Chapter 1 - The Child They Tried to Steal
Only Minutes After I Gave Birth, My Husband Walked Into My Hospital Room Holding His Mistress's Hand While My Mother-in-Law Smiled Beside Them. “You've Done Your Job,” She Said. My Husband Took My Baby and Laughed, “You Never Believed I'd Spend My Life With Someone Like You.” They Thought I Had No One Left—Until I Asked the Nurse to Call My Father.
My daughter had been alive for less than an hour when her own father declared she belonged to another woman.
Seconds later...
He ripped her from my arms.
I had delivered Sophia barely forty minutes earlier.
Every muscle in my body trembled with exhaustion.
Fresh stitches burned with every movement as I lay beneath the hospital blankets trying to gather enough strength to hold my newborn.
Then the door swung open.
Dominic entered without knocking.
He wore an expensive charcoal suit, looking more prepared for a board meeting than a maternity ward.
Wrapped around one arm was his glamorous girlfriend, Chloe, dressed in cream-colored designer clothes.
His mother, Eleanor, held his other arm, smiling as though she had arrived to celebrate a family victory.
Chloe gazed down at my baby.
"She has Dominic's eyes," she murmured.
Eleanor stepped closer to my bed.
"Well," she said pleasantly, "your part is finished."
For one bewildered moment, I wondered whether the medication was making me hallucinate.
Then Dominic laughed.
"Did you honestly believe I'd stay married to a woman with nothing to offer forever, Vivienne?"
Before I could react...
He lifted Sophia from my arms.
My daughter immediately burst into tears.
The sound shattered something inside me.
"Give her back," I whispered.
The room suddenly became unnaturally quiet.
Dominic calmly removed a thick folder from his briefcase.
"You signed the agreement."
"You were only the surrogate."
"Chloe and I are the legal parents."
"You've already been paid."
I stared at him.
"I never signed a surrogacy contract."
"You signed every document I put in front of you."
Eleanor gently tapped my shoulder.
"You should appreciate everything we've done for you."
"You lived comfortably for three years because of us."
The nurse standing near the doorway stepped forward.
"Sir, please return the baby to her mother."
Chloe immediately snapped back.
"I am her mother."
Dominic ordered the nurse to leave the room.
She didn't move.
That was the first mistake he made.
The second was casually tossing the folder onto my hospital bed.
The third...
Was assuming I was too exhausted to read it.
I slowly opened the paperwork.
The signature certainly looked like mine.
But the date immediately caught my attention.
According to the document, I had supposedly signed it during a weekend I had spent attending a charity fundraiser in Boston.
The notarization came from Nevada.
The contract also claimed I had received two hundred thousand dollars.
Money that had never appeared in any bank account I owned.
I closed the folder without another word.
Dominic smiled, convinced my silence meant defeat.
"When you're discharged," he said, "security will escort you out."
"The apartment lease has already been canceled."
"And every credit card connected to my accounts has been shut off."
Eleanor folded her hands proudly.
"No husband."
"No baby."
"No money."
I looked at Sophia, still crying in Dominic's arms.
Then I took one slow breath.
"May I hold my daughter one last time?"
Chloe laughed.
"Not a chance."
Instead of arguing...
I reached toward the bedside telephone.
Dominic slapped my hand away.
"Who exactly are you planning to call?"
"My father."
He smirked.
During our entire marriage, I had told Dominic almost nothing about my family.
Only that my relationship with my father was... complicated.
He had never cared enough to ask for details.
I turned to the nurse.
"My emergency contact is listed in my file."
"Please call him."
"Tell him Vivienne Sterling needs him immediately."
The nurse glanced down at the chart.
Then her expression changed.
She looked back at me carefully.
"Sterling?"
I nodded.
"Yes."
"That Sterling."
May you like
For the first time since walking into the room...
Eleanor's confident smile disappeared.
