Chapter 2

I stared at the little white pregnancy test lying on my vanity, two bright pink lines leaving no room for doubt.

There was no point wondering who it belonged to. I had spent the past two years confined to a psychiatric facility, swallowing medication that left me sluggish and numb. I certainly hadn't been taking pregnancy tests.

It was Seraphina's.

She hadn't forgotten it by accident. Leaving it beside the photograph of my late father was deliberate, a quiet declaration that she considered this place hers now.

I had convinced myself that the hospital had stripped away whatever feelings I still had for Damian, leaving me too empty to be hurt again.

Yet the sight of those two lines sent a sudden pain through my chest.

Before everything fell apart, Damian and I had spent a year hoping for a child. I had monitored every change in my body, taken supplements, and stared at countless tests that showed only one lonely line. Whenever I broke down, Damian had held me close and promised that our turn would come.

Now I understood where that future had gone.

He had given it to my sister.

While I was locked behind barred windows, Damian and Seraphina had been building a family in the very bedroom that used to be mine.

“Vivienne, are you planning to stay in there all night?”

Damian's voice pulled me from my thoughts. His footsteps entered the room before he appeared beside me.

“The chef is preparing lobster risotto, and you know how quickly it gets cold when—”

He stopped.

I didn't need to look around to know he was staring at the vanity. The silence between us grew unbearable beneath the lingering sweetness of Seraphina's perfume.

Damian reached around me and grabbed the pregnancy test.

When I finally faced him, I expected guilt. I expected him to panic, deny everything, or scramble for an explanation.

Instead, he looked irritated.

With a frustrated sigh, he dropped the test into the trash beside my desk.

“She shouldn't have left that lying around,” he said, smoothing a hand through his hair. “I told the staff to remove all her things yesterday. Someone obviously missed this.”

“Her things?”

The casual way he said it made my stomach twist.

“You got my sister pregnant.”

Damian's expression darkened as he stepped toward me and gripped my shoulders.

“Don't make this into something it isn't, Vivienne. She stopped taking her pills, and things got out of hand. But I've already dealt with it, so there's nothing for you to worry about.”

“What exactly did you deal with?”

“I paid her.” He said it as though money solved everything. “I gave her enough to take care of the situation and told her to return to our mother's house. I already ended things with her. I'm marrying you, Vivienne.”

He seemed genuinely convinced that choosing to marry me after getting my sister pregnant made him noble, as though a large enough check could erase the child and make me grateful for his decision.

My stomach turned.

I stepped away and pushed his hands off me. “You're disgusting.”

His jaw tightened, and the warmth disappeared from his expression. The charming man everyone knew was gone, leaving behind the controlling bastard I had learned to fear.

“Don't start behaving like this again,” he said coldly. “I'm trying to put everything back in order. We're going to move forward with our lives, and you are not going to destroy that by losing control. You remember what happens when you do.”

The threat was unmistakable.

He could send me back to that hospital whenever he wanted.

Back to the locked doors, white walls, and medication that slowly dulled everything I was.

Before I could answer, the front door opened downstairs, and the sound carried through the enormous house.

Damian went completely still.

“Damian, sweetheart? Are you upstairs?”

That voice was unmistakable.

My entire body stiffened.

Someone began climbing the marble staircase, each deliberate footstep growing louder. Damian's face drained of color as his gaze snapped toward the bedroom entrance.

He had told me Seraphina was gone. He had sworn that he had paid her off and ended their relationship.

Then she appeared in my doorway, and every word he had spoken collapsed.

Seraphina was wearing one of Damian's oversized dress shirts, and it did little to hide the unmistakable curve of her five-month pregnancy. A spare key dangled from her fingers as she looked at me with a smug smile.

“Well, this worked out nicely,” she said sweetly. Her eyes settled on me with unmistakable satisfaction before turning toward Damian. “Darling, didn't you tell my sister the wonderful news? The doctor says we're having a boy.”