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My fiancé, Kayson, became my hero after he brutally avenged the miscarriage caused by his ex-wife. He had her face branded and her legs broken, all for the child she made me lose. I believed he was my savior. But on our wedding eve, I found him holding her. She was pregnant with his child, and their entire affair was a lie staged to fool me. He confessed the worst part: after my miscarriage, he had my womb secretly transplanted into her, making me barren forever. To punish me for discovering his secret, he threw me into a room of savage men to be assaulted, leaving me for dead. He thought he was destroying a helpless victim. He had no idea he was awakening the long-lost daughter of a family so powerful they could crush his empire with a single phone call. As their hands tore at my clothes, I calmly pressed the panic button on my bracelet. My real fiancé was on his way.
My fiancé, Kayson Alexander, was my protector, a man whose fury had avenged our lost child. I believed his every word, every tender touch, convinced I was the center of his universe. Then, the night before our wedding, I heard him plotting with his ex-wife, her pregnant belly a sickening symbol of his ultimate betrayal.
I was set to marry Kayson, a powerful CEO, seeing him as my devoted savior. He'd waged war against his ex-wife, Camille, after she caused me to lose our baby, making me feel cherished. Our lavish wedding was hours away, the culmination of a love I thought was unbreakable.
But then, whispers from Kayson's study shattered my world. I heard his voice, tender and intimate, with Camille-the woman he'd supposedly ruined. She was pregnant with his child, and their conversation laid bare his elaborate deception: his "revenge" a cruel charade, and me, merely a "replacement" for business.
The shock ripped through me. Kayson, the man I loved, had known my injuries made carrying a child nearly impossible, yet he'd let me hope while building a future with Camille and their baby. He even suggested I raise their child, expecting my gratitude.
My love curdled into cold rage. The man who'd avenged my phantom child now gaslighted me for not accepting his "generous" offer. The audacity of his betrayal, left me reeling, a hollow ache where my heart had been, replaced by an icy resolve.
Leaving the study, the remnants of my perfect future lay shattered. A long-buried instinct resurfaced-a name from a past I'd tried to escape. My fingers, steady now, dialed a number I hadn't touched in years, a silent promise to reclaim my life and make Kayson pay.
Eliza Pace POV
The day I lost our child began with a confrontation. My fiancé's ex-wife, Camille Perry, appeared at our home, her face a mask of triumph.
The pristine marble floor was cold against my cheek. The presence of two imposing figures blocked my path, their shadows swallowing the light, and I found myself on my knees as Camille loomed over me.
Her red-lacquered nails grazed my scalp as she tilted my head back. Her smile was a slash of victory. "Did you really think you could take him from me, you little tramp?"
A sharp, chilling premonition, more agonizing than any physical blow, tore through me. I gasped, a strangled cry tearing from my throat.
"Please," I begged, my voice a hoarse whisper. "Please, the baby..."
"The baby?" Camille's laughter was like shattering glass. She leaned in close, her breath hot and smelling of expensive champagne. "That little inconvenience should never have existed in the first place."
She straightened up and, with a casual flick of her wrist, struck me hard across the face. The world swam. A devastating certainty of loss washed over me, a truth that felt as tangible as the sudden, tragic bloom of color against my white dress.
The front door burst open. Kayson Alexander, my fiancé, the charismatic CEO whose face graced a dozen magazine covers, stood silhouetted against the afternoon light. His eyes, the color of a stormy sea, widened in shock, then narrowed into slits of pure fury.
"Kayson!" I cried out, a sob of relief catching in my throat.
Camille didn't even flinch. She simply stepped back, admiring her handiwork. The evidence of my loss was a silent, heartbreaking testament on the white marble. "Look what she did, Kayson. She fell. So clumsy."
But Kayson wasn't looking at her. His gaze was locked on the stain, on my pale, tear-streaked face. For a moment, the world stood still. Then, a roar of primal rage erupted from his chest.
