Chapter 1

1 The day I was supposed to get married, my fiancé, Mark. Right there, in front of everyone, he announced he'd already tied the knot with Sarah. Yeah, Sarah. It was like a bad soap opera, the whole crowd buzzing, pointing, and laughing at me.

Just when I thought I'd sink through the floor, Jake, my best friend since kindergarten, got down on one knee. He pulled out this gorgeous ring, all emotional, and asked me to marry him. I was such a mess, I just nodded, tears streaming down my face. I figured, what else could go wrong?

Fast forward seven months, and I'm pregnant. Then BAM! Car crash. Jake, who's also a surgeon, does my surgery. When I wake up, he breaks the news that the baby's gone and… and I can't have any more kids. I was shattered, a total mess. Jake held me, crying, saying it was all his fault, that he hadn't taken care of me, and promised he'd never leave my side.

Six years later, I accidentally hear a recording on his phone, a conversation with one of his work buddies:

"Dude, you really did all that for Sarah? Faking the pregnancy paperwork and crashing into Chloe to induce labor? Sending YOUR baby to her? Don't you regret it?"

"Sarah can't have kids, man. You expect me to stand by and watch her get ripped apart by her in-laws? I just wish it had been a boy instead of a girl, it would've given her more power in that family."

Turns out, my fairytale romance was nothing more than a twisted, calculated scheme.

...

The shower's running, Jake's in there scrubbing. The audio clip on my earbuds keeps playing:

"But dude, you were playing a dangerous game. What if the crash hadn't just made Chloe go into labor, but killed them both?"

"Nah, we tested the impact months beforehand, using the same car, same speed. We had it planned to the letter."

His buddy sounds like he feels bad. "But Chloe can't have kids now! Her uterus is gone. She wanted a baby so bad, and she loves you so much...couldn't you have just adopted one for Sarah?"

"Hell no. Not my own flesh and blood? I don't trust her to love it the same way. I don't want Sarah to love a baby that's not ours."

"You ever think about what happens if Chloe finds out about all this?"

Jake is quiet for a moment. He sighs, "She won't. But if she does... I guess I'll just have to spend the rest of my life making it up to her."

The recording cuts off.

My hand flies to my mouth, tears welling, a cold fear creeping up my spine. All this time, while I was getting excited about my baby, my own husband was plotting with another woman to steal her. The whole marriage proposal was a sham, just so I wouldn't bother Mark and mess up Sarah's picture-perfect life.

I remember Jake bringing the baby's body to me, weeping, saying he was sorry, that he couldn't save our baby. I thought he was as heartbroken as I was. Turns out, my baby was already with Sarah, solidifying her place in her new family. My pain, my years of grief…what did it even mean?