Chapter 3

My blood ran cold.

If Roxanne had my phone, she had access to my call history—including the call to Uncle Edmond.

I needed that phone back. Not because of the call itself—Edmond was cautious, and the number was untraceable—but because there were messages on it. Messages that contained details about who I really was.

I found Roxanne in the sunroom, sipping iced tea, flipping through a magazine. My phone sat on the table beside her, screen down.

"Give it back," I said.

Roxanne didn't look up. "I didn't know contract wives were allowed to have secret phones. What are you hiding, Aurelia? A lover?" She gasped in mock surprise. "Oh my, does Damien know?"

"It's mine. Give it back."

She finally looked at me, and the playful mask dropped for just a moment. Underneath was something cold and calculating.

"I already told Damien about it," she said. "He's very interested in who you've been calling."

My stomach dropped.

Before I could respond, Damien appeared in the doorway. He held up my phone, his expression unreadable.

"Who is Edmond?" he asked.

"No one."

"You called 'no one' for four minutes at midnight?" His jaw tightened. "Are you cheating on me?"

The absurdity of that question—coming from the man who had moved his girlfriend into our house—almost made me laugh.

"We have a contract, Aurelia," Damien continued, his voice dropping. "If it gets out that my wife was unfaithful during our marriage, it could void the trust clause. My grandfather's lawyers would—"

"I'm not cheating," I cut him off. "He's family."

"You don't have family. You're an orphan." He said it so matter-of-factly, like he was reading a file.

I flinched.

He must have seen it, because something shifted in his eyes. But he didn't apologize.

"For the remaining three months," he said, "no more secret phones. No more mysterious calls. You'll do what the contract says—play the role, stay quiet, and leave cleanly."

He placed my phone in his pocket. "I'm keeping this."

I stared at him. Every cell in my body screamed at me to tell him the truth—that I wasn't an orphan, that I was the missing heiress of the Laurent empire, that my "uncle" Edmond was the CEO of the largest conglomerate in the country, and that the $200,000 he had dangled in front of me was pocket change compared to what I stood to inherit.

But I swallowed it all.

Because the truth was a weapon, and I wasn't going to waste it on someone who didn't deserve it.

"Understood," I said quietly, and walked away.

That night, I couldn't sleep. Without my phone, I had no way to contact Edmond. My escape plan was falling apart.

I lay in the dark, one hand on my stomach, trying to think. But all I could hear, through the thin walls, was laughter coming from the master bedroom. Damien and Roxanne. Together.

Then I heard Roxanne's voice, high and teasing: "She's so pathetic, Damien. You should see the way she looks at you—like a lost puppy."

A pause.

Then Damien's voice, low and careless: "Three more months. Then she's gone."

Something inside me cracked.

Not my heart—that had already been broken too many times to shatter again. No, this was something deeper. The last thread of hope I didn't even know I was holding onto.

It snapped.

I got out of bed, pulled on a coat, and climbed out the guest room window.

The Laurent family had a rule: if you couldn't call, you showed up. And there was a safe house fourteen blocks from here that Edmond had set up years ago, just in case.

The night air hit my face as I dropped to the ground. I pressed a hand to my belly and whispered, "Hold on, little ones. Mama's getting us out."

I made it six blocks before a black car pulled up beside me.

The window rolled down, and a man in a suit looked at me with calm, steady eyes.

"Miss Laurent. Your uncle sent me. Please get in."

Relief flooded through me—until I heard footsteps behind me.

I turned.

Damien stood under a streetlamp, still in his pajamas, his breath visible in the cold air. His eyes locked on me, then shifted to the black car, then back to me.

"Aurelia," he said slowly. "What the hell is going on?"