He moved so fast he was a blur. His rage was a physical force in the room. He moved toward Camille, a blur of fury, and a moment later she was huddled against the wall, her arrogance shattered.
He was at my side in an instant, his hands gentle as he gathered me into his arms. "Eliza, my love, stay with me. It's going to be okay."
But I knew it wasn't. The life inside me was slipping away. My world was fading to black.
The next few hours were a blur of sirens, sterile hospital corridors, and the quiet, devastating finality of a doctor's words. Miscarriage. The word was a sledgehammer to my heart.
When I woke up, Kayson was sitting by my bed, his head in his hands. His knuckles were raw. He looked up, his eyes red-rimmed and filled with a pain that mirrored my own. He told me what he had done.
His revenge was as swift as it was absolute.
He didn't just ruin Camille Perry. He erased her from the world we knew.
He systematically dismantled her world. Her name was scrubbed from guest lists, her assets frozen, her social standing evaporated overnight. The last anyone saw of Camille Perry, the glamorous socialite, she was a ghost of her former self, a cautionary whisper in the gilded halls she once commanded.
"She will never hurt you again," Kayson had whispered, his voice hoarse with emotion, as he held me in my hospital bed. "No one will ever hurt you again. I swear it."
And in the weeks that followed, he proved it. He never left my side. He fed me, bathed me, held me when I woke up screaming from nightmares. He showered me with gifts, with affection, with a devotion so absolute it was suffocating. He made me believe I was the center of his universe, the only thing that mattered.
The world saw Kayson Alexander as my devoted protector, the man who had waged a war for the woman he loved. I saw him as my savior.
I believed him. God, how I believed him.
The night before our wedding, the grandest social event of the year, I couldn't sleep. The mansion was quiet, the air thick with the scent of thousands of white roses. I wandered downstairs for a glass of water, my bare feet silent on the cool marble.
That's when I heard the voices from the study.
His voice, low and laced with an unfamiliar tenderness. "It's almost over, my love. Just a little longer."
And then, another voice. A voice that sent a jolt of ice water through my veins. Camille's voice.
"You said that last time, Kayson. You said you'd leave her. And what happened? She got pregnant."
My hand flew to my mouth, stifling a gasp. I pressed myself against the wall, my heart hammering against my ribs.
"This is different," Kayson said, his tone placating. "The wedding is a necessary sham. For the business. You know that."
I peeked through the crack in the door. My stomach churned.
He was holding her. Kayson, my Kayson, was cradling Camille Perry in his arms, his hand stroking her hair. Her expression, a mixture of resentment and loss, was buried in his chest.
"You owe me, Kayson," she whispered, her voice muffled against his suit jacket. "For what I've lost."
"I know," he murmured. "And I'll make it up to you. I promise."
"I want her to pay," Camille hissed, pulling back to look at him. Her eyes glittered with venom. "I want her to understand the same public fall you orchestrated for me."
A beat of silence. I held my breath, praying. Say no, Kayson. Please, say no.
He hesitated for only a fraction of a second before his expression settled into a cold certainty.
"You don't feel sorry for her?" Camille's voice was sharp, suspicious. "After all, she's your precious little savior."
Kayson laughed, a cold, empty sound. "Savior? She's a replacement. A stand-in. Nothing more." He tilted her chin up, his thumb tracing her cheek. "Don't worry. Tomorrow, you'll be my wife. And she..." He paused. "She'll get what she deserves."
He tried to step away, but Camille wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him down for a possessive, bruising kiss.
"Don't," he grumbled, pushing her away gently. "You'll wake the baby."
My blood ran cold.
Camille smirked, her hand protectively cradling her own slightly rounded stomach. "He's a strong little fighter. Just like his father. You wouldn't let anything happen to him, would you?"
"Shut up, Camille," Kayson snapped, his voice edged with irritation.
But I had heard enough. I couldn't breathe. The world was tilting on its axis, the carefully constructed reality of my life shattering into a million pieces.
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