g. The exhaustion of the last five years crashed down on me all at once. I felt my face, the muscles tight from holding a false

stion echoing in my mind.

the real reason. He would go to his grave believing I was a heartless monster

had seen t

so terrifyingly real, that it felt more like a mem

ead, against all odds, I got pregnant. I thought a child would fix us, that it wou

eloved "Aunt Sarah." Liam adored her, and so did our son. I was

blood disease, the same one Sarah' s nephew had died from years ago. H

Sara

asn't our son. He had been swapped at birth. My real child, the one who shared my blood, had been given to another family. The

urse on duty that night? She was Sarah' s dista

ion, my hands shaking as I held the proof. I expec

boy we raised is our son. He needs Sarah to live. Your biol

eys began to fail. A complication from the donation, the doctors said.

aid, his voice flat. "It's the least you can do. You owe her. If it weren't for you

amed at him, call

from our bedroom, intimate and humiliating, edited to make me look depraved. The media

t you get, Chloe. You should have just given her th

r, so specific. The look in my son's eyes, the texture of the hospital sheets, the cold weight of Liam' s final words. I knew,

his company. It wasn't about the money. It was about survival. I had to get away

o the curb, jolting

here," the

r district buzzing around me. I immediately pulle

What's up? Don't tell me you've been s

, Liv," I said, my voi

he line. Then, "Are you kidding me? Chloe Davis,

ould to win a single scrap of his affection. She'd seen me at my worst, a woman so obsessed she would do anything, from faki

r days when you thought he was going to leave you last year! And n

he memory of my past desperation was humiliating. "It's a happ

ebra

n staff," I said, forcing a cheerful tone. "I need

hind. I needed to escape into noise and bodies and meaningless pleasure, anythi