Chapter 1

Prologue:

I once thought Ryan Hayes was the man who loved me most in the world.

To marry me, he hadn't hesitated to break ties with his family.

Five years into our marriage, he had spoiled me into the most envied Mrs. Hayes in the entire city.

Until I discovered I wasn't pregnant at all, and accidentally overheard him admit that the only one he had ever loved was his stepsister, Wendy Hayes.

His so-called devotion was nothing more than a scam.

He tricked me into taking drugs, faked my pregnancy tests, and even planned to have me cut open so I could raise their child for them!

These five years of marriage were merely a cover for their illicit love!

I decided to get a divorce and return to my family.

Ryan still didn't know that the penniless nobody in his eyes was someone he could never afford to provoke.

This time, I was going to take back everything that belonged to me with my own hands.

Chloe's POV

"Ms. Vance, you are not pregnant at all."

I thought my ears were playing tricks on me.

"What did you say? I just had a checkup last week. I was eleven weeks along. I saw the ultrasound images with my own eyes."

The doctor turned the screen toward me and pointed. "Your uterus is empty. There isn't even a trace of a gestational sac. It couldn't be clearer."

I was completely baffled by the doctor's words.

How could this be?

Last week's checkup had been arranged by Ryan himself, at Hayes Group's own hospital, with an authoritative obstetrician. How could there be a mistake?

"But I throw up every morning the moment I get out of bed. The smell of cooking grease makes me nauseous, and my period has been gone for two months."

The doctor explained, "Those symptoms don't only happen with pregnancy. Have you taken any hormone-based medications recently?"

I suddenly remembered a bottle of pills Ryan had given me two months ago.

He told me they were vitamins newly developed by Hayes Group to improve sleep and delay aging.

Ever since then, he had personally poured warm water every day and watched me swallow the pill.

And my very first bout of morning sickness had happened just a few days after I started taking them.

At the thought of this, my entire body began to tremble.

Dazed and disoriented, I walked out of the hospital, hailed a cab, and headed toward the private club where Ryan was hanging out.

He was meeting a few friends for drinks today. I needed to confront him face-to-face.

As the city streets blurred past the window, memories of the years I had spent with Ryan flooded my mind.

The year I graduated from college, my mother wanted me to return home for an arranged marriage.

After a massive fight with my mother, Mia Bennett, I ran away from home, declaring that I would never rely on the Vance family again and would make it entirely on my own.

Less than a week after leaving, I was cornered by three men.

My phone and purse were snatched away, and I was dragged deep into an alley.

They surrounded me, sneering as they tore at my clothes.

I closed my eyes in despair, convinced I was going to die in that filthy alley.

Just then, Ryan appeared.

With a few swift moves, he beat the men off and rescued me.

He brought me back to an apartment under his name and began a relentless, passionate pursuit.

He hired a private chef specifically suited to my palate for the apartment.

He filled my walk-in closet with the latest seasonal collections from luxury brands.

On my birthday, he confessed his love with a citywide fireworks display.

Once, when I had severe cramps, Ryan abandoned an important board meeting and rushed home in such a panic that he got into a car accident on the way.

Growing up, there had never been a shortage of people hovering around me—flattering, attentive, and caring.

Yet every single one of them had flocked to me only because I was a daughter of the Vance family.

Only Ryan had fallen out of the sky when I had absolutely nothing to my name.

Without even asking for my last name, he gave me everything he had.

And just like that, I fell for him.

How could a man who loved me down to his very bones drug me and trick me into believing I was pregnant?

It was impossible!

There had to be some sort of misunderstanding!

Arriving at the club, I found the private room's door slightly ajar. The men's laughter and chatter drifted through the crack.

"I heard Wendy is pregnant. Ryan's finally gonna be a dad. Huge congratulations, man!"

The one speaking was Jason Reed, Ryan's childhood friend, who always greeted me warmly whenever we ran into each other.

If Ryan was going to be a father, it would be to the child in my belly. Who was Wendy?

There was only one Wendy I knew.

Wendy Hayes, Ryan's stepsister, the daughter Audrey Sim brought along when she married Ryan's father, Sheldon Hayes.

Wendy had always been single. How could she be pregnant?

"Seriously, Ryan's spent these past few years playing the devoted husband to that broke girl Chloe. It must've been exhausting. The things Ryan does for Wendy!"

The one chiming in was Sean Walker, the youngest son of the Walker family and another of Ryan's close friends.

"If Wendy weren't so worried that her parents couldn't accept it, you two would've been married long ago. How would it ever have been Chloe's turn to be Mrs. Hayes?"

"Exactly! You two aren't even related by blood, what's there to hide? It's a match made in heaven!"

"Wendy's just too filial. It's Ryan who's had it rough, being forced to use Chloe as a pawn."

A bolt of lightning seemed to strike me where I stood.

Was the Wendy they were talking about really Wendy Hayes?

They said I was lying to myself, that Ryan had only married me because his hand was forced?

How could that be?

Ryan had told me it was love at first sight, that I was his first love and the only woman he would ever love in this lifetime.

Back then, to marry me, Ryan had nearly severed ties with his parents.

I peered through the crack of the door at Ryan.

Ryan was leaning back against the sofa, long legs crossed, swirling the liquor in his glass with not the slightest intention of objecting.

Hearing Wendy's name, his usually cold, sharp features visibly softened.

I had always known he treated Wendy Hayes well.

But I thought it was just an older brother doting on his sister, feeling sorry that Wendy had lost her biological father so young. To think it wasn't that at all.

