Chapter 1

1.

I chased Noah Vance for ten years.

From high school to college, I played the part of the devoted girl in a one-sided love story until I just got tired of it.

So, I turned around and married Julian Sterling, the man who had quietly waited in the shadows for me for five years.

The week before my due date, Julian vanished.

No calls, no texts. He just disappeared into thin air.

I dragged my heavily pregnant body all over the city, ignoring my doctor’s orders to stay put. I searched for him like a woman possessed.

This world of ours is ruthless. I was terrified he had pissed off some psycho on Wall Street, or worse, that he’d been kidnapped.

My search finally led me to a high-end private club in Miami.

After flying from New York, I walked through the club’s pulsing, perfume-choked hall. And there he was. Lounging on a leather sofa in a VIP booth, living it up.

Through the frosted glass door, I could hear roars of laughter.

Julian was smiling. A wide, carefree smile I had never seen before, a glass of whiskey dangling from his hand. That smile sent a chill straight through my bones.

“Julian, isn’t your wife due any day now?” a blonde in a bikini top purred, draped all over him. “Shouldn’t you be in New York with her instead of popping bottles in Miami?”

He ran his hand through her hair, a smirk playing on his lips as he took a long swallow of his drink.

“Who? Chloe?”

“Hah, that woman,” Julian scoffed, sitting up straighter. “She’s just someone else’s leftovers. She spent a decade stalking Noah like a psycho. Who knows what really happened between them?”

A twisted sense of pride flickered across his face. “But I was her first. Can you believe that? Ten years chasing that nerd, and he never even touched her…”

I stared at the drunken, foul-mouthed man before me, struggling to connect him to the gentle Julian who always shielded me from the rain.

The blonde traced circles on his chest. “Don’t be so mean, Julian. She is carrying the Sterling family heir, after all. Talking trash about your wife isn’t exactly ‘Husband of the Year’ material.”

Julian threw his head back and laughed, pulling another girl into his lap and swaying to the deafening beat. His voice rose, as if he wanted all of Miami to hear about his grand triumph.

“You really think I love her? You don’t know me at all.”

He drained his glass, his eyes wild. “I married her for one reason and one reason only: to piss off that hypocrite, Noah Vance!”

He leaned in, his voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper. “You wanna know why? Because the Vance family owes the Sterlings a life. My father’s company―a Wall Street legend―they shorted it into the ground. By the time the SEC got involved, it was too late. While my dad was jumping off the roof of his office building, you know what Noah Vance was doing? He was at his Columbia graduation, giving a speech and soaking up the applause!”

“Now, the woman he couldn’t bring himself to touch for ten years is my wife, carrying an ‘heir’ whose paternity can never be questioned. It’s more satisfying than any hostile takeover. Seeing the look on Noah’s face… I want to send him pictures of me and Chloe every single day.”

“Why would I care if Chloe has the baby or not? You don’t seriously think that little bastard in her belly is mine, do you?”

“After she pushes it out, I’m going to tell her the truth. I guarantee you, she’s going to lose her fucking mind.”