Chapter 1
The phone jolted me awake at 2 AM–Nate Wilson calling.
“Sienna.” His voice sounded wrecked, almost unrecognizable. “Something’s happened.”
I froze. “What the hell? Aren’t you supposed to be at the conference?”
He paused for what felt like forever, like he was struggling to find words. “It’s Paige… she’s pregnant.
Eight months along.”
My brain exploded. “Are you fucking kidding me? You and HER?”
“No!” His response was immediate, almost desperate. “God, no. Sienna, I swear I never touched her. The hospital just called me. She’s in the ER right now. I’m listed as her emergency contact.”
Before my racing heart could settle, he delivered the second bombshell. “But she did something…
unthinkable.”
“She used my SPERM.”
[ exclaimed. “WHAT?”
‘Remember that joint research project I was part of in Europe a few years ago? We all provided samples for genetic screening. She… she took mine.”
‘She says she doesn’t want marriage or money. She just wanted to give me a child.”
‘She knows you can’t have children. She knows that I… that I’ve always wanted one.”
My head buzzed with white noise. I couldn’t tell if I was furious or just stunned by the absurdity.
This was the raw nerve in our marriage–the secret wound we both carried but never discussed
after my accident.
And now he dared to let this woman weaponize my most pain against me.
The antiseptic smell hit me first when I entered the hospital room. Paige slowly opened her eyes,
His ‘Perfect Mistress? A Fraud. His Career? Mine Now.
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Chapter 1
blinking against the harsh fluorescent lighting. I was the first person she saw.
She struggled to sit up, her hands trembling as they grasped my forearm. Her voice was hoarse but
determined.
“Mrs. Wilson… I never expected anything to come of this with my teacher Nate. Never.” Her eyes held mine, unwavering despite her obvious weakness.
“I know I have no right, but this baby deserves to come into this world.”
“I love him,” she continued, tears forming in the corners of her eyes, “but I respect you more.”
“I only wanted to give him a child, and then… and then I’ll step back. For both of you.”
“Please… just let me have this baby.”
I stood there, watching her gaunt yet stubborn expression, feeling like someone had sucked all the
oxygen from the room. My lungs refused to cooperate.
Nate stood behind me, his voice barely above a whisper. “Sienna, the baby is innocent in all this. And so is she, in her own way.”
I couldn’t help the bitter laugh that escaped my lips.
“Eight months, Nate. You waited eight goddamn months to tell me. You really know how to play me, don’t you?”
He remained silent, the weight of his choices hanging between us.
I’d always known Paige was different from the others. She wasn’t just another graduate student or colleague. She was the orphaned daughter of Nate’s mentor, entrusted to his care when she was nineteen. She had always existed on the periphery of our life together.
For years, Nate hadn’t just paid for her education and supported her. He’d gone further, setting her up in an apartment just three subway stops from our brownstone in Boston. He’d even personally driven her places when she needed it.
Paige never tried to hide her feelings. All those supposed “coincidences“-late–night texts begging for help, showing up at our door in flimsy clothes claiming her apartment had flooded, conveniently falling ill when I was away on business trips, requiring his personal care…
Each time she grew bolder than the last.
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