fertile. That was

reason she couldn't conceive. The problem had never been her body. It had been the fact that Lachlan barely touched her, and when he did, it w

leveraged bets on high-risk ventures had detonated simultaneously, vaporizing the family's liquidity and leaving them teetering on the edge of insol

as when Seraphina's true position in the household had been revealed. She wasn't just the grieving widow. She was the golden child, the beloved daughter-in-law, the woma

tside a luxury hotel, his hand resting possessively on the curve of her spine, her body angled into his wit

dical transfer of frozen samples. A hotel room. A betrayal that predated Ala

feel rage. Heartbreak. The visceral agony of a woman watching her m

ficed her career, her ambitions, her sense of self, all for a marriage that

se for Seraphina's delivery. Beatrice, the matriarch, had flown in a private obstetrician from London. The VIP suite

urs of agonizing labor. She looked like she'd stepped out of a spa advertisement. Lachlan sat at her bedside, cradling a porcelain bowl of soup. He lifted

in the doorw

t intimate moments, he'd been clinical, almost detached. She'd convinced herself that was simply his nature-a man raised in such rarefied air that he'd for

ce brightened with theatr

scraped against Jasmine

th with a linen napkin before ack

d I wo

n craving them." He stood, already moving toward the door. "I know what kind she li

"Oh, you don't have to go you

s eyes softene

ands. His expression flickered with something close to irritat

ery briefly, the satisfying crunch of the arrangement meeting

e bed beside her. "

tstretched hand and pu

as an impressive performance. Truly. The trembling lip. The catch in her voice. The wounded vulnerabilit

illed over,

y. I wanted to give him a family. And then-" Her voice cracked dramatically. "Then everything was taken from me. I loved him so much

and. This time, Jasmine did

ason I asked him. There was nothing else. Nothing. Y

ph. The hotel. The truth rotting beneath this pretty performance. She opene