Chapter 1

1: 1

In the second year of my secret marriage to the richest man in New York, Patrick Stephens sent me a message:

"Celine Simmons, do you admit you were wrong yet?"

"Tilda's IVF worked. She can finally be a mother. All I did was give her one sperm sample. Can't you stop being so petty about it?"

"Wait for me to come back, and I promise I'll give you the most perfect wedding to make up for it!"

Three days later, sure enough, he showed up at my door.

Only he had my best friend Tilda Henson trailing behind him, along with her month-old baby.

"I know you never agreed to Tilda using my sperm for IVF, but she has to safeguard good genes for the next generation, doesn't she?"

"When the kid grows up, they'll call you godmother and call me godfather. Isn't that the best of both worlds?"

"You've suffered these past months, I know. One month from now, the wedding will have the whole city there. I'll give you all the face you could want, all right?"

Watching him stand there so lofty, dispensing his charity, I gave my brother a direct order.

"Throw this idiot out for me!"

What a joke.

Turn down a perfectly good life as a wealthy man's wife, just to swallow this half-cooked mess he's serving me?

...

My mother hadn't been feeling well lately, so I went back to my parents' place to keep her company.

I figured that after my brother chased Patrick off, he wouldn't come around again.

But I only stepped out to buy groceries, and he still managed to block my path at the corner with his luxury car.

He pulled over to the curb, grabbed my arm, and his eyes dropped to the cloth bag hanging from my hand, a mocking glint in them.

"You carry that just to buy groceries?"

"Looks like this year and change I've been gone, you haven't exactly been living well!"

"All right, I know you're proud. This time I'm the one coming to make peace, so the cold war ends here!"

As he spoke, he lowered his gaze and looked at me tenderly, still making excuses for Tilda.

"Tilda is your best friend. She can't have children because of illness. Could you really bear to watch her spend the rest of her life all alone?"

"I donated sperm to her for your sake, all of it!"

He said it so righteously, but all I wanted to do was sneer.

"Patrick, is there something wrong with you?"

"There are so many sperm samples in the bank. Why did she have to use yours?"

"I'm young. What makes you think I'd take in a man who has a child out of wedlock?"

"Besides, I got married a long time ago!"

Patrick froze, but then the corner of his mouth curled up and he laughed.

"We've been together since high school. You love me more than your own life. How could you ever bear to leave me and marry someone else?"

"And besides, out of everyone you know, who could possibly be better than me?"

"Even if there were someone, with your looks, your family, your degree, why would anyone want you?"

He raked his eyes over me from head to toe with contempt.

As if he was certain that apart from him, I had no better option to choose from.

"Celine, quit playing around. If you'd really gotten married, would I not know about it?"

I pressed my lips together.

More than a year apart, and he was as confident as ever.

We'd been together ten years. Once our careers were stable, we should have gotten married, but that was exactly when my best friend Tilda was diagnosed as infertile.

She hinted, delicately, that she wanted to borrow Patrick's sperm, and I refused, no matter what.

So on the day of our engagement, Patrick took her abroad to do IVF, leaving me alone to face a hall full of guests.

I called him and demanded to know why.

He blamed me instead, said I shouldn't be so petty.

"Tilda said she'll never marry in this life. She just wants a child to lean on, that's all."

"As her best friend, you should support her decision with everything you have!"

"Just wait. Once Tilda's IVF works, I'll come back and marry you!"