Chapter 1
A week before my wedding, a stranger rushed toward me outside a private clinic and threw a burning liquid toward my face.
I turned at the last second.
Most of it struck the side of my cheek and shoulder.
Pain exploded through me.
I screamed and collapsed.
Someone shouted for an ambulance.
The attacker ran.
By the time I reached the hospital, doctors were working quickly to protect my skin and eyesight.
My fiancé, Christian Vale, arrived twenty minutes later.
Christian wasn’t an ordinary man.
He was one of the most famous singers in America.
Millions followed his every move.
Our wedding had already been sold to magazines as the romance of the year.
He stood beside my hospital bed, holding my hand.
“Emma, I’m here.”
I believed him.
Until I heard him talking outside my room.
I had been given strong medication, and Christian thought I was unconscious.
His manager, Oliver Grant, whispered, “The attacker is asking for the rest of his money.”
Christian answered coldly.
“Pay him.”
My heart stopped.
Oliver lowered his voice.
“What if Emma remembers him?”
“She never saw his face clearly.”
“And the wedding?”
Christian laughed.
“If she’s scarred, even better.”
I forced myself not to move.
Not to breathe differently.
Christian continued.
“People will worship me for marrying her anyway.”
My stomach turned.
Oliver asked, “What about Sabrina?”
“She knows the plan.”
“What plan?”
“Emma stays the public wife.”
Christian sounded completely calm.
“Sabrina gets the real life.”
Then he added:
“The apartment in Paris. The private ceremony. The children.”
Children?
I nearly opened my eyes.
Oliver hesitated.
“You mean the twins?”
Christian laughed softly.
“They’re already calling me Dad.”
My entire relationship shattered in seconds.
Then Oliver said something worse.
“And Emma’s pregnancies?”
Christian’s voice dropped.
“The doctor handled those.”
I stopped breathing.
Two years earlier, I had suffered two miscarriages.
Both devastated me.
Christian had held me while I cried.
He had told me sometimes terrible things simply happened.
Now I heard him say:
“She kept trying to have a baby. I couldn’t let that complicate everything.”
Oliver whispered, “Changing her medication was risky.”
“But effective.”
Tears burned beneath my closed eyelids.
Christian left several minutes later.
Then another person entered.
Gabriel Stone.
My older brother’s best friend.
A private security consultant who had been suspicious of Christian from the beginning.
He leaned over me.
“Emma?”
I opened my eyes.
“Close the door.”
His face changed.
“What happened?”
I whispered:
“Christian paid for the attack.”
Gabriel froze.
“And he sabotaged my pregnancies.”
His expression hardened.
“Are you sure?”
“I heard everything.”
I grabbed his wrist.
“Don’t confront him.”
“What do you want?”
I looked toward the hallway.
“Help me record everything.”
For the next four days, Gabriel helped me quietly gather evidence.
Messages.
Payments.
Hospital records.
Audio recordings.
Then we learned Christian planned a secret wedding to Sabrina two days before our public ceremony.
So we went.
The private estate was filled with celebrities and executives who thought I was still recovering.
Christian stood beside Sabrina.
The music began.
Then stopped.
His own recorded confession filled the room instead.
Guests froze.
Sabrina screamed.
Christian saw me standing near the entrance with bandages still covering part of my face.
“You!”
He charged toward me.
Gabriel stepped between us and knocked him down.
Police entered seconds later.
Christian was arrested.
So was the attacker.
And the doctor who had altered my medication.
Outside, cameras surrounded me.
I looked directly into them.
“You tried to destroy my face.”
Then I looked at Christian being placed in a police car.
“I destroyed your lies.”
But that night, Detective Hannah Brooks came to my hospital room carrying Christian’s financial records.
“There’s something you need to know.”
“What?”
She placed a photograph on my bed.
Sabrina.
Two children.
And a man I didn’t recognize.
“These children aren’t Christian’s.”
I stared at her.
“Then whose are they?”
Hannah’s expression hardened.
May you like
“That’s what makes this case much bigger.”
Click to the blue list icon to read the NEXT CHAPTER