"There was no other choice. Wendy didn't want to cause trouble for the Hayes family. She's just too considerate."

"Wendy might seem spoiled and willful on normal days, but she's fiercely loyal to family!"

"Good thing that stupid woman Chloe is acting as a shield. Who in New York doesn't know Mr. and Mrs. Hayes are deeply in love? Who would ever guess that this Mrs. Hayes is just a front, and the one Ryan truly loves is his stepsister Wendy?"

A suffocating weight crushed my chest, making it impossible to breathe.

I raised a trembling hand to wipe my face; my skin was ice-cold.

Ryan's devotion to me had always been high-profile, making sure the entire city knew about every single gesture.

From top to bottom in New York, who didn't say Mr. Hayes loved Chloe down to his very bones?

It was precisely because of this that his father, Sheldon Hayes, became convinced his son was bewitched by me—abandoning well-matched heiresses just to pick a penniless girl of unknown origins.

Every time I visited the Hayes family residence, Sheldon Hayes would give me the cold shoulder, acting as if I didn't exist.

Meanwhile, even though Wendy Hayes's biological father was an ordinary man, the Hayes family had raised her for over a decade, giving her the charming demeanor of a wealthy young lady.

Sheldon Hayes constantly compared me to Wendy Hayes, sneering that I wasn't even fit to stand beside her.

So it turned out it had all been orchestrated by Ryan.

He had stayed with me for five years simply to provide cover for his romance with Wendy Hayes!

And to think I had believed I had finally found someone who would be utterly devoted to me regardless of my status.

Inside the private room, someone spoke up again.

"Ryan, Chloe doesn't know her pregnancy is fake, right? Is she still stupidly thinking there's really a baby in her stomach?"

"No shit," Jason Reed scoffed. "If she found out, wouldn't Ryan's whole plan go down the drain?"

Plan? What plan?

Holding my breath, I leaned closer to the crack in the door.

Jason Reed continued smugly, "Everything's perfect now. Wendy's pregnant with Ryan's kid, and Chloe's been taking the pills Ryan specially formulated to trigger pregnancy symptoms. When she's full term, we'll send Chloe to the hospital, put her under general anesthesia, cut open her belly, and when she wakes up, hand Wendy's newborn to her, claiming it's hers, and let her raise it for Wendy!"

Sean Walker clapped in admiration. "Ryan, that move is brilliant! The kid gets to legitimately call you Dad, Wendy won't have to suffer through the hardships of parenting, and she can stay by the baby's side every day under the guise of an aunt!"

My knees gave out, and I nearly collapsed to the floor.

So this was the truth.

I wasn't pregnant at all. Ryan had been drugging me!

All for Wendy Hayes, he had first used medication to induce pregnancy symptoms in me, then had his family's hospital issue falsified medical reports.

He even intended to let me endure ten months of pregnancy's physical torment for nothing, and carve my stomach open with a scalpel.

He was actually capable of hurting me to such a horrifying extent.

Ryan Hayes, you are utterly ruthless!

If I hadn't tripped today and rushed to a nearby hospital out of fear that something had happened to the baby, I would still be kept in the dark, happily waiting to become a mother.

"Honestly, Chloe's pretty pitiful too," Caleb Morgan, who had remained silent the whole time, finally spoke up. "How much suffering does a woman go through during pregnancy and childbirth? She's not even carrying a child, yet she has to take a knife to the belly for nothing."

"What's so pitiful about her?" Sean Walker immediately retorted. "A broke girl marrying into high society to become Mrs. Hayes, eating top-tier food and using the finest luxury goods. She should be down on her knees in gratitude!"

A broke girl?

How utterly laughable.

My real background was an elite dynasty that even the Hayes family couldn't hold a candle to.

I married him thinking I had found true love, only to almost be pushed into an abyss by his own hands.

And these people actually thought I should be grateful to Ryan. How absurd.

Ryan, who had remained quiet all this while, finally spoke. "You guys watch your mouths around Chloe. Don't let anything slip."

"Of course, of course!"

"Don't worry, Ryan!"

Jason Reed leaned in closer again. "Ryan, seriously though, you've treated Chloe remarkably well these past few years. You know what she likes to eat and wear better than anyone else. Have you really never felt even a shred of genuine affection for her?"

I stared intently at Ryan through the gap, my fists clenched so tightly my nails dug into my palms, waiting for his answer.

Ryan twirled his glass, pausing in silence for a brief moment.

"It was just an act. Wendy is the only one I love."

"Still, since Chloe is going to raise the child for Wendy and me, I naturally won't treat her poorly. I will grant her the dignity of being Mrs. Hayes."

"She has no one to lean on. A life like this is already the greatest stroke of luck she could ever hope for."

I couldn’t listen to another word.

I don't even remember how I walked out of the club's front doors.

It turned out Ryan Hayes had never loved me.

Everything he had ever said was a lie; every single thing he had done was an act.

Our marriage was nothing more than a fig leaf to cover his sordid affair with Wendy Hayes!

And those people who had always acted so friendly to my face were all laughing at me behind my back.

I pulled out a contact number I hadn't dialed in years and pressed call.

The line connected.

"Mom, I lost. I want to come home."

A dull thud came through the receiver—the sound of a phone dropping to the floor.

After a moment, I heard my mother pick it back up, forcing herself to sound calm.

"You can come back. But according to our agreement, Ryan Hayes stays behind."

I sniffled.

"Mom, I'm divorcing him."