Chapter 2

Six hours later, Alexander Sterling's face was plastered across every financial news outlet.

[BREAKING: Mystery Shareholder Acquires 40% of Sterling Industries—Board in Chaos]

I watched from my first-class seat to Monaco, sipping champagne that cost more than my first apartment.

My phone had forty-seven missed calls from Alexander. Sixty-two from his lawyers. Eighty-nine from financial journalists.

I blocked them all.

The flight attendant leaned in. "Ms. Delacroix, your grandmother's estate manager called ahead. The villa is ready for your arrival."

I nodded, touching my still-flat stomach. "Perfect."

Eight weeks pregnant. The doctor had confirmed it the same day I found Victoria's positive pregnancy test in Alexander's bathroom trash.

The difference? Victoria was eleven weeks along.

Alexander had been sleeping with her while I was bleeding out our second baby in a hospital room alone.

He hadn't even answered my calls that night. "Important merger," his assistant had said.

The merger was Victoria.

I had loved him once—foolishly, desperately, despite the contract that reduced me to a breeding vessel. Every cold word, every forgotten anniversary, every night he spent "working late"—I had made excuses.

*He's stressed. He doesn't mean it. He'll warm up once I give him an heir.*

But the morning I found him feeding Victoria strawberries in our kitchen, laughing in a way he never laughed with me, something inside me finally died.

"She's carrying my child," he had said when I walked in. Not an apology. A statement. "The contract is void. My lawyers will handle the rest."

He didn't even look at me when he said it.

Three years of silent suffering, and I wasn't worth eye contact.

I had smiled—the same vacant smile I had perfected at his mother's cruel dinner parties—and walked away.

That night, I took the pregnancy test. Positive.

I told no one.

Now, as the plane touched down in Monaco, I made myself a promise.

My child would never know Alexander Sterling.

They would never feel like a contract clause, a business transaction, a disappointment.

They would be loved.

And Alexander?

He would learn what it meant to lose everything.