Chapter 1 - The Woman Who Pretended To Sleep
A hospital nurse grabbed my hand and whispered:
"Don't open your eyes. He's still here."
When billionaire heir Ethan Walker arrived, he found a shattered engagement ring beside my hospital bed.
But a tiny engraving inside the ring revealed four words:
"Never yours. Never again."
Ethan suddenly realized I had heard everything.
The first thing I remembered was the sound.
Not voices.
Not footsteps.
Not the machines keeping track of my heartbeat.
The sound was the quiet click of a door closing.
A soft sound.
Almost gentle.
But it was the moment my entire life broke apart.
I was lying in a hospital bed at St. Claire Private Hospital, seven days before the wedding I had spent two years planning.
Seven days before I was supposed to walk down the aisle.
Seven days before I was supposed to become Mrs. Ethan Walker.
Instead, I was covered in bandages, unable to move my head without feeling pain, and listening to the man I loved speak as if I was already gone.
I kept my eyes closed.
I kept my breathing slow.
I pretended I was still unconscious.
Because the moment I opened my eyes, I knew I would lose the only advantage I had left.
The truth.
"She still hasn't woken up?"
That voice belonged to Ethan.
My fiancé.
The man whose hands had held mine every night when I was afraid.
The man who promised me I was the only woman he would ever choose.
The man who had kissed my forehead three days earlier and told me everything would be perfect.
I heard his shoes move across the hospital floor.
"I told you this wasn't supposed to happen like this," another man said.
I didn't recognize him.
His voice was deeper.
Colder.
"You said she would only be scared," Ethan whispered.
A long silence followed.
Then the stranger answered.
"She was supposed to be gone for good."
My heart stopped.
For a second, I forgot how to breathe.
But I didn't move.
I couldn't.
Because I needed to know.
I needed to understand why the man standing beside my hospital bed was talking about me like I was a problem that needed to disappear.
"The wedding is in a week," Ethan said.
His voice was calm.
Too calm.
"Sabrina is already making plans."
Sabrina.
The name hit me harder than the pain in my face.
I knew that name.
Everyone did.
Sabrina Cole.
The woman who worked with Ethan's company.
The woman everyone said was beautiful, ambitious, and impossible to ignore.
The woman Ethan always insisted was "just a friend."
My fingers tightened beneath the blanket.
Just a friend.
Those three words suddenly felt like a lie I had been living inside.
"She won't be able to take your place if Genevieve shows up looking like this," the stranger said.
My stomach turned.
Genevieve.
Me.
My own name sounded different coming from his mouth.
Like I wasn't a person.
Like I was something broken.
Something inconvenient.
Ethan didn't answer immediately.
Then he whispered:
"Honestly?"
A pause.
"If she's left scarred, even better."
The world became silent.
The machines beside my bed continued beeping.
My heart monitor continued recording every second.
But inside my mind, everything stopped.
The man who promised to protect me had just admitted he wanted me destroyed.
Not because he hated me.
Not because I had betrayed him.
Because another woman was waiting.
Because my face mattered more than my life.
Because the future we planned was never real.
I wanted to scream.
I wanted to sit up.
I wanted to throw everything at him.
But I didn't.
Something inside me changed in that moment.
The woman who went into that hospital room believing she was loved disappeared.
And someone else opened her eyes.
Someone who needed answers.
Someone who needed proof.
Someone who would not let Ethan Walker walk away from what he had done.
"I still don't understand why you brought her here," the stranger said.
"Because if she died immediately, people would ask questions," Ethan replied.
My blood went cold.
"What happened was supposed to look like an accident."
Accident.
That word repeated in my mind.
The attack.
The burning pain.
The screams I couldn't control.
The stranger who ran away after throwing something at me.
The people gathering around me on the street.
The ambulance.
The hospital.
I remembered every second.
But I never imagined the person behind it was the man waiting at the altar for me.
I thought about the night before the attack.
Ethan had held me while we looked at wedding invitations.
He had laughed when I couldn't decide between two flower arrangements.
He had told me:
"One day, we'll look back and say this was the happiest time of our lives."
I believed him.
I actually believed him.
That was the cruelest part.
I believed every word.
A chair moved.
The stranger stepped closer to the bed.
"She can't know."
Ethan sighed.
"She won't."
Then his hand touched mine.
The same hand that used to make me feel safe.
Now it made my skin crawl.
"I'll handle everything," he whispered.
I forced myself to stay still.
Every instinct inside me screamed to move.
To fight.
To expose him.
But I remembered something my father told me years ago.
"When someone thinks they have already won, don't tell them they're wrong."
"Let them keep talking."
"People reveal the truth when they feel untouchable."
And Ethan felt untouchable.
He thought I was unconscious.
He thought my future was gone.
He thought my silence meant weakness.
He had no idea I was listening.
The door opened again.
A woman's voice entered the room.
"Ethan?"
My entire body froze.
Sabrina.
She was here.
The woman who was supposed to replace me.
The woman my fiancé planned to marry.
"I brought the documents you asked for," she said.
Documents.
My mind raced.
What documents?
Ethan stepped away from my bed.
"You shouldn't have come here."
"I needed to see her."
A pause.
Then Sabrina spoke again.
"She really has no idea?"
"No."
"Good."
Her voice became softer.
"Because if she knew what we did..."
She stopped.
But it was too late.
I heard enough.
My eyes remained closed.
My breathing stayed steady.
But inside, I was screaming.
What we did.
Not what he did.
Not what Ethan did.
What they did.
Together.
The room became quiet.
Then I heard footsteps approaching my bed.
Slowly.
Carefully.
Sabrina was standing beside me.
I could feel her watching me.
"She's still beautiful," Sabrina whispered.
The words almost sounded like sympathy.
Almost.
"Don't worry," Ethan said.
"She won't be part of our lives much longer."
My hands went numb.
Then I heard something slide across the table beside my bed.
A piece of paper.
A folder.
Something important.
I wanted to see it.
I needed to see it.
But I couldn't move.
Not yet.
Because I knew one wrong move would destroy my only chance.
Minutes passed.
Finally, the door opened.
Their voices faded.
Their footsteps disappeared.
I waited.
Ten seconds.
Thirty seconds.
One minute.
Only then did I open my eyes.
The hospital room was empty.
But something was sitting beside my bed.
A small black folder.
My name was written on it.
Genevieve Hart.
My hands trembled as I reached for it.
Inside was not a wedding plan.
Not medical information.
Not anything I expected.
There was one photograph.
And on the back of that photograph were six words written in Ethan's handwriting.
"I never loved her. I used her."
I stared at the message.
Then I noticed something underneath the photograph.
A second page.
A name.
A name I never expected to see.
May you like
Because it belonged to the person who had helped Ethan plan everything.
And when I turned the page over, I saw the name of the person who had been beside him from the beginning...
