Securing The Heir: A Wife's Triumph

The stick showed two pink lines. I was pregnant. My husband Julian, future titan of the Hawthorne empire, would be ecstatic for his heir.

But holding that test, my heart froze, a chill seeping bone-deep, because I knew this was the start of the end for me in my last life.

The memories burned with terrifying clarity: Julian' s affections turning, my cousin Seraphina' s poisonous whispers, her "wellness guru" act used to weaken me. They convinced Julian I was unstable, unfit, then orchestrated my "accident"-a brutal fall down the grand staircase that cost me everything.