Chapter 1

I signed the divorce papers in his penthouse while his pregnant mistress slept in our bed.

Three years of marriage. Two miscarriages he never knew about. One satisfactory check for five million dollars—the exact price tag on my womb.

The housekeeper found me in the study, pen in hand.

"Mrs. Sterling, are you sure about this?" She whispered, glancing toward the master bedroom where Victoria's perfume still poisoned the air.

I smiled. "It's Ms. Delacroix now."

I had been Elara Delacroix before I became Alexander Sterling's contract wife—a nobody waitress desperate enough to carry a billionaire's heir for money.

What Alexander never knew? I was already pregnant when I signed those divorce papers.

And I had no intention of telling him.

The contract was clear: produce an heir within three years or leave with nothing. I had "failed." Victoria had "succeeded."

Let him have his perfect pedigree princess and her blue-blooded baby.

Mine would be raised far from this gilded cage.

I placed my wedding ring on his desk—a 15-carat diamond that had never felt like mine—and walked toward the elevator.

My phone buzzed. A text from my lawyer.

[Your grandmother's inheritance has been unlocked. The Delacroix estate in Monaco is yours. So is the 40% stake in Sterling Industries that your grandfather bought in 1962.]

I laughed, loud enough to wake the dead.

For three years, I had played the invisible wife. The one Alexander forgot at galas. The one whose name he couldn't remember when introducing me to investors. The one he called "a necessary inconvenience" to his mother.

Tomorrow, I would be his largest shareholder.

But tonight, I simply wanted to disappear.

The elevator doors opened, and I stepped inside.

"Elara?"

I turned. Alexander stood in the hallway, shirtless, hair disheveled, looking at me like he was seeing a ghost.

"Where are you going at 3 AM?"

I pressed the lobby button. "Home."

"This is your home."

The doors began to close.

"Not anymore."

The last thing I saw was his face—confused, irritated, completely unaware that his world was about to collapse.