Chapter 1

My twin sister couldn’t have children, so she asked me to carry one for her and secure her claim to her fiancé’s inheritance.

The night I agreed, she handed me one of her nightgowns. “Ethan Pierce has been drinking. He won’t realize it’s you.”

I stared at our reflections in the mirror. As identical twins, we already looked alike. With our hair and makeup done the same way, we were nearly impossible to tell apart.

She sprayed me with her perfume, led me to the master bedroom, and lowered her voice.

“Don’t turn on the overhead lights. Don’t talk to him unless you have to. If he asks you something, remember to imitate my voice.”

“What if he figures it out?” I asked nervously.

She gave a careless shrug. “Then say you walked into the wrong room. But don’t let that happen, or you can forget about getting the money for Dad’s surgery.”

With that, she shoved me inside and closed the door behind me.

The bedroom was dark except for a dim lamp on the nightstand. Ethan Pierce sat against the headboard, his collar open, weariness from the alcohol softening his features.

He glanced up at me. “Why are you standing there?”

I didn’t dare answer. I walked over instead.

He caught my wrist and pulled me closer. I smelled the liquor on his breath and my sister’s perfume on my neck.

He squeezed my waist. “Why are you so quiet tonight?”

I froze and said nothing.

Ethan didn’t seem to care. He leaned over me, and I turned off the lamp. The last sliver of light disappeared.

The darkness hid my face—and every feeling I had no right to have.

It was my first time, and it hurt. I instinctively tried to push him away, but my sister’s threat echoed in my mind, so I forced myself to endure it.

I closed my eyes and thought back to the day, a month earlier, when Mom had come to see me.

It had been raining. She stood outside the hospital where Dad was staying, holding a black umbrella.

We hadn’t seen each other in ten years. The first thing she asked wasn’t how I was doing.

“How much more do you need for your dad’s surgery?”

I thought she was helping out of some lingering affection for her ex-husband. Hope flickered in me.

“A lot. I’m still short by a hundred and fifty thousand dollars.”

She patted my head. “I’ll give you the money, but there’s a condition.”

Later, she took me to meet Olivia Bennett.

At the café, Olivia wore an expensive cashmere coat and a diamond bracelet that caught the light.

She got right to the point. “I can’t have children. I need you to help me.”

The Pierce family was strict. Although she and Ethan were engaged, they expected her to prove she could have a child before they married.

“We’re identical twins,” she said. “If you take my place and have his baby, he won’t know the difference.”

Mom took my hand, her voice unusually gentle.

“Lily, this will save your father. If you agree, I’ll cover the surgery and all his treatment afterward.”

“What happens to the baby?”

“Your sister will raise him. You’ll act like none of this ever happened, and I’ll give you enough money to live your own life.”

I looked at her and felt a bitter, hollow laugh rise in my throat.

When Mom divorced Dad, she took Olivia and left me with him. Olivia was outgoing and adorable. I was shy and sickly, and Mom thought I was too much trouble.

Later, she remarried into a wealthy family and forgot all about me. Now she finally remembered I existed—because she needed me to have a baby for the daughter she loved.