Chelsey smiled as she drove her stiletto heel into my stomach. Then Kaden delivered a final, brutal kick.
In that horrifying instant, I felt the tiny, fluttering life inside me go still. They had murdered my son.
They laughed when I sobbed that the baby belonged to Kaden's older brother, Angus. "Everyone knows he's sterile," Kaden sneered, his voice dripping with contempt. "The car accident ten years ago made sure of that." They were so blinded by a decade-old rumor they refused to believe the impossible truth.
But just as they threw my broken body into the pool to drown, a car smashed through the estate gates. It was Angus. And they were about to learn the devastating truth: he wasn't just the baby's father. He was my husband.
Chapter 1
Kalea White POV:
The front door of my home-Angus' s home-crashed open with a force that rattled the crystal on the shelves.
It wasn' t Angus. His return was a quiet, solid presence, the subtle click of the lock, the soft thud of his briefcase on the mahogany table. This was a violation. A storm tearing through the peace I had spent three years carefully building.
Kaden stood in the doorway, framed by the harsh afternoon light. He looked different. The polished, carefree man who had left me at the altar was gone, replaced by someone thinner, harder, with an edge of desperation in his eyes that looked like rust on a dull blade. His clothes were worn, his face unshaven.
Behind him, a shadow detached itself from the doorframe. Chelsey Hoover. Her cat-like eyes, once filled with feigned friendship, now held a raw, undisguised greed as they swept over the grand foyer.
"Kalea," Kaden's voice was a rasp, a sound I hadn't heard in three years. It held none of the smooth charm I once fell for. It was jagged.
He lunged forward, his fingers digging into my arm, yanking me toward him. The sudden movement sent a jolt of panic through me, and my free hand flew instinctively to my swollen belly.
"What are you doing?" I gasped, trying to pull away.
His grip tightened, his knuckles white. "Don't play dumb with me," he snarled, his eyes dropping to where my hand rested. His gaze was acid. "Whose is it?"
The question hung in the air, thick and poisonous. Chelsey glided closer, her lips curled into a smug smile. "She's not going to tell you, Kaden. Look at her. Living in your brother' s house, probably sleeping in his bed. And now she' s pregnant with some stranger' s bastard."
"I've been gone for three years, Kalea," Kaden shook me slightly, his voice rising with a frantic edge. "Three years. I haven't touched you. Haven't even been in the same city. So you're going to tell me right now who the father is."
A cold calm washed over me, extinguishing the initial spark of fear. The sheer, breathtaking arrogance of him. To abandon me in the most public, humiliating way possible, to disappear without a word, and then to burst back into my life making demands, laying claim to a place that was no longer his.
He has no idea, I thought, a bitter laugh bubbling in my throat. The absolute fool.
"You think you have the right to ask me that?" I said, my voice dangerously low. "You think you can walk in here and question me about my child?"
I met his furious gaze without flinching. "You're not fit to be a father to a goldfish, Kaden, let alone a Manning."
The slap of my words hit him harder than a physical blow. His face contorted, a mixture of shock and rage. Chelsey gasped theatrically, placing a hand over her heart.
"Kalea! How can you be so cruel?" she cried, her voice dripping with fake sympathy. "After everything Kaden has suffered for you? He loved you!"
"He loved the idea of my family's connections," I shot back, my eyes still locked on Kaden. "Just like you loved the idea of his family's money."
Chelsey' s mask of concern flickered. "That's not fair," she said, her voice turning sharp. "We've been through hell, living on scraps, while you've been here, living like a queen in the Manning mansion. You owe him. You owe this family. And you repay them by getting pregnant by God knows who?"
The hypocrisy was so thick I could have choked on it. "You want to talk about what's fair, Chelsey?" I said, pulling my arm from Kaden's grasp with a sudden, sharp jerk. "Was it fair when you, my supposed best friend, were sleeping with my fiancé behind my back? Was it fair when you filled his head with lies about me so you could have him all to yourself? I seem to remember you getting on your knees and begging me for forgiveness when I found out."
Chelsey' s face went pale, then flushed a blotchy, ugly red. The memory of her pathetic, tear-streaked face was still vivid in my mind.
She turned to Kaden, her lower lip trembling. "Kaden, darling, listen to her. She's twisting things. She's always been good at that."
Her words were the spark to his short fuse. Kaden's face darkened, his brief moment of shock replaced by pure, unadulterated fury. "You bitch," he whispered, the word laced with venom.
His hand flew out, and the crack of it across my cheek echoed in the cavernous hall. My head snapped to the side, my ear ringing. Stars exploded behind my eyes, and for a second, the world went white with pain.
"You will not speak to her that way," Kaden snarled, standing over me. "This is a Manning house. My house. And you and that... thing... inside you are going to get out."
The world slowly swam back into focus. The sting on my cheek was a dull throb, but a deeper, colder ache was spreading through my chest. The same look was in his eyes. The same cruel dismissal he'd given me as he walked away from our wedding, leaving me alone in a white dress in front of five hundred guests.
But this time was different. I wasn't just Kalea White, the publicly jilted bride. Three years ago, in the aftermath of that spectacular humiliation, another man had stepped forward. A man who rarely stepped into the light. Kaden's older brother. Angus Manning.
The formidable CEO of the Manning tech empire, known in the business world as "The Iceman" for his ruthless acumen and cold demeanor. He had quietly taken my hand, shielded me from the prying eyes of the world, and in a move that shocked everyone, he had married me.
He was my husband now. And this baby, this precious miracle that we had fought for through years of doctors and quiet heartbreak, was his. This child was the most protected, most wanted baby in the world.
For the sake of that child, I had to de-escalate this.
"Kaden, please," I said, my voice shaking slightly, holding up a hand. "Just stop. Let's talk about this calmly."
He laughed, a harsh, ugly sound. "There's nothing to talk about. You got pregnant to try and lock down your position, to steal my inheritance. Did you really think we wouldn't find out?"
"Our inheritance," Chelsey corrected, stepping forward. Her stiletto heel clicked ominously on the marble floor. She grabbed a fistful of my hair, yanking my head back. Pain shot down my scalp.
"You're a conniving whore, Kalea," she hissed into my ear. "Did you really think Angus would fall for it? Everyone knows about his accident. Everyone knows he can't have children. You picked the one man in the world who couldn't possibly be the father."
Kaden's face was a blur of righteous fury. He believed her. Of course he did. He was a fool, easily led by his own greed and paranoia.
"You were kicked out of this family, Kaden," I managed to say through clenched teeth, the pain in my scalp making my eyes water. "Father disowned you."
Chelsey scoffed, releasing my hair with a shove. "Dorris was just angry. A piece of paper means nothing. Kaden is his only son, his only true heir."
"And I will be the head of this family," Kaden declared, puffing out his chest with a pathetic imitation of his brother's authority. "Which means I will not have my family name tarnished by your bastard child."
My heart hammered against my ribs. "This baby is a Manning," I stated, my voice ringing with a conviction that came from a place deeper than fear.
The words had the opposite effect I'd hoped for. Kaden's face turned purple with rage.
"Don't you dare," he seethed. "Don't you dare say that name in connection with that thing."
He took a menacing step toward me. "I think it's time you learned a lesson, Kalea. A lesson you should have learned a long time ago."
Before I could react, his hand shot out again. Not a slap this time, but a closed fist. It connected with my stomach.
The air left my lungs in a whoosh. A blinding, searing pain ripped through my abdomen. It was a pain so absolute, so all-consuming, that it stole my voice, my breath, my thoughts.
I crumpled to the floor, my body curling into a tight ball, my arms wrapped protectively, uselessly, around my child.
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