collapse inside his chest.
Victoria's face suddenly lost its color.
“Adrian,” she whispered. “This isn't what it looks like.”
But Adrian was no longer listening.
He walked toward Elena.
Then dropped to his knees in front of her.
“You told me she left.”
His voice was barely recognizable.
“You told me she lost the baby.”
Elena's lips trembled.
“Adrian…”
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It was the first time in months he had heard his name from her mouth.
And it broke something inside him.
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