Chapter 1 - The Woman Who Was Supposed to Stay Asleep
“If Genevieve shows up to that wedding with her face untouched, Sabrina will never be able to take her place.”
I heard Christian say it from six feet away.
My eyes stayed closed.
My breathing stayed slow.
Even my fingers remained loose beneath the hospital blanket.
Hours earlier, I had left my final dress fitting in downtown Indianapolis believing the hardest decision of my week would be whether to change the flowers at our reception.
Then a stranger approached.
A request for a photograph.
A bottle.
Burning pain.
Pavement.
Darkness.
When I woke at St. Jude Medical Center in Columbus, clean white bandages covered the right side of my face and head.
I was too frightened to open my eyes.
That fear saved me.
Gabriel’s voice came next.
“You paid someone to attack your own fiancée?”
Christian sounded almost bored.
“I paid him to keep her away from the wedding.”
“You could have canceled it.”
“And have every entertainment reporter asking who Sabrina is?”
My heart stopped.
Sabrina.
Then Christian showed Gabriel something on his phone.
“A private ceremony is all she wants. Leo is four now. She’s tired of pretending he doesn't exist.”
Leo.
His son.
Four years old.
Christian and I had been together five years.
My stomach turned.
Then Gabriel asked the question I still hear in nightmares.
“What about Genevieve?”
“She remains my public wife.”
Christian came closer to my bed.
“She’s worth millions to my image.”
Gabriel called him sick.
Christian laughed softly.
“If she’s left scarred, even better. Who’s going to convince her to leave me after this?”
My hidden hand clenched.
Then he touched my engagement ring.
“And children aren’t an issue anymore.”
Silence.
Gabriel whispered:
“What did you do?”
“Lawson handled it.”
Three miscarriages flashed through me.
Three hospital rooms.
Three nights Christian cried beside me.
“Adjusted vitamins. Treatments. Doses. Whatever was needed.”
Something inside me died without making a sound.
Christian bent over and kissed my hand.
“Wake up soon, my love. We still have a wedding to have.”
The door closed.
Only then did I open my eyes.
Gabriel returned two minutes later.
He froze.
I raised one finger to my lips.
“Help me.”
“To report him?”
“No.”
I reached beneath the blanket and pulled out the sealed medical file a nurse had mistakenly left after rounds.
“First help me stay alive.”
Gabriel opened it.
His face drained of color.
Because Christian hadn’t merely been interfering with my pregnancies.
According to the file, somebody had been using my name to authorize procedures on another woman.
May you like
And that woman was listed as:
Sabrina Vale.
