a S

greement. It felt like it was burning her skin. The shock was slowly

ce, though it was thin an

noyance in his eyes. He seemed to consider her questi

hina's back,"

ina Be

eraphina. Julian's first love. The one everyone whispered was his soulmate, the only woman truly o

on. She remembered how lost Julian had been after Seraphina left. And how, a few month

he wasn't a choice. S

ed, but the words that followed were a thousa

," he said, his voice taking on a placating, almost condescending tone

st

to laugh, a hysterical, broken sound. Three years of sharing a bed, of inti

mistaken for affection-it was all a fi

phone last night.

sked, her voice flat. "L

He met her gaze, and his silence

ersation. "You were about to say somethi

edge of the ultrasound photo hidden inside. She looked at him, at his handsom

't te

n. She couldn't bear for this baby to be seen as a problem to be "hand

of professional composure onto he

steady. "Just a work matter. I needed your final ap

course. Send the file to my assistant." He gestured toward the papers in front of her

ut you, sh

her posture making her muscles ache. The nausea was rising in h

to review it," she sa

ed out of the dining room, up the sweeping stairc

ood, her strength finally giving out. She slid down to the floor, wra

ove. Three yea

t a replacement, but a "sister." She hadn't even